DNS (DOMAIN NAMING SERVICE)
People in general do not remember numbers as well as they remember names, and this is especially true on the internet. Every web server on the Internet has an IP Address but do you know the IP Address of bbc.co.uk or google.com? Of course not, you have never had to learn them, and even if you did would you remember them? Probably not. That is where DNS comes in.
DNS is basically a service that is run by several (13 at last count) root servers with other child servers beneath them in a heirarchy. What these 13 root servers do is hold a record of every web server on the Internet and the IP Adress where that web server can be found.
What happens when you open Internet Explorer and type in http://www.bbc.co.uk is that your computer runs a DNS Query to resolve the name to an IP Address by asking the first DNS Server that it is configured with. Usually this is either your router or your ISPs own DNS Servers. If they don't know the IP Address of bbc.co.uk they will ask a DNS Server higher up the heirarchy than them and so on until a DNS Server responds which does know the IP Address of bbc.co.uk. That information is then paased back to your computer which can now go and contact the bbc web server and get the web page that you were looking for.
You never need to remember the IP Address of bbc.co.uk, you just need to remember bbc.co.uk and DNS does the rest.
If you have a static IP Address at home you can go out and register your own Domain Name (DNS zone) such as myhouse.com for a small fee. This will then be assigned to you and you can tell the Registrar where you bought the name to update their DNS records with the information that the name myhouse.com will now be at your static IP Address. This information will take up to 48 hours to propogate right around the Internet's DNS infrastructure, but eventually every DNS Server will know how to find myhouse.com. Now when anyone enters myhouse.com in their browser they will be directed to your IP Address on port 80 and the router will forward their request to port 80 on your web server and they will see your website.
The theory is exactly the same for a GPL Server as it is for a web server, it just uses different ports which we will come to later.
Can you still use DNS or host a server if you don't have a static IP Address?
Yes, you can but it requires some further configuration as you need to set up DDNS (Dynamic DNS).
DYNAMIC DNS
If you are one of the lucky ones your router will have a configuration tab for DDNS and you can set it up there by paying a small amount to a 3rd Party company such as dynDNS.com who will monitor your router to see what IP Address it is using and when it changes they will update their DNS records to reflect that change. This time though, it doesn't take 48 hours to propogate around as you tell your registrar to update their DNS records with that of dynDNS.com, so when somebody searches for myhouse.com they are sent straight to dynDNS.com who are monitoring your router and will have an up to date IP Address for you.
If your router doesn't have an option to use dynDNS or you don't want to pay for their service there is another way to run Dynamic DNS for free but it does have a couple of prerequisites.
ns1.afraid.org
ns2.afraid.org
ns3.afraid.org
Now set up a free account at afraid.org and download their FreeDNS_Updater then install and configure it so that you can use their free dns service. Don't forget to configure the time interval at which it will contact afraid.org and update their records with your current IP Address.
People in general do not remember numbers as well as they remember names, and this is especially true on the internet. Every web server on the Internet has an IP Address but do you know the IP Address of bbc.co.uk or google.com? Of course not, you have never had to learn them, and even if you did would you remember them? Probably not. That is where DNS comes in.
DNS is basically a service that is run by several (13 at last count) root servers with other child servers beneath them in a heirarchy. What these 13 root servers do is hold a record of every web server on the Internet and the IP Adress where that web server can be found.
What happens when you open Internet Explorer and type in http://www.bbc.co.uk is that your computer runs a DNS Query to resolve the name to an IP Address by asking the first DNS Server that it is configured with. Usually this is either your router or your ISPs own DNS Servers. If they don't know the IP Address of bbc.co.uk they will ask a DNS Server higher up the heirarchy than them and so on until a DNS Server responds which does know the IP Address of bbc.co.uk. That information is then paased back to your computer which can now go and contact the bbc web server and get the web page that you were looking for.
You never need to remember the IP Address of bbc.co.uk, you just need to remember bbc.co.uk and DNS does the rest.
If you have a static IP Address at home you can go out and register your own Domain Name (DNS zone) such as myhouse.com for a small fee. This will then be assigned to you and you can tell the Registrar where you bought the name to update their DNS records with the information that the name myhouse.com will now be at your static IP Address. This information will take up to 48 hours to propogate right around the Internet's DNS infrastructure, but eventually every DNS Server will know how to find myhouse.com. Now when anyone enters myhouse.com in their browser they will be directed to your IP Address on port 80 and the router will forward their request to port 80 on your web server and they will see your website.
The theory is exactly the same for a GPL Server as it is for a web server, it just uses different ports which we will come to later.
Can you still use DNS or host a server if you don't have a static IP Address?
Yes, you can but it requires some further configuration as you need to set up DDNS (Dynamic DNS).
DYNAMIC DNS
If you are one of the lucky ones your router will have a configuration tab for DDNS and you can set it up there by paying a small amount to a 3rd Party company such as dynDNS.com who will monitor your router to see what IP Address it is using and when it changes they will update their DNS records to reflect that change. This time though, it doesn't take 48 hours to propogate around as you tell your registrar to update their DNS records with that of dynDNS.com, so when somebody searches for myhouse.com they are sent straight to dynDNS.com who are monitoring your router and will have an up to date IP Address for you.
If your router doesn't have an option to use dynDNS or you don't want to pay for their service there is another way to run Dynamic DNS for free but it does have a couple of prerequisites.
- You need to have a computer that can run programs as a service such as Windows NT, Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
- You need to run that machine all the time, 24/7 if you want your DNS records to be constantly updated.
ns1.afraid.org
ns2.afraid.org
ns3.afraid.org
Now set up a free account at afraid.org and download their FreeDNS_Updater then install and configure it so that you can use their free dns service. Don't forget to configure the time interval at which it will contact afraid.org and update their records with your current IP Address.
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