Experiment No.

7
PART A
(PART A: TO BE REFERRED BY STUDENTS)

A.1 Aim:
Introduction to Domain Name System Service.

A.2 Prerequisite:
Basics of programming, computer networking, command line interface.

A.3 Outcome:
After successful completion of this experiment students will be able to
1. Learn the fundamental of Domain Name System
2. Practical applications of Domain Name System

A.4 Theory:

Task 1:
1. Introduction to Domain Name System
Consider the scenario that you want to call your friend whose name is Ram. But you don’t
remember his number and anymore as it’s all there in your phone directory or computer once
we store the information. So, we need to search his number, this searching is done by the
system automatically for us. So, let’s say there is an application in your phone, that checks
your contact list and finds Ram’s number for you. The domain name system works in the
similar manner.
Reading activity - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICANN

2. What are domain name and IP addresses

Domain Name Hierarchy is like a tree
Resource Records –

3. Real life examples of the DNS and some useful commands

a. Find the internal IP address of your device using the command prompt.
b. Final the external IP address of your device using www.whatismyipaddrss.com
website.
c. Check if the server is online for Google, Amazon, Microsoft using ping command.
d. Using network-tools.com website ping the websites mentioned in the previous step.
i. From the dropdown menu select Whois tool and find information of the
domain Google.

4. How to translate process work?

a. What are the different types of DNS servers, explain them in detail.

b. What are the different types of DNS request, explain them in detail.
c. Select traceroute tool and perform trace route on www.nmims.edu, collect and
analyse the information received.
 5. What are DNA resource records, list and explain the most common record types.
a. Select the DNS tool and find the details for wordpress.com, collect and analyze the
records.

Experiment No. 7
PART B
(PART B: TO BE COMPLETED BY STUDENTS)
(Students must submit the soft copy as per following segments within two hours of the
practical. The soft copy must be uploaded on the student portal or emailed to the concerned
lab in charge faculties at the end of the practical in case the there is no student portal access
available)

Roll. No: E019 Name: Deval Gandhi

Class: B.Tech CSBS Batch: B1
Date of Experiment: 28/10/22 Date of Submission:1/11/22
Grade:

B.1 Answers for the Questions stated in Part A:

Task 1:
1. Introduction to Domain Name System
Consider the scenario that you want to call your friend whose name is Ram. But you don’t
remember his number and anymore as it’s all there in your phone directory or computer once
we store the information. So, we need to search his number, this searching is done by the
system automatically for us. So, let’s say there is an application in your phone, that checks
your contact list and finds Ram’s number for you. The domain name system works in the
similar manner.
Reading activity - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICANN

2. What are domain name and IP addresses?

Ans:
A domain name (often simply called a domain) is an easy-to-remember name that's
associated with a physical IP address on the Internet. It's the unique name that appears after
the @ sign in email addresses, and after www. in web addresses. An IP address is the address
that computers, servers and other devices use to identify one another online.

3. Real life examples of the DNS and some useful commands.

Ans:
DNS, or the Domain Name System, translates human readable domain names (for
example, www.amazon.com) to machine readable IP addresses (for example, 192.0.2.44).

Useful Commands:
Here are the most useful dig query types: dig any (gathers all DNS information), dig ns
(gathers name server information), dig mx (gathers mail exchanger information) and dig a
(gathers network address information).
:~$ dig any your-domain-name.com
:~$ dig ns your-domain-name.com
:~$ dig mx your-domain-name.com
:~$ dig a your-domain-name.com

a. Find the internal IP address of your device using the command prompt.

b. Final the external IP address of your device using www.whatismyipaddrss.com

website.
c. Check if the server is online for Google, Amazon, Microsoft using ping command.

 Google
 Amazon
 Microsoft
d. Using network-tools.com website ping the websites mentioned in the previous step.
i. From the dropdown menu select Whois tool and find information of the
domain Google.
4. How to translate process work?
Ans:
1. A user opens a web browser, enters www.example.com in the address bar, and presses
Enter.

2. The request for www.example.com is routed to a DNS resolver, which is typically

managed by the user's Internet service provider (ISP), such as a cable Internet provider,
a DSL broadband provider, or a corporate network.

3. The DNS resolver for the ISP forwards the request for www.example.com to a DNS
root name server.

4. The DNS resolver for the ISP forwards the request for www.example.com again, this
time to one of the TLD name servers for .com domains. The name server for .com
domains responds to the request with the names of the four Amazon Route 53 name
servers that are associated with the example.com domain.

