domain name service

page type::article thing type::software protocol thing type::software service

About
A domain name service (DNS) is a computer program which looks up the IP address for each domain name it is given. Due to the design of the internet, the local program must talk to an "upstream server" in order to find out information about domain names that are outside the local network; this upstream service is generally included as part of the service provided by an internet service provider.

Related

 * distributed DNS is a form of DNS that is decentralized and does not ultimately rely on a central domain name registry

Projects

 * OpenDNS: free alternative upstream DNS servers (though they reportedly return advertising-laden "search help" pages for domains not recognized, in much the same way that Earthlink's DNS does)