How DNS Works? And How to Find DNS of your PC?

In the past, when the internet was rare, it was easy to reach to specific IP address by using a particular computer. Even today, by entering the IP address in the browser bar, you can land on the required website. However, today, there are millions of websites on the internet. The human mind easily memorizes simple alphanumeric strings, but computers only understand the numeric language. Here the DNS plays a vital role to route the traffic to the right server.

When you type the website address in the browser bar, your internet service provider (ISP) gets the DNS information related to that website, receives the IP address, and route the user to the correct server. The DNS information about the website is also stored in the browser cache. Therefore, next time, if the person entered the same domain in the browser, the browser does not send a DNS request again; instead fetches DNS record from its cache.

 

However, what if you change your hosting provider or register a new domain? It will take 24 to 48 hours for the DNS servers to propagate correctly.

Therefore, the hosting provider companies and the ISPs must need to get in contact with the Central Registry for updated DNS information. The Central Registry is like the "Power House" or the "Boss on the Top." That has the data from all the DNS servers around the world.

If your DNS settings are not working correctly, you may be at the risk of cybercrime, security thread, and lagging in performance.

 

Before going deeper, any further, first, you must know how your DNS query gets resolved?

Suppose you type the URL https://example.com in your web browser's bar.

The browser will check the requested URL's IP address in its cache and if it does not find the IP address. It will send the request to the Name Resolving Server.

• The Name Resolving Server, check the requested URL's IP address in its local cache and if it does not find the IP address. It will pass the request to the Root Server.
• The Root Server contains information about the TLD (Top Level Domain) IP address Server. It will redirect the Name Resolving Server to the TLD Server containing the information related to .com domains.
• The TLD server provides the server's IP address (containing the requested URL https://example.com) to the Name Resolving Server.
• Name Resolving Server caches the information in its local cache for a specific time (TTL: Time to Live) and passes the information to the client's computer.
• The client's computer establishes the connection with the server (containing the requested URL https://example.com) for the content and caches the IP address's information in its browser for further use.

You can imagine how vital the DNS Server is for a smooth browsing experience from the above steps.

By default, you automatically connect to the DNS server of your ISP. A slow DNS server is responsible for slow web browsing. If your ISP DNS server is slow, responds slowly, or is overloaded. It will take additional time each time you go on to load a new web page.

Using the default DNS server for query resolution is seems to be a good idea. However, when you find that your default DNS server is causing the problem of slow web browsing. Therefore, waiting for the website to load and interruption during the website browsing are significant concerns.

Therefore, for a smooth browsing experience, selecting which DNS server to use is highly important. You must choose the DNS in terms of speed, filtering system, safety, reliability and durability, and security perspective. You can get the list of best DNS Servers in this perspective from here.

There are various ways you can check which DNS server you are using.

One way is to use some online websites to check your DNS server.

To find the DNS servers used by your PC. Perform the following steps

In Windows

• Open the "Command Prompt"
• Type "ipconfig /all" and press "Enter."
• In the middle of the information, you will see your DNS servers' information in front of "DNS Servers."
• To change the DNS settings in your Windows.
• Click on the Windows button and open "Control Panel."
• Type "Network and Sharing" on the top right corner bar. Moreover, click on the "Network and Sharing Settings."
• Right-click on the Network Adopter you want to check, and click on the "Properties."
• Double-click on the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4).
• A new window will open, where you either enter the DNS servers IP manually or click on the option Obtain DNS server address automatically.

In Mac OS

• Open System Preferences, either from the Dock or the Apple menu > System Preferences.
• Click on the "Network" icon.
• In the left-hand pane, choose the network connection you want to check.
• Select the Advanced button and the DNS tab.
• If you manually entered the DNS setting, it will appear in the black font; use the minus (-) button to remove it, and if it is automatically assigned, it will appear in grey font.

In Ubuntu

• Open the Ubuntu System Settings and go to Network settings.
• In the Network, you will see the number of Networks that are near to you.
• In front of "Network Name," you will see the setting icon.
• On clicking the setting icon, a new window will open, including the number of tabs. Click on the "IPv4".
• On clicking the "IPv4" tab, you will see the "Automatic (DHCP)" and "Manual" option and "DNS" field to write the DNS server you want to use.

Note: By using the process mentioned above, you will get the DNS servers' IPs. To get the complete information about the DNS servers, you may also go for the IP Location Lookup to obtain country, state, city, latitude and longitude, and ISP's related data of that IP.