When we think about the Internet we typically think of websites like www.google.com or www.medium.com, but when a computer thinks about websites it thinks more like 172.217.7.174/google.com or 104.16.124.127/medium.com. The numbers at the beginning of each of these are called Ip Addresses and it’s what computers use to talk to one another. Think of an Ip Address as a name and when one computer wants to talk to another they just call out their name and start sending information. This is the Internet at it’s simplest form. The problem is if we had to remember all of those numbers for every website we wanted to visit we wouldn’t be able to frequent more than a handful before we’d started to forget one or two. This is where Domain names come into play. A Domain Name is the Ip Address in the form of an easy to remember name like the two at the top of this post. now in order to get from Ip Address to Domain Name you need a DNS. DNS stands for Domain Name Services and it is a server who’s sole purpose is to tie the Proper Domain Name to it’s Ip Address, so when you type in google.com in your Web Browser you get the home page for google not an error page. In order to really understand how a DNS Server works think of it like your Phones Contacts or a Phone Book (except automated). when you want to call somebody you don’t dial their phone number you look for their name in the list and dial the appropriate number. This is the same way that a DNS Server works. making every-bodies life a lot easier however this leaves your computer open to attacks from hackers. Since we never know the Ip Address of the website we are wanting to visit a Hacker can Setup their own DNS Server with the Domain Names of several big websites connect to malicious websites Ip Addresses. Then using Malware or other Malicious means can tell your computer to contact his DNS Server instead of the one it’s supposed to. This is why taking preventative measures to insure your Internet Traffic is secure as it travels. You can learn more about these kinds of attacks in my Why You Should Never Trust A Domain Name!! Post. Thank you for reading and don’t forget to recommend.
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