The DNS server is, in a nutshell, the middleman between your computer and the web server you want to access. It lets you use URLs (easy to remember words) to access web servers, which have IP addesses (usually difficult to remember). The browser sends the URL (which includes the protocol, usually HTTPS, as well as the domain name and other bits) and the DNS server checks it against a list of IP addresses.
If they find a match, the request is sent to the correct web server and a connection between the browser and the server is established. When no match is found, other DNS servers are contacted to see if they have the entry. If there is still no results, you get an error telling you the URL does not exist.
As others have mentioned, it’s a bit like a phone book where you look for somebody’s name (the URL) to find the phone number that you can use to communicate with them (the phone number). But I think it more resembles calling a friend (the DNS server) for the phone number of the person you want to contact (the web server), and the friend can either tell you what it is, if they know this person, or call other friends to see if they know their phone number.
The most common DNS service is Google’s, so if you’re not using Cloudflare, NextDNS, or similar, Google is the middleman yet again! You might have seen that xkcd on the “8.8.8.8” DNS service, where all other products are hypothetically killed to focus on their Google DNS.
The DNS server is, in a nutshell, the middleman between your computer and the web server you want to access. It lets you use URLs (easy to remember words) to access web servers, which have IP addesses (usually difficult to remember). The browser sends the URL (which includes the protocol, usually HTTPS, as well as the domain name and other bits) and the DNS server checks it against a list of IP addresses.
If they find a match, the request is sent to the correct web server and a connection between the browser and the server is established. When no match is found, other DNS servers are contacted to see if they have the entry. If there is still no results, you get an error telling you the URL does not exist.
As others have mentioned, it’s a bit like a phone book where you look for somebody’s name (the URL) to find the phone number that you can use to communicate with them (the phone number). But I think it more resembles calling a friend (the DNS server) for the phone number of the person you want to contact (the web server), and the friend can either tell you what it is, if they know this person, or call other friends to see if they know their phone number.
The most common DNS service is Google’s, so if you’re not using Cloudflare, NextDNS, or similar, Google is the middleman yet again! You might have seen that xkcd on the “8.8.8.8” DNS service, where all other products are hypothetically killed to focus on their Google DNS.
I found the relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1361/