What is DNS and how does it work?

Imagine you're trying to find a friend's house in a big city. You know their name and address, but you don't know how to get there. So, you pull out your phone and use a map app. The map app looks up your friend's address and shows you the best way to get there.

In a similar way, the internet works like a big city, and websites are like houses in that city. When you type in a website address, your computer needs to find the right address so it can show you the website. This is where DNS comes in.

DNS stands for Domain Name System. It's like a giant phonebook for the internet. It keeps track of all the website addresses and their corresponding IP addresses. IP addresses are like phone numbers for websites. They're a unique string of numbers that identifies each website.

When you type in a website address, your computer sends a request to a DNS server. The DNS server looks up the address in its database and sends back the website's IP address. Your computer then uses this IP address to connect to the website and show you the page.

So, the next time you visit a website, remember that you're using DNS to find the right address. DNS is an essential part of the internet infrastructure, and it makes it possible for us to easily access the websites we want to visit.