DNS Resolution
Easy+10 XPWatch a name (example.com) get turned into an IP address by walking the lookup chain — the internet's phonebook in motion.
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You type example.com, but the network only delivers to numbers. DNS is the phonebook that turns the name into an IP address — and it does it by asking a chain of servers, each pointing one step closer. Press Run and watch the question walk root → .com → example.com, then the answer come all the way back.
▸Why ask three servers instead of one big phonebook?
Because no single machine could hold every name on the internet, and keep it up to date, for the whole world. So the phonebook is split into a tree: the root knows who handles each ending (.com, .org), the .com server knows who handles each .com name, and each site's own server holds its real address. Three small steps beat one impossible giant.
▸What's the 'resolver'?
It's a helper (usually run by your internet provider or a service like 1.1.1.1) that does the legwork for you. Your computer asks it one simple question — 'what's the IP for example.com?' — and the resolver walks the whole chain and brings back the answer, so your computer doesn't have to.
▸Does this happen every single time I visit a site?
No — that's what caching is for. Once the resolver learns an answer, it remembers it for a while, so the next person asking for example.com gets it instantly without walking the chain. Your own computer caches it too. The full three-server walk mostly happens the first time.
▸What happens after DNS gives back the IP?
Now the real connecting begins. With the IP in hand, your computer can open a TCP connection to that address (the handshake), secure it with TLS, and send its HTTP request for the page. DNS is just step one — finding the address — of the whole trip to a website.