Can you explain what the Domain Name System (DNS) is and how it works?

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a distributed database that translates human-readable domain names (e.g., example.com) into IP addresses (e.g., 93.184.216.34) needed for network communication.

How it works:

1. A client (e.g., a browser) requests the IP address for a domain name.
2. The request is sent to a local DNS server (usually provided by the ISP).
3. If the local server does not know the address, it sequentially queries the root servers, then the top-level domain (TLD) servers, and finally the authoritative server for the domain.
4. The obtained IP address is returned to the client, which can then establish a connection.

Example of a simplified request:

User enters: www.example.com
Browser -> local DNS -> root server -> .com server -> example.com server -> IP

DNS provides the convenience of internet usage by hiding the complexity of IP addresses behind understandable names.