How DNS works

DNS

3

network

12

Hiếu Huỳnh viết ngày 09/04/2017

Basic concept and information

• DNS stands for Domain Name System
• Its purpose is to resolve and translate human-readable website name to IPv4 or IPv6 address
• It's basically a large Database which resides on various servers around the world, that contains the names and IP address of various host/domains.
• Without DNS, we would only be able to visit any website directly via IP address, no human-readable anymore
• DNS works on both the TCP and UDP Protocols, port 53

How does DNS work?

Whenever you visit a domain such as github.com, the browser's journey begins >>>

Step 1: Request information

• TODO: Type github.com to address bar of Chrome, it's a new request for browser

Step 2: DNS cache on Chrome

• TODO: DNS query on chrome's cache, see chrome://net-internals/#dns
• True: Return IP address of this domain for making a request
• False: Didn't know it before --> call OS (step3)

Step 3: DNS cache on OS

• TODO: OS receive request from chrome, then check its DNS cache, see mDNSResponder on MacOS
• True: Return IP of github.com for browser
• False: OS didn't know it before same as browser, OS call the Resolver (Recursive DNS servers)

Step 4: The Resolver on ISP (Internet Service Provider)

• TODO: local OS sends a DNS Query to the Resolver by using UDP Protocol over Port 53, the Resolver will check its cache to find IP for github.com
• True: Return IP address for OS
• False: ISP didn't know it before same as our OS. ISP will ask the Root server

Step 5: The ROOT servers - see https://www.iana.org/domains/root/servers

• Fact: We have 13 root server for DNS around the world. They don’t know the answer, but they know where to find it.
• TODO: Root look at the first part of request, reading from right to left .com <--
• Direct our request to Top-Level Domain (TLD) name servers for .com, it's Verisign TLD
• ISP will store TLD information, no need ask the root again.

Step 6: The TLD nameservers

• TODO: The TLD nameservers review the next part of our request - github
• Direct our query to the nameservers responsible for this specific domain
• These Authoritative nameservers are responsible for knowing all the information about a specific domain, which are stored in DNS records

Step 7: The Authoritative nameservers

• TODO: The Resolver (ISP) retrieves the A record for github.com from the authoritative nameservers and stores the record in ISP's local cache
• More keywords: time-to-live value, Domain Registrar, types of records

Step 8: Receive the answer

• TODO: Resolver returns the A record back to OS
• OS stores the record in its cache, reads the IP address then passes information to Chrome
• Chrome stores the record in its cache

Finally, Chrome opens a connection to the webserver and receives the site.

This entire process, from start to finish, takes only milliseconds to complete.

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Reference:

1. https://howdns.works
2. http://dyn.com/blog/dns-why-its-important-how-it-works/
3. https://www.verisign.com/en_US/website-presence/online/how-dns-works