5. The DNS resolver for the ISP chooses an Amazon Route 53 name server and forwards
the request for www.example.com to that name server.

6. The Amazon Route 53 name server looks in the example.com hosted zone for the
www.example.com record, gets the associated value, such as the IP address for a web
server, 192.0.2.44, and returns the IP address to the DNS resolver.

7. The DNS resolver for the ISP finally has the IP address that the user needs. The
resolver returns that value to the web browser. The DNS resolver also caches (stores)
the IP address for example.com for an amount of time that you specify so that it can
respond more quickly the next time someone browses to example.com. For more
information, see time to live (TTL).
8. The web browser sends a request for www.example.com to the IP address that it got
from the DNS resolver. This is where your content is, for example, a web server
running on an Amazon EC2 instance or an Amazon S3 bucket that's configured as a
website endpoint.

9. The web server or other resource at 192.0.2.44 returns the web page for
www.example.com to the web browser, and the web browser displays the page.

a. What are the different types of DNS servers, explain them in detail.
Ans:
The three DNS server types server are the following: 
i. DNS stub resolver server 
ii. DNS recursive resolver server 
iii. DNS authoritative server 
 
A stub resolver is a software component normally found in endpoint hosts that
generates DNS queries when application programs running on desktop computers or
mobile devices need to resolve DNS domain names. DNS queries issued by stub
resolvers are typically sent to a DNS recursive resolver; the resolver will perform as
many queries as necessary to obtain the response to the original query and then send
the response back to the stub resolver. 
 
A recursive DNS lookup is where one DNS server communicates with several other
DNS servers to hunt down an IP address and return it to the client. This is in contrast
to an iterative DNS query, where the client communicates directly with each DNS
server involved in the lookup. While this is a very technical definition, a closer look
at the DNS system and the difference between recursion and iteration should help
clear things up. 
 
The authoritative DNS server is the part of the DNS infrastructure that actually has
the answers – the zone file with the DNS records. It can provide the true answer to
DNS queries. When we are talking about authoritative DNS servers, we have no
recursive cache information but the true DNS records. 
The authoritative DNS server will answer the DNS queries that come from
the recursive DNS servers, and the queries of the clients will be answered. 
b. What are the different types of DNS request, explain them in detail.
Ans:
There are three types of DNS request: 
i. Recursive 
ii. Non-Recursive 
iii. Iterative 
 
In a recursive query, a DNS client provides a hostname, and the DNS Resolver
“must” provide an answer—it responds with either a relevant resource record, or an
error message if it can't be found. The resolver starts a recursive query process,
starting from the DNS Root Server, until it finds the Authoritative Name Server (for
more on Authoritative Name Servers see DNS Server Types below) that holds the IP
address and other information for the requested hostname. 
 
A non-recursive query is a query in which the DNS Resolver already knows the
answer. It either immediately returns a DNS record because it already stores it in local
cache, or queries a DNS Name Server which is authoritative for the record, meaning it
definitely holds the correct IP for that hostname. In both cases, there is no need for
additional rounds of queries (like in recursive or iterative queries). Rather, a response
is immediately returned to the client. 
 
In an iterative query, a DNS client provides a hostname, and the DNS Resolver
returns the best answer it can. If the DNS resolver has the relevant DNS records in its
cache, it returns them. If not, it refers the DNS client to the Root Server, or another
Authoritative Name Server which is nearest to the required DNS zone. The DNS
client must then repeat the query directly against the DNS server it was referred to. 

c. Select traceroute tool and perform trace route on www.nmims.edu, collect and
analyse the information received.
5. What are DNA resource records? List and explain the most common record types.
Ans:
DNA Resource Records -

 A record - The record that holds the IP address of a domain. Learn more about the A
record.

 AAAA record - The record that contains the IPv6 address for a domain (as opposed to A
records, which list the IPv4 address). Learn more about the AAAA 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. These records are often used
for email security. 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.
a. Select the DNS tool and find the details for wordpress.com, collect and analyze
the records.
B.2 Observations and learning:
The following experiment helped in understanding the working of IP addresses and DNS servers. 

B.3 Conclusion:
Completing this experiment helped in understanding the use of Network-tools.com, which is used to
identify IPs, hops, gateways, and others information related to network.