Chapter 13. New Names: How DNS Works

As you've read in the past two chapters, being able to give names to networked servers, workstations, printers, and similar devices helps make networks more human-friendly. You've also read that the Internet has used a naming system first referred to by RFC 881 as the domain name system, or DNS, more than 25 years ago.

It seems to me that DNS is nothing short of amazing. Consider that if I were to type into my Web browser's address field www.gov.au, then my browser says to a local DNS server, "please find outwhat IP address goes with the name www.gov.au, and literally in seconds that DNS server searches the hundreds of thousands or possibly millions of DNS servers on the planet and returns the answer, even though the DNS server with that desired answer is half a planet away from me. Consider also that DNS is basically a database of names of computers on the Internet, a database consisting of untold billions of pieces of information, and that this worldwide database of names is designed in such a way that hundreds of thousands of people, people from every single country on the planet, can all manage their little parts of that database — and nothing falls apart, despite the fact that the entire planet seems unable to agree on virtually anything else. And finally, consider that this worldwide database of names is fairly inexpensive to participate in: as I write this, I've just discovered that I could register an Internet domain named worldofminasi.com for $6 a year. You've got to agree that DNS is a well-designed bit of work.