What Is DNS?
DNS is the distributed naming system that lets people use domain names while computers route traffic with records such as A, AAAA, MX and TXT.
Updated 2026-08-08How DNS works
A resolver asks authoritative nameservers for records under a domain. The answer is cached for a period controlled by the record TTL.
Different record types answer different questions: where a website points, where mail should go, which nameservers are authoritative, or which verification text is published.
Example
For a website, DNS may return an A record for IPv4 and an AAAA record for IPv6. For email, DNS uses MX records to identify receiving mail servers.
When you may need it
Check DNS when a website fails to load, email delivery breaks, a domain verification step fails, or a recent record change has not appeared everywhere yet.
Quick answers
Is DNS the same as hosting?
No. DNS points names to services. Hosting is where the website, mail or application actually runs.