DNS servers ‘help determine internet service quality’

The Domain Name System (DNS) server used a by a business or consumer helps determine their speed and quality of internet browsing, it has been reported.

Writing for the PC World Business Center, Marco Chiappetta explained that a number of factors – not merely peak bandwidth – help determine the overall performance of a web connection.

He said the DNS server is one of the least well-understood factors.

“When you enter a website address in your browser, your system or device sends a lookup request to a DNS name server somewhere to find the IP address of the hosting the website associated with that domain name,” Mr Chiappetta noted.

“The same thing happens when you use just about any internet application, email client, or other program that accesses Internet resources,” he added.

Mr. Chiappetta said the DNS is a distributed naming system for internet-connected devices that translates more easily remembered domain names into numeric identifiers, called IP addresses.

DNS name servers are “essential intermediaries” that link your system to virtually all of the resources scattered across the internet, he added.

Ordinarily, broadband providers supply DNS servers for their users’ connections, and if they perform well, there is no delay in web browsing.

“Depending on your ISP and location, though, you may find that your ISP’s name servers are underperforming, unreliable, or down altogether,” Mr. Chiappetta noted.