How DNS works - a simple example

In this hub i will explain in a simple way and giving a practical example how the DNS works during the process of translating domain names into IP addresses. Lets take the follow example: John User is a normal internet user who wants to view the website stored in www.example.com. When John User type www.example.com in his browser what will happen is that the John PC will send a request to his DNS server, asking for the IP www.example.com, consequently, the DNS server (that dont have the desired IP stored in cache) will make the same request to the root DNS server, the root DNS server don't know about the IP of www.example.com but know the IP of TLD(Top Level Domain) in charge of .com domains, so will send this info to John DNS server. The DNS server will now request the IP to the .com TLD, and the TLD will reply with the DNS server IP in charge for www.example.com. Now John DNS server will ask for the IP of www.example.com to the DNS server in charge of the respectively domain that will reply with the desired IP. When in possession of the desired IP, the John DNS server will send the IP to John PC that will use him to request the web page.

Portuguese version of this post here.