Understanding the Domain Name System (DNS)
The Domain Name System (DNS) serves as a crucial component of the Internet, functioning as a read-only database accessible to all computers online. When you register a domain name, you essentially acquire the rights to manage its DNS records.
While the primary purpose of DNS is to convert user-friendly domain names, such as www.circlebox.com, into numerical IP addresses used by computers to communicate over the network, it also offers several other important functions:
- Directing incoming email messages to the appropriate server for your domain.
- Providing verifiable information to recipients about the authenticity of emails, thereby helping to distinguish legitimate messages from phishing attempts.
- Allowing domain owners to demonstrate their control over a domain by enabling them to add specific records to the DNS. Since only the owner can modify these records, the act of adding a designated DNS record serves as proof of ownership.
Because it's used for different things, you might have different vendors that need to specify records to be added to your domain's DNS. If you understand the basics, you can make the necessary changes in-house instead of having to provide update access to different vendors, who might trample over each other's work.
When you buy a domain, most domain registrars will provide DNS services for your domain for no additional charge, but - it might be worth paying a couple of dollars a month per domain to let Azure, AWS or some other cloud provider host your DNS. It's typically easier to delegate access in these systems than say - GoDaddy.