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What is the Domain Name System?
The Domain Name System (DNS) is a crucial component to the Internet. Most Internet users never know they are using the DNS, or that they do so hundreds of times per day. The DNS makes the Internet user-friendly and viable; without it, the Internet would not be the ever-present, global phenomenon it is today.
The DNS is most easily understood as an address book for websites. It is responsible for translating the website names and email addresses of all organizations, governments and private entities into IP addresses, which are combinations of numbers that are difficult for people to remember, but necessary for computers to communicate with each other. When your computer needs to talk with the computer of a website, it uses the DNS to identify and find that website's computer.
For example, when you entered the Web address www.opendns.com, your computer connected to the DNS and found that the computer of the OpenDNS website is at the address 208.69.38.160. Your computer can now interact with the OpenDNS computer systems as you navigate around our website.