How does DNS resolution work?

DNS acts as the phonebook of the internet, converting human-readable domain names (e.g., example.com) into computer-readable IP addresses (e.g., 93.184.216.34) in a recursive process:

                  ┌──────────────────────┐
                  │ 👤 User Web Browser  │
                  └──────────┬───────────┘
                             │ 1. Query: "example.com"
                             ▼
                  ┌──────────────────────┐
                  │ 🗄️ Recursive Resolver│ ◀───┐
                  └──────────┬───────────┘     │
                             │                 │ 8. Returns IP
                             │ 2. Queries      │
                             ▼                 │
                 ┌────────────────────────┐    │
                 │ 🌐 Root Name Server    │ ───┤
                 └────────────────────────┘    │
                             │                 │
                             │ 3. Refer to .com│
                             ▼                 │
                 ┌────────────────────────┐    │
                 │ 🌐 TLD Name Server     │ ───┤
                 └────────────────────────┘    │
                             │                 │
                             │ 4. Refer to DNS │
                             ▼                 │
                 ┌────────────────────────┐    │
                 │🌐 Authoritative Server │ ───┘
                 └────────────────────────┘

1. Client Query: Browser checks local DNS cache. If not found, it queries the Recursive Resolver (usually managed by your ISP or a public provider like 8.8.8.8).
2. Root Server Query: The recursive resolver queries a Root Name Server (.). The root server directs the resolver to the Top-Level Domain (TLD) Server handling .com.
3. TLD Server Query: The resolver queries the TLD server. The TLD server responds with the IP of the domain's Authoritative Name Server.
4. Authoritative Server Query: The resolver queries the authoritative name server, which returns the actual IP address mapped to the domain.
5. Caching & Response: The resolver returns the IP to the browser and caches it for future use.