Archive for the ‘domain name’ tag
DNS – The Domain Name System And The Cloud no comments
Howdie do Turnkey Lovers,
For this article, I thought I would take you a little into my world as an engineer/technician at Turnkey Internet. Before we begin, as usual, I like to ask you a question. Today’s question, “What is DNS?” It seems that every day I speak with a client about this mysterious creature named DNS. Most people I speak with either fall into 2 categories:
- People who know what DNS is
- People who do not know what DNS is
In this post, we’re going to deal with people on the second bullet point. To begin, we first must get the technical jargon out of the way before going any further. The worse is when you’re reading a post and the author is using acronyms that you do not know what they stand for. I’ve been guilty of this already in this post and should clear it up before moving forward.
DNS stands for Domain Name System. DNS (Domain Name System) is a naming system for computers, services or any resource connected to the internet. It translates IP addresses to a domain name. For example, 208.85.0.20 would translate to http://turnkeyinternet.net/ To see this for yourself, open a web browser and enter in the address bar, 208.85.0.20. Go ahead, I will wait.
Our main website, http://turnkeyinternet.net/ should of immediately opened in your web browser. That in a nut shell is what DNS is and does. Now, let’s see if we can delve a little deeper into on how this works. I’m a big believer in using real world examples to teach different concepts. Not everyone can visualize an IP address, but what about your mailing address? Or the cross streets that you may live on? Are you getting the theme here? To help you understand exactly how DNS works, let’s use the real world example of driving to your friends house
For this example, let’s say you received a phone call from a buddy who said to swing on by to his/her new place for a house warming. Your friend has just recently moved. Now, how do you find him? You would need some piece of information that would allow you know which house is your buddy’s house. This piece of information would be the mailing address. Using the mailing address, you can enter your buddies address into a GPS(Global Positioning System) and be navigated directly to the house warming. The mailing address or your home address would be the equivalent of your IP address. Your IP address on the internet is where your files reside that display your website.
You may be saying, “Yes, that’s pretty clear, but you said DNS converts an IP to a domain name. What does my mailing address have to do with that?” In order to answer that question, we must first ask, how do you get your actual mail delivered? I’m talking about the mailman walking to your home and placing bills into your mailbox. How does the mailman know where to go? Sure, he has your mailing address, but where is that information stored? If you guessed the Post Office, you would be correct.
Let’s say someone writes you a letter and drops it off at the post office. Post office workers look up your name in their system to find your mailing address. The letter is then given to the corresponding mailman to be delivered to your home address. This is what DNS does in a nutshell. You sign up for a domain name which you purchased through TurnKey Internet. The place you just purchased the domain from is your registrar which means they registered your domain name in their system. This process is of registering your domain in their system is what keeps other users from being able to buy your domain. In our example above, the post office would be the registrar. You registered your home address with the post office so when someone drops a letter off a the post office, the mail can be routed to your home via mailmen.
This is what name servers do. After purchasing a domain from a register, such as TurnKey Internet, you create name servers at the registrar to inform the rest of the internet where your website resides. Much the same way the post office uses mailing addresses to deliver mail to your home.
You see, when you view items in real world scenarios, it can help to shed some light on concepts that you may not fully understand such as DNS. There are more avenues that you can take with DNS, but the general method is still the same.
For example, let’s say you move your website to a different host, you would need to update your registrar with the new name servers to point to the new location for your site. It’s the same as when you move to a new home and have to request a change of address from the post office. The post office then updates all its files and records to reflect the new address. This could include sending your new address out to businesses that you’ve dealt with as well. The rest of the world has to be updated to your new address. On the internet, this is what is called propagation. It’s when your new name server and IP information are updated across the internet so that everyone knows where your new site resolves after changing hosts. This can take 24 to 48 hours
Well, I hope that helps to clear up some confusion on this matter. I didn’t include too much technical jargon as this article is more about getting you to understand how DNS works at a very high level. I hope with this information, it will help you to better understand how the DNS works and how your hosting works here at Turnkey Internet.
