What is a DNS server?

Question

Yes, I'm computer illiterate, can someone please tell me what it means when I get an error message that says " check DNS server and settings" ? where do I check the settings, and what are they supposed to be on?
Thank you very much!!!!

Answer 1

Domain Name Server



It's what gives you the information that starts your name resolution... so when you type www.yahoo.com it's your first port of call to find out the IP address that www.yahoo.com relates to. The internet does it's locating servers by IP addresses not by name... it's more complicated than that, but that's a simplified view of it. DNS servers talk to each other in a sort of tree like arrangement... so your local one talks to others.



Normally the DNS server is set up by your ISP or your network when your PC logs in to a network. For a home broadband the router is told what to use as it's DNS server... and your PC uses the DNS server in your router which passes the calls it doesn't know the answer for up to the ISP's.



As to where you find it... it's in the network properties... open the 'networks' bit of the control panel, right click the network connector you use to hook up to the network, find the TCP/IP entry, select it and click 'properties'. It's probably on the advanced tab... exactly how and where and what all of the bits are called varies a bit from win98, win2000, winXP and Vista so you may need to take the names of things above with a degree of caution... they're about right but may not be exactly right for you.



If your PC is throwing a temper about DNS, simplest things to try are:

1) Check your PC really is wired up to the network (or is wirelessly conencted)

2) Reboot your PC

3) If you are at home and the above don;t fix it, reboot your broadband or cable modem (router or whatever your supplier calls it).

Answer 2

Every device on the internet has an address called an IP address (the ones that look like 192.168.1.30, etc). However, you can't remember the numerical address for every site you visit, so we use text-based addresses (URLs) to visit sites (that's the www.yahoo.com part you type in the browser location bar).



Your computer, however, needs that IP address. So, it will send a query to a Domain Name Server (DNS) requesting the information, and the DNS server returns the proper address. the browser, for example, then uses that numeric address to contact the website you want.



Your DNS settings are usually found in your network setup in Windows. Without some additional information as to the error and when you get it, it's hard to say what the problem is. If you can't connect to anything and you keep getting this error, it's usually because you're Internet connection isn't working.

Answer 3

If you can't reach pages by typing their name (www.google.com) but you can still get mail, this means that you have a problem with your Domain Name Servers (DNS). You can check this by typing a numeric IP address into your browser like http://72.14.207.99 -- if you can reach Google this way, then you have confirmed a DNS problem.





You can manually assign domain name servers in



Windows: Control Panel > Network Connections > Local Area Connection > Connection > Properties > TCP/IP > Properties > Use the following DNS Server addresses...



Mac: System Preferences > Network > Ethernet > Configure > Manually



Try typing in the nameservers at OpenDNS: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220



Does this help?



The other option is to contact your ISP and find out what the problem is between your machine and their DNS.

Answer 4

Yes, however not in any currently authorised internet type. It's fully outdated, insecure and lacking some of the features of present dns, as well as most priceless services for some thing now. Even when it used to be nonetheless in use it required huge numbers of updates to work appropriately. Considering the fact that it's no longer supported there are not any such downloads to be had. And a process which can handiest use as much as a 2GB approach force is almost entirely vain now.

Answer 5

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical naming system for computers, services, or any resource participating in the Internet. It associates various information with domain names assigned to such participants. Most importantly, it translates humanly meaningful domain names to the numerical (binary) identifiers associated with networking equipment for the purpose of locating and addressing these devices world-wide. An often used analogy to explain the Domain Name System is that it serves as the "phone book" for the Internet by translating human-friendly computer hostnames into IP addresses. For example, www.example.com translates to 208.77.188.166.