#5 Your Domain

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Attack the DNS


Produce an artifact describing what 'DNS" is and how it works

DNS is an acronym that stands for "Domain Name System". Now that you've got a domain name, you're going to have to have a basic understanding of how DNS works because soon you'll have to modify your domains DNS records. But what does that mean?

In this task you're going to do a little bit of research about what DNS is and how it works. You're then going to produce an artifact of some sort describing what DNS is and how it works. You can explain your ideas in words, a diagram, a video, a game, a song or even through the power of interpretative dance if you want to.  The important thing is that you understand it enough to be able to produce an artifact that explains it to others.
 
Below you'll find two resources to start off your search. But remember to make use of the search engines to find your own resources, noting the material that you find that helps you understand DNS. Look on your peers blogs for the resources they used in their research. 
 
Spend half an hour researching and putting together your work. If you want to spend more time than this then feel free to. Your blog post should contain the artifact that you've created, the resources you've used and a short description of how and why you created what you did.

Task Discussion


  • WebDevRobert said:

    My post on DNS is ready for your viewing pleasure, at: http://bamajr.com/2012/02/07/p2pu-webmaking-101-attack-the-dns/

    on Feb. 7, 2012, 10:55 a.m.

  • jamesweaver said:

    This is a link to my work: http://columbus-ohio-web-designer.com/blog/2012/02/02/domain-name-system/
    on Feb. 1, 2012, 9:40 p.m.

  • jamiedmattingly said:

    This is a link to my work: http://wp.me/p2aqal-1v
    on Jan. 30, 2012, 4:04 p.m.

  • jamiedmattingly said:

    This is a link to my work: http://wp.me/p2aqal-1v
    on Jan. 30, 2012, 4:03 p.m.

  • Sinsedrix said:

    This is a link to my work: http://sinsedrix.posterous.com/a-bit-of-dns
    on Jan. 26, 2012, 8:47 a.m.

  • Pavlos Chris said:

    This is a link to my work: http://xpy.tumblr.com/post/16290819221/what-is-dns
    on Jan. 22, 2012, 10:55 a.m.

    Sinsedrix said:

    I like a lot your post so I linked toward it in mine here

    on Jan. 26, 2012, 8:21 a.m. in reply to Pavlos Chris

  • Pavlos Chris said:

    DNS with broken english here

    on Jan. 22, 2012, 10:50 a.m.

  • Pavlos Chris said:

    Why are there some letters with coloured backgrounds in this task's description???

    on Jan. 14, 2012, 1:19 p.m.

  • Vladimir Támara Patiño said:

    The domain name that I already have registered is pasosdeJesus.org

    Here are writings where I described the DNS service in spanish:

    Those are very detailed explanations to configure servers. Here I translate and improve the introduction of the first one:

     

    The DNS service associates names to IP addresses, this is important to ease the identification of computers in a network like Internet.  In internet the main identification of each computer is a unique number (its IP address).  With this service a person can identify a computer with a name instead of using its number. 
     
    The DNS service is fully described in the RFC 1034, it can be seen from 3 points of view:
     
    • User: He/she uses  a name when he/she establishes connections with a computers through a program (like a browser).  Those names are positions in a tree of names and hence they include dots to separte the parts (zones), for example structio.sourceforge.net.
    • Name resolver: A program that connects to other computers (for example a browser) uses a name resolver to convert a name given by user into an IP address. A name resolver receives a name, and looks for it in a cache of names and if required tries to connect with one or more name servers asking them for the address associated with the name, it sends the query, analyzes the answer and responds with the IP number associated with the name.
    • Name server: A name server is a program that besides attending queries from name resolvers, mantain tables where it associates names with IP address of some "zones" of the tree of names.  It also holds addresses of other name server that it can use to update the tables of its zones, and to obtain information of other zones.
    on Jan. 11, 2012, 7:37 a.m.

  • Vita said:

    Here's my blog post:

    http://vita4.blogspot.com/2012/01/5-your-domain.html

    Before this challenge I didn't know much about DNS and how it works. After reading some helpful articles (en.wikipedia.org, www.howstuffworks.com, www.webopedia.com) I finally understood it quite well, the thing is, I am not sure if I was able to explain it well... Check out my post and tell me what do you think about it... Thanks.

    on Jan. 6, 2012, 10:06 a.m.

  • Alex Au said:

    Blog Article! http://p2pumetamanga.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/the-thing-about-dns/

     

    Please take a look and lemme know if it makes sense. I followed someone's advice and read HowStuffWorks after reading the first paragraphs of the Wikipedia page. There's a load of articles on HowStuffWorks and just a skim through of the first page of some articles is informative.

    on Dec. 1, 2011, 5:03 p.m.

    Anonym said:

    http://p2pumetamanga.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/the-thing-about-dns/ the team post me this maybe it will help you /Kjell

    on Dec. 1, 2011, 5:32 p.m. in reply to Alex Au

  • Anonym said:

    Hello. After a lot of looking and deeling I do like yhis. I have learn a lot past few days and for now I stay with my webhost one.com because it is easy and I dont to have to spend more money on new programs as at my other project godaddy. I have ftp and DNS serv and really everything. I have spending a lot of time trying to understand all work my Iweb program does for me atomaticly. I really enjoy when I start to understand a little more. I have also two new webpages att googlesites new webproject that I will look into tomorrow. It´s free. So now I will move on to next level. / Kjell Ps Than`s for all help and I have been looking what you been writing and it has been a big help. I dont feel like I had any thing to offer before but maybe I will soon and I will be glad if I can be to any help. Ds.

    on Dec. 1, 2011, 4:49 p.m.

  • Brigitte Jellinek said:

    Instead of a blog article (that will never be read by anyone but the reviewers here) I've decided to contribut to the german language wikipedia article on domains:

    http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain

    the article was already quiete good, so i edited the part about subdomains. you can find my contribution here, i'm bjelli on wikipedia:

    http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Domain&action=historysubmit&diff=96049095&oldid=95689282

    on Nov. 16, 2011, 2:58 a.m.

  • brotherhutch said:

    My contribution to the DNS discussion:
    http://www.markdhutchison.ca/sow-blog/dns

    on Nov. 13, 2011, 4:05 p.m.

  • Jo Meyertons said:

    Here's my little blog blurb artifact: http://jolinfield.posterous.com/dns

    on Nov. 7, 2011, 4:40 p.m.

  • Brylie Oxley said:

    I wrote a blog entry called 'Which way DNS?'.

    on Nov. 6, 2011, 1:28 a.m.

    brotherhutch said:

    Good  post! One thing, I think you mean to point us to whatsmydns (not whatismydns) here: www.whatsmydns.net

    on Nov. 13, 2011, 2:38 p.m. in reply to Brylie Oxley