INTERNET WEB PROGRAMMING

N Srinibha Rao
19BCI0245

EXPLAIN ABOUT THE DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and decentralized
naming system for computers, services, or other resources connected
to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information
with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities.
i. Need for DNS
 One identifier for a host is its hostname.
 Hostnames are mnemonic and are therefore appreciated by
humans. such as: a. www.booksmountain.com. b.
www.Facebook.com. c. www.Google.co.in. d. surf.eurecom.fr.
 Hostnames provide little information about the location within
the Internet of the host.
 A hostname such as surf.eurecom.fr, which ends with the
country code .fr, tells us that the host is in France, but doesn't
say much more.
 Furthermore, because hostnames can consist of variable-length
alpha-numeric characters, they would be difficult to process by
routers.
 For these reasons, hosts are also identified by so-called IP
addresses.
 An IP address consists of four bytes and has a rigid hierarchical
structure.
 An IP address looks like 121.7.106.83, where each period
separates one of the bytes expressed in decimal notation from 0
to 127.
  An IP address is hierarchical because as we scan the address
from left to right, we obtain more and more specific information
about where the host is located in the Internet. (Like a postal
address)
 An IP address is included in the header of each IP datagram.
 Internet routers use this IP address to route datagram towards its
destination.

ii. Name Spaces

A namespace is a context within which the names of all objects must
be unambiguously resolvable. For example, the internet is a single
DNS name space, within which all network devices with a DNS name
can be resolved to a particular address.
A namespace can be flat or hierarchical. A flat namespace doesn't
scale well because it can grow only so large before all available
names are used up. Once a name is used more than once in a
namespace, the namespace violates the unambiguously resolvable
requirement.
A hierarchical namespace is divided into different areas, which can be
thought of as sub-namespaces. Each area is its own sub-namespace
within the overall namespace.

iii. DNS in the Internet

The Domain Name System (DNS) is the Internet's system for
mapping alphabetic names to numeric Internet Protocol (IP) addresses
like a phone book maps a person's name to a phone number. For
example, when a Web address (URL) is typed into a browser, a DNS
query is made to learn an IP address of a Web server associated with
that name.
Using the www.example.com URL, example.com is the domain
name, and www is the hostname. DNS resolution maps
www.example.com into an IP address (such as 192.0.2.1). When a
user needs to load a webpage, a conversion must occur between what
a user types into their web browser (www.example.com) into an IP
address required to locate the www.example.com site.

The DNS system is an open worldwide network of database name

servers that include 13 authoritative name servers that serve the DNS
root zone level, known as "root servers". A root server (also called a
DNS root nameserver) receives a DNS query that includes a domain
name (e.g. www.thousandeyes.com), and responds by directing that
request to a top-level domain (TLD) nameserver, based on the TLD of
that domain such as .com, .net, and .org. It directly responds to
requests for DNS records in the root zone by returning an appropriate
list of the authoritative TLD name servers for the appropriate TLD
that can resolve the initial DNS lookup request for an IP address of
that domain name.

iv. Resolution
DNS (Domain Name Server) resolution is the process of translating
IP addresses to domain names. When a profile is configured to look
up all numeric IP addresses, Webtrends makes a call to the network's
DNS server to resolve DNS entries. Each computer has its own IP
address. The IP address identifies that computer with four sets of
numbers of up to three digits, known as octets, each separated by a
period. The IP addresses are recorded in the log file. In most cases, IP
addresses can be translated into domain names.
For example, 63.88.213.170 translates to www.webtrends.com. A
user can configure Webtrends to look up all numeric IP addresses.
When that feature is selected, Webtrends makes a call to the networks
DNS server to resolve IP addresses into DNS entries. Note: Not all IP
addresses can be resolved. There is a hierarchy to DNS servers. If the
first DNS server cannot resolve the IP address, Webtrends makes a
call to another DNS server to find it. It continues this process until it
times out. By default, Webtrends gives up on the process after 25
seconds and then goes on to the next record.

v. DNS Messages
The DNS protocol uses a common message format for all exchanges
between client and server or between servers. The DNS messages are
encapsulated over UDP or TCP using the "well-known port number"
53. DNS uses UDP for message smaller than 512 bytes (common
requests and responses). DNS uses TCP for bigger exchange (i.e. zone
transfer).

vi. Types of Records

A record - The record that holds the IP address of a domain. Learn
more about the A record.
CNAME record - Forwards one domain or subdomain to another
domain, does NOT provide an IP address. Learn more about the
CNAME record.
MX record - Directs mail to an email server. Learn more about the
MX record.
TXT record - Lets an admin store text notes in the record. Learn more
about the TXT record.
NS record - Stores the name server for a DNS entry. Learn more
about the NS record.
SOA record - Stores admin information about a domain. Learn more
about the SOA record.
SRV record - Specifies a port for specific services. Learn more about
the SRV record.
PTR record - Provides a domain name in reverse-lookups. Learn more
about the PTR record.

vii. Registrars
A domain name registrar is a business that handles the reservation of
domain names as well as the assignment of IP addresses for those
domain names. Domain names are alphanumeric aliases used to
access websites; for example, Google’s domain name is ‘google.com’
and their IP address is 192.168.1.1. Domain names make it easier to
access websites without having to memorize and enter numeric IP
addresses.

viii. Security of DNS

DNSSEC stands for Domain Name System Security Extensions, and
it is a technology used to protect information on the Domain Name
System (DNS) which is used on IP networks. It provides
authentication for the origin of the DNS data, helping to safeguard
against attacks and protect data integrity.
The DNS turns domain names, or website names, into internet
protocol (IP) addresses. These are unique identifiers that help
computers around the world access the information quickly. DNS
security adds a set of extensions for increased protection
These security extensions include:
 Origin authentication of DNS data: this ensures that the
recipient of the data can verify the source.
  Authenticated denial of existence: this tells a resolver
(responsible for translating the domain name into an IP address)
that a certain domain name does not exist.
 Data integrity: this assures the data recipient that the data has
not been changed in transit.

ix. DDNS
DDNS, most commonly known as Dynamic DNS, is an automatic
method of refreshing a name server. It can dynamically update DNS
records without the need for human interaction. It is extremely useful
for updating A and AAAA records when the host has changed its IP
address.