IP settings,DNS? please help me on this...?

Question

thanks for reading my question...i can't understand this DNS thing...i don't know if it is necessary to know this thing, but i just want to know how this thing works....in the IP settings, there are 2 options for the DNS, from what i see, it is always the "obtain DNS...." that's been used..what is the purpose of DNS anyway??and what if i select the "use the following DNS server addresses"??what should i put in the "preferred DNS server and alternate DNS sever"??.....

Answer 1

DNS - domain nameing server.  

When you have an internet connection, your isp will give u both an ip adress and the ip address of a dns server.   what dns does is this, when you go to a web site, what you are really doing is connecting to the ip adress of the server hosting that web site.  because its easier for people to remember web site names instead of ip adresses.   when you type in yahoo.com (as an example) in your internet browser, your computer knows to contact the dns server your isp gave you to find out what the ip address is of the server hosting yahoo.com.  your isp's dns server then sends to your computer the ip address of yahoo.com, then your computer contacts the servers ip adress hosting yahoo.com.

most isp will give u what is called a dynamic ip address and a dynamic dns server address, which means those ip addresses can  change without notice, thats why both settings should be on obtain automatically.  in certain situations you may want to have a static ip adress, which means your ip address never changes, in that case you would type in the numbers instead of setting it to obtain automatically.

unless you know what your settings are, leave it at obtain automatically for both ip address and dns, otherwise if you put the incorrect numbers you will not be able to connect to any web site at all

Answer 2

Domain Name Service, its the server that your PC refers to when retrieving information over the net so it knows what route to begin to take.