You know a domain name isn’t really what you think it is. Computers don’t talk to each other using domain names and when you’re wanting to surf on over to your favorite websites, you’re not really going to a server named whatever the domain name is you want.
All a domain name does is point a person to the computer and network that’s hosting the files that you see when you type in that domain name. It’s like an alias for what’s really happening behind the scenes. It’s a representation that we understand, that is really made up of something more.
For example, we know what water is, but the chemical make-up is H20.
We’ve probably all used Google, but the actual computer network it’s located on is known as 74.125.67.100, which is an IP (Internet Protocol) address.
When we type in a domain name in our browser, a Domain Name Server works like a giant index pointing those domain names to the appropriate IP addresses of the computers and networks the websites reside.
Most of us never think about it, and the DNS task is usually handled by our own Internet Service Providers by default. We don’t have to rely on them though, sometimes they can be slower than what’s available elsewhere.
Google has released their own public DNS service now. I’ve been using it and it does seem to be a bit snappier than what I was using before, which was OpenDNS. However, it should be stated that Google Public DNS and OpenDNS are not purely the same. OpenDNS offers some more controls and functionality you may find helpful, than what you’re going to get with what’s being handed to you by Google Public DNS.
You can read more about the Google Public DNS service here. I’ll follow-up with another post on how to change your settings if you want to make the switch.