Tech Writes

IP Address:

An IP address (Internet Protocol address) is like a home address for your device on the internet. It helps computers and other devices find and communicate with each other.

The URL (like www.chaicode.com) is a human-friendly name, but computers and servers don’t understand it directly. Instead, they rely on IP addresses (like 142.250.183.78 for Google).

e.g. - When you type a URL in your browser:

• Your computer asks a DNS (Domain Name System) to convert that URL into IP address.

• Once the IP address is found, your browser connects to the correct server using that IP.

• Then the server sends back the requested web page.

DNS (Domain Name System):

When we want to open a website, we type a URL (like www.chaicode.com) into the browser. But computers don’t understand names like that — they need a numerical IP address (like 142.250.183.78) to find the website.

Since it's hard for us to remember all these IP addresses, the browser asks a special server called a DNS (Domain Name System).

The DNS server’s job is to take the URL you typed and find the correct IP address for it. Once it gets the IP address, the browser can connect to the website’s server and load the page for you.

Internal working of DNS:

When a user types a website URL (for example, www.chaicode.com) into the browser, the browser doesn't know the IP address of that website. So, it sends a request to the DNS (Domain Name System) to find the IP address. This process is called DNS Resolution.

Here’s how it works step-by-step:

1. Client Request

• The browser (client) sends a request to the DNS server asking for the IP address of www.chaicode.com.

2. Query to Root Server

• The DNS server forwards the request to a Root Server, which is the starting point in the DNS hierarchy.

3. Root Server Responds

• The Root Server doesn’t have the exact IP but knows where to find it. It replies with the IP address of the Top-Level Domain (TLD) server based on the domain extension — in this case, .com.

4. Query to TLD Server

• The DNS server then sends a request to the .com TLD server to find more information about chaicode.com.

5. TLD Server Responds

• The TLD server responds with the IP address of the Authoritative Name Server (ANS) for chaicode.com.

• ANS is a crucial component of the Domain Name System (DNS). It is responsible for providing responses to queries about a specific domain, including the IP addresses of the domain's resources.

For example, if chaicode.com is hosted on GoDaddy, then GoDaddy’s name server is the ANS.

6. Query to Authoritative Name Server (ANS)

• Now the DNS server sends a final request to the ANS (e.g., GoDaddy) asking for the actual IP address of www.chaicode.com.

7. ANS Responds with IP

   • The Authoritative Name Server replies with the IP address of the requested website.

8. DNS Server Sends IP to Browser

• The DNS server sends the IP address back to the browser.

9. Browser Connects to Website

• With the IP address, the browser can now connect directly to the website’s server and load the web page.

This entire process — from typing the URL to receiving the IP address — is called DNS Resolution, and it usually takes just milliseconds.