DNS: The foundation of the Internet

DNS (Domain Name System) is one of the foundations of the Internet and it underpins pretty much everything that we do online, but what is it?

If you have your own website and use email at your own domain then you definitely utilise a DNS service. Basically DNS is like an address book for every service that runs on the Internet. For example it tells the rest of the Internet where your website lives and how to deliver your email (among other things), and without it most of the Internet would come to a grinding halt!

Now while it’s not expected that most people know what DNS is or how it actually works, there are a group of people who should defiantly know about and understand it, but in my experience generally don’t – that’s IT Support people.

If you’re like me you’d expect that people who make their living supporting computers (which is what the Internet runs on) and setting up email services for businesses would know how to setup, configure and maintain DNS records, but in my experience they often don’t. This really baffles me!

From time to time in my day job over at Mity I need to request DNS changes for a client from their IT people.  The most recent request which was detailed and told them exactly what DNS records to change, was responded to with the question “What records do you want changed”!

The frustrating thing about this reply is that anyone with half a clue about DNS would have understood my request – it was very clear, but also they provide IT support and SHOULD know the basics of DNS at least!

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