DNS Client Support

Overview

DNS is a distributed database of name servers which supply name-to-address translations for DNS clients. The DNS servers collectively direct DNS Clients to the DNS Server responsible for a Name to Address mapping; and that Server provides the specific mapping being requested.

There are three types of DNS servers:

• The root name server -- Located at the top of the DNS database tree. It contains pointers to the master name servers for each of the top-level domains. The root name servers handle the domains such as .COM, .EDU, .GOV, etc.
• The master name server -- Located in the middle of the DNS database tree. It contains pointers to the individual name servers for each of the subdomains within its top-level domain.
• The individual name server -- Located at the bottom of the DNS database tree. It contains detailed address information for the local hosts in the subdomain.