DNS - DNS Basics and Introducing the DNS Real-Time Directory: A Talk with Neustar's Sean Leach

Though it’s absolutely fundamental to making the Internet work, Domain Name System or “DNS” remains one of the Web’s least-understood technologies, one expert told TMCnet in an interview.

 

According to Sean Leach of Neustar – a Sterling, Va.-based company that delivers addressing, interoperability, and infrastructure services worldwide to communication service providers, enterprises, associations, governments and regulatory agencies – DNS provides a scalable way to translate a name such as “Facebook (News - Alert)” or “Amazon” into an IP address, which is required for computers.

 

In a podcast interview with TMCnet that’s available in the The DNS Zone – part of Neustar’s DNS Global Online Community – Leach broke down the DNS process in simple language.

 

“The way it would work is, let’s say that I want to go to www.amazon.com – at that moment, a DNS request goes out,” Leach told TMCnet during a podcast that’s available here. “A question is asked by you may be using your DNS server or your cable modem provider or your DSL provider. That DNS server will go out and say, ‘OK, what is the IP address of www.facebook.com?’ If someone has asked that question recently, and the server got the answer back, it’ll keep that information. That’s called ‘DNS caching.’ ”

 

If it hasn’t seen that answer, or the “time to live” has expired, meaning when it asks a question, not only does it get an answer back – it’s told how long it should keep that answer before it should try to get a new answer, Leach said, “so this server on behalf of you goes out and asks the DNS servers on behalf of Facebook, ‘Hey, what is the latest IP address for www.facebook.com?’ The Web browser then gets that answer back, uses it to connect to Facebook or Amazon or whatever site, then show you that page and there you go.”

 

According to Leach, the process by which DNS serves as a sort of phone book for the World Wide Web, though simple enough to explain, is critical to functionality. In fact, if DNS is down, then the entire Internet is also down.

 

During the course of our conversation, Leach also introduced TMCnet to an exciting new development out of Neustar that’s designed to facilitate DNS functionality and prevent those frightening “down” times.

 

The DNS Real-Time Directory is designed to fix one of the biggest problems with current DNS configurations – the fact that system changes, updates, and patches can take days or weeks to be established throughout the World Wide Web.

 

Leach invented to the DNS RTD, and we were fortunate to get an interview with him on the emerging technology.

 

Visit the Neustar DNS community to hear our podcast interview and learn more.