These DNS terms will help you understand better how the entire system works. That way, you could easily manage your domain name. So, let’s get started!
DNS
The Domain Name System or shortly DNS is a decentralized naming system built in a hierarchical order. It is commonly compared to a phone book of the Internet. Thanks to it, we are not required to remember all of the long and challenging IP addresses. Instead, we use the domain names. The Domain Name System (DNS) does that translation for us.
Dynamic DNS
Dynamic DNS is a beneficial and very handy service. It automatically updates your IP address whenever it has changed. Oftentimes the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) replace your IP address with another one. That is their way to simplify the management of their extensive networks. Therefore if you have, for instance, CCTV cameras for surveillance, it will be a great idea to implement Dynamic DNS, and you should not worry every time your IP address gets modified.
Domain name
The domain name is what we type in our own address bar when we want to visit a particular website. Its purpose is to identify and easily find different devices, computers, networks, and services on the Internet. The domain name is a unique name string, and for instance, two websites could not share one identical name.
IP address
The IP address is a string of numbers, and its purpose is to identify different machines, devices, servers, etc., on a network. IP addresses are necessary because that is the only possible way for the different machines to connect and communicate with each other. There are two different versions of IP addresses – IPv4 and IPv6 and each address on the global network is unique.
DNS zone
The DNS zone is a small specific piece of the domain namespace. A separate DNS administrator manages each zone. Based on that fact, the entire system is considered decentralized. Inside the DNS zone are stored the entire collection of DNS records (DNS data) for a particular host.
DNS records
DNS records are instructions in text format that provide essential details about your domain name. There are various DNS record types, such as those that give information related to the corresponding IP address for that domain. In addition, a precise period of time established by the TTL (Time-to-live) value in each DNS record indicates for how long it is valid.
Some popular DNS records are:
- A record: Points a domain name to its IPv4 address.
- AAAA record: Points a domain name to its IPv6 address.
- CNAME record: It indicates the actual canonical domain name.
- MX record: Points to the mail server accountable for receiving emails.
- PTR record: Points an IP address (IPv4 or IPv6) to the associated domain name.
DNS server
There are two main types of DNS servers.
The first type is the Authoritative DNS server.
It stores the DNS information (DNS records). Additionally, it is able to supply the Recursive DNS servers with an authoritative answer. This type of DNS server is the root server (represents the dot “.”), TLD (Top-Level Domain) server (represents the extension, like .net) and the authoritative name server for the precise domain.
The second type is the Recursive DNS server.
This type of DNS server has the main task of searching and getting the required information from the Authoritative DNS servers. They receive the request from the user and perform a DNS lookup for finding the answer.