Every time you type www.google.com and hit enter, your computer doesn't actually know where Google lives on the internet — it has to ask for directions. That's DNS: the internet's phonebook, translating human-readable names into machine-readable IP addresses. Let's follow a single DNS query from the moment you press enter to the moment your browser connects.
Why we need DNS
Imagine memorizing 142.250.185.46 instead of typing google.com. IP addresses change, servers move, but domain names stay constant and memorable. DNS is the bridge between human memory and computer networking.
The journey of a DNS query
1. Browser cache
