What is DNS?

The Domain Name System (DNS) translates human-friendly names like example.com into the numeric IP addresses computers use. It is the internet's phone book, keeping track of where each domain lives.

When you type a URL into the browser, your device asks a DNS resolver for the matching IP. Once it receives that address, it can connect to the correct server. DNS runs transparently behind almost every connection you make.

DNS settings can be managed by your gateway, by your ISP, or even by custom resolvers such as Google Public DNS. Tweaking them can improve speed, reliability, or privacy.

Knowing your public IP from IPLookup.help helps troubleshoot DNS problems, since it confirms exactly which address the DNS records should point at when services expect traffic from you.