{"id":91266,"date":"2025-12-05T18:10:37","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T18:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/proxidize.com\/?post_type=blog&p=91266"},"modified":"2025-12-05T18:11:47","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T18:11:47","slug":"what-is-a-dns-server","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/proxidize.com\/blog\/what-is-a-dns-server\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a DNS Server?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A DNS server is what tells your browser the IP address of a website. <\/strong>When you navigate to a website, you do so via its domain name. Unfortunately, your web browser doesn\u2019t know how to get to that website\u2019s server with a domain. It needs an IP address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A DNS server acts as a \u201cphonebook of the internet\u201d<\/strong>. When you navigate to proxidize.com<\/a> your browser first asks a DNS server what the IP address for the domain is, to know what IP address it needs to send its requests to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While we normal people talk about DNS servers as one thing, actually resolving a domain name needs different types of DNS server. To keep things clear and simple, we\u2019ll trace a domain resolution request up the entire chain.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Recursive DNS Server<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A recursive DNS server is what you and I generally mean when we talk about DNS servers. A recursive DNS server is what a web browser asks to look up a domain name.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recursive DNS servers, (also called recursive resolvers)<\/strong>, don\u2019t store domain-IP data permanently; they go ask other DNS servers whether they know the IP address of the domain and cache that information. They\u2019re distributors, not wholesalers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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These servers receive queries from clients<\/strong>, whether it\u2019s a web browser, computer, phone, router, or even smartfridge. If a recursive DNS server doesn\u2019t know how to resolve the hostnames you\u2019re asking for, they will start asking DNS servers higher up the chain until they find an answer.<\/strong> Once they get the data they need, they will respond to the querying device. This method spares the DNS servers highest up in the hierarchy \u2014 the wholesalers \u2014 from being overwhelmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Root DNS Servers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If the recursive DNS server doesn\u2019t have the domain in its cache, it will contact the next DNS server in the hierarchy: root DNS servers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Root DNS servers are essentially signposts. A root DNS server directs the recursive DNS server where to go next in function of the domain\u2019s TLD or top-level domain<\/a>.<\/strong> TLD is everything after the last period ( . )<\/code>, i.e. .com<\/code>, .org<\/code>, .edu<\/code>, and so on. The root server points the recursive resolver to the appropriate TLD DNS server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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TLD DNS Server<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

TLD DNS servers have information about domain names under a specific TLD.<\/strong> For example, education.com<\/a>, education.edu<\/a>, and education.co.uk<\/a> are all different websites. Assuming your recursive resolver didn\u2019t have a cached IP address, each domain was resolved through a different TLD DNS server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TLD DNS servers don\u2019t resolve domains either, they act as referrers like root servers, but about second-level domains<\/a>, i.e. the \u201cproxidize\u201d part of \u201cproxidize.com\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Authoritative DNS Server<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An authoritative DNS server is a DNS server that contains the DNS data for a domain.<\/strong> This is the final stop. This is where the recursive resolver<\/strong> finds the data on a domain name<\/strong> after you initially pinged it \u2014 if the information isn’t found here it doesn’t exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authoritative DNS servers don’t only have the IP address of a domain<\/strong>, though. They have other information that needs DNS resolution like canonical name mappings<\/strong> (i.e. CNAME or how a site makes its cloud-hosted stuff look like its own domain), mail routing<\/strong> (i.e. where does mail get delivered and who\u2019s allowed to email this domain, etc.), and more<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the server has access to the data requested, it returns the IP address for the requested hostname back to your recursive DNS server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Other DNS Server Types Overview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are other types of DNS server we didn\u2019t get into. These support DNS infrastructure or are specific to certain situations or organizations that set up their own infrastructure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a summary overview of the remaining types of DNS server:<\/p>\n\n\n\n