Re: Computer will not find DNS automatically...

pcbutts1 wrote:
The "Hosts" file in Windows and other operating systems is used to associate host names with IP addresses. Host names are the www.yahoo.com addresses that you see every day. IP addresses are numbers that mean the same thing as the www words - the computers use the numbers to actually find the sites, but we have words like www.yahoo.com so humans do not need to remember the long strings of numbers when they want to visit a site.

For instance, the host name for Yahoo! is www.yahoo.com, while its IP address is 204.71.200.67 Either address will take you to Yahoo!'s site, but the www address will first have to be translated into the IP address. If you type in the IP address directly, your computer will not have to look it up.

A series of steps are used when searching for IP addresses that go with these host names. The first step is the hosts file on your local computer. The Hosts file tells your computer what the name is in numbers so the computer can go find it. If the IP address is found in your Hosts file, the computer will stop looking and go to that site, but if it is not it will ask a DNS computer (domain name server) for the information. Since the search ends once a match is found.


Great explanation! Since I do not have a hosts file, does this mean my computer is asking the DNS computer every time? I suspect that pages take longer to load than they used to.

DD
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