Here are answers to some common questions about DNS.
Websites have both a "friendly" address, called a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and an IP address. People use URLs to find websites, but computers use IP addresses to find websites. DNS translates URLs into IP addresses (and vice versa). For example, if you type http://www.microsoft.com into the address bar in your web browser, your computer sends a request to a DNS server. The DNS server translates the URL into an IP address so that your computer can find the Microsoft web server.
The last part of a URL is called a top-level domain name (TLD). TLDs identify different types of websites. Here are some common TLDs and what they stand for:
Top-level domain
Stands for
.com
commercial (business) site
.net
Internet administrative site
.org
nonprofit organization
.gov
U.S. government agency
.edu
educational institution
In addition to the TLDs listed above, individual countries or regions have their own TLDs. For example, .ca is the TLD for Canada.
Some computers are given a different IP address each time they connect to the Internet. An Internet service provider (ISP) can use a few IP addresses to serve many customers that way, but it means that your computer's "address" on the Internet is always changing. If you host a website, you don't want the website name to change, even if your ISP changes the IP address. DNS dynamic update automatically maintains the relationship between your fixed website name and the changing IP address so that your website is easy to find on the Internet.
You must be connected to the Internet to look up a DNS name or IP address.
Open the Command Prompt window by clicking the Start button , clicking All Programs, clicking Accessories, and then clicking Command Prompt.
At the command prompt, type nslookup, a space, and the IP address or domain name (for example, nslookup microsoft.com), and then press ENTER.
When you type a web address into your web browser and press ENTER, you are sending a query to a DNS server. If the query is successful, the website you want opens; if not, you'll see an error message. A record of these successful and unsuccessful queries is stored in a temporary storage location on your computer called the DNS cache. DNS always checks the cache before querying any DNS server, and if a record is found that matches the query, DNS uses that record instead of querying the server. This makes queries faster and decreases network and Internet traffic.
At the command prompt, type ipconfig /displaydns.
Clearing the DNS cache forces DNS to query a DNS server rather than using information stored in the cache. You might want to clear the DNS cache if you are moving and changing websites, or if you are receiving repeated errors when you know the web address you are typing is correct.
If you are not logged on as an administrator, you must use an elevated command prompt to complete the following steps. For information, see Command Prompt: frequently asked questions
At the command prompt, type ipconfig /flushdns.