Until next time
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Is your website ready for IPv6? 2 comments
IPv6 stands for Internet Protocol version 6 and it is the all new version of how computers will communicate on the Internet (some computers already speak the IPv6 protocol, as do some web sites). With the last of the IPv4 address space about to run out in late 2011, any new devices, computers or web sites connecting to the Internet after that date will now connecting via IPv6. IPv6 has been designed to handle the growth of the internet, for 100’s of more years – and is the standard going forward that websites, and online businesses need to be ready for.
This means that new cell phones, and home computers as well as web sites will soon be be only on the IPv6 address space. In order for these new devices to communicate and talk to the ‘old internet’ that resides on IPv4 a sort of proxy system will be created by service providers to connect their subscribers to who need to reach the ‘old’ IPv4 internet web sites of online destinations. The problem with this is that by forcing everyone through a proxy to ‘gateway’ to the old network, will create bottlenecks and lower quality service (as well as security issues for ecommerce enabled web sites). So to avoid this congestion on the 1-lane exit ramp between IPv6 and IPv4, what you need to do is make sure your web site or dedicated web server has both an IPv4 AND IPv6 ip address assigned to it.
If you ignore IPv6, or are with a web hosting company that doesn’t support IPv6, you are going to jeaporadize client relationships, and lost sales. If you don’t connect your web site or dedicated web server to the IPv6 network you will force your online visitors coming from the next generation IPv6 network to go through those IPv4 proxy aggregation choke points, and force your potential and current customers into a lower quality (and less secure) experience reaching your online business.
So, is your web site ready for IPv6? If the answer is “no” or “I don’t know”, you need to get started with IPv6. Many of you probably still remember the countdown to Year 2000, and the great computer glitch that never came. Well IPv6 is coming, and it will be in 2011 and 2012 that everyone will be forced into that reality, you better be ready for it. The good news is it only takes a few minutes, and no disruption to your web site to enable it for IPv6.
To get your web site ready for IPv6 doesn’t take a lot, you need to contact your datacenter and/or web hosting provider and make sure they are IPv6 ready. If they are not yet IPv6 ready, you have a bigger challenge ahead, as you have to wait until they get ready. Internet providers have to upgrade their routing infrastrcuture, put in special software, and train their staff, as well as spend a lot of time configuring their network to be ready for IPv6. If your internet provider hasn’t done this, it’s getting late in the ball game so you should call and ask when they will be ready. If they answer “we don’t know”, its time to find another web hosting provider before 2011 hits.
If you are with web hosting provider that is IPv6 enabled then the next step is pretty easy, contact them and order an IPv6 ip adddress for your web site or server. Due to the added time/configuration and labor of the new IPv6 network it’s likely the web hosting provider may charge you a small feel for the setup or small monthly fee, but then you can rest asured you are ready for the future.
Once your web site has its IPv6 address (which may looks a little strange, for instance www.turnkeyinternet.net as the following ‘IPv6’ address: 2064:7c00::1 ) but the good news is you don’t have to remember those strange looking IPv6 addresses. The wonderfull world of domain names and dns settings has already long since solved this since the early 1990’s when IPv6 was first concieved. You simply need to add an “AAAA” record in your dns for your web site pointing at your new IPv6 address, and that’s it! Your traditional web site IPv4 address already has a domin name “A” record – so by simply adding this “AAAA” record for your domain name, you now will be both IPv4 and IPv6 enabled and ready for the future. This means that if someone types in www.yoursitename.com if they are connected to an IPv6 network, they will get your IPv6 address and route there directly. If someone is on the old IPv4 and type in www.yoursitename.com they will get the IPv4 address and go straight there. In no way will either party have to go through a proxy or congested IPv6 to IPv4 system – and your online business will perform at it’s best no matter which network your web visitors are traveling from!
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