Ever wonder how the Internet knows what information to bring up in your web browser when you type in the URL of your favorite website? This is all taken care of through the Domain Name System (DNS).

Each web and email server has a numerical address that serves as the unique address for that machine. The Domain Name System is responsible for maintaining the relationship between this numerical address and the friendly domain name you generally use to connect to web pages and to send email. You can simply type in www.google.com instead of having to remember 209.85.173.103 to do your daily searches.

When you type in a URL, the first thing your computer does is ask a DNS server what the actual numerical address is. Then, you are connected to that address, but still shown the friendly name you typed. Because of this system, there will often be a delay when your website moves to a new server as the Internet learns the new numerical address of your domain name. This is referred to propagation.

All of the servers that are responsible for knowing these addresses are updated on various schedules, some updating more quickly than others. Which server a site visitor is connected to will dictate whether or not they view content on your new server or old one.  While highly detailed, DNS and systems like it keep the Internet an easy, friendly world to navigate.