Webpage rendering, it is very simple for those who understand it and I must say very difficult for the one who doesn’t. With the increase of online access in India many are ready to spend a couple of dollars every year for their own .com experience. Still many are not clear about its working. I was suppose to explain this to few of my friends so thought of putting it online.
Since this blog post is going to be long, let me put the document index for easy navigation:
Section 1: Basic Terms
Some basic things you should learn before reading the post
I am assuming that the user is browsing http://www.idealwebtools.com/nimc/forum/ using firefox browser with a dial up Internet connection.
Section 2: Steps to set up a website
Did not get anything! Don’t worry let’s take it again
Section 3: Explaining different parts of an URL
A small explanation of the URL http://www.idealwebtools.com/nimc/forum/
Section 4: Do you understand IP now?
No, good. Let me explain. In simpler words it is the address of an entity on Internet. In other words your computer has an IP, idealwebtools.com has an IP, every single computer on this Internet gets a unique IP. Consider IP to be the address of the different computer on Internet. See what is your computer’s IP http://www.idealwebtools.com/myip.php. If you are using Dial up connections you get a new IP every time you connect to the internet. Idealwebtools.com has an IP, which is 63.247.68.87 (ping the domain to get the IP). Which one is easier to remember 63.247.68.87 or Idealwebtools.com? Certainly idealwebtools.com.
Section 5: What is DNS?
DNS or “Domain name server†is a server, which maps idealwebtools.com (an easy to remember name, which remains constant) to an IP (hard to remember number, it can also change).
Let’s take 2 scenarios when Ajesh (hey, that’s my brother) accessing http://www.idealwebtools.com/nimc/forum/ from Banglore :-
Scenario 1:
Assuming that I have registered idealwebtools.com within last 24 hours and was never accessed by anyone in the world so far.
Step 4: When a DNS server doesn’t know the IP of a domain it sends the request to a small number (13) of servers (also known as root name server), which are suppose to know the authoritative servers (name servers specified at section 2 step 4, A server which knows the IP address for idealwebtools.com, in our case it is ns1.asmallorange.com or ns2.asmallorange.com, which will have the final word) for the domain. Step 5: The severs responsible for the generic top-level domains for .com sends the request to the authoritative servers for IP of idealwebtools.com. Step 6: Authoritative servers (which is domain based, Authoritative servers for idealwebtools.com will be different from that of google.com), in our case it is ns1.asmallorange.com (69.56.131.114), and then sends the IP to the requested DNS. In the path all the other servers involved caches the IP for the domain. Step 7: Once the IP is known it sends the packets using TCP/IP.Scenario 2:
Assuming that idealwebtools.com is browsed frequently by different people.
Summary
Connection checks the IP of the website at the closest level and travel up to the Root Name Servers to get the Authoritative, which knows the IP for sure.
If you have doubts please let me know I will explain, also subscribe to my blog for more useful posts.
Wow Aji you have started writing cool stuffs, my knowledge about dns was never so clear. Thanks for the Root name server and Authoritative servers descriptions. I always thought that when I specify an ip as namespace it becomes the ip of my domain. Now I am clear about it.
It goes directly to my bookmarks, great post
had very little knowledge about this stuff while going thru my CMC accredited ‘Diploma in Software Technology’….but today it seems clearer…worth recommendable for One n All, who’d love to know more about DNS !
thanx a lot..
Pingback: (Search camp 2009) 5 mindset changes for Indian Webmasters - URGENT « SEO - Web marketing for clients Blog