Domain Name system (DNS) is a general-purpose data query service chiefly used in the Internet for translating host names into IP addresses.

When a DNS agent requests host name and address data from a DNS server, the process is called resolution. Basic DNS configuration results in a server that performs default resolution. For example, a remote server queries another server for data in a machine in the current zone. Agent software in the remote server queries the resolver, which answers the request from its database files.