DNS is short for Domain Name System. It’s like your computer’s GPS for the internet instead of your car’s GPS for directions.
Basically, DNS translates domain names such as www.google.com into a pattern of numbers such as 126.96.36.199 (also known as an IP address) that allows computers to identify each other on the internet.
An IP address is used too so that you can reach the website you want to view online. It’s like dialing a telephone number but instead of connecting to speak with another person, you’re connecting to a website.
A DNS manages a massive database of IP addresses, each of which corresponds to a specific domain name. With hundreds of thousands of websites available to view online, imagine how difficult it would be if you had to remember each IP address for each website you wanted to visit. It sounds like the worst game of “find the needle in a haystack” you can imagine. Especially considering that websites can have multiple IP addresses that can change. Luckily, DNS makes this process easier because we’re all more likely to remember a “.com” address rather than a set of numbers.