What is DNS?

Domain Name System (DNS) is a database system that translates a computer's fully qualified domain name into an
IP address.

Networked computers use IP addresses to locate and connect to each other, but IP addresses can be difficult for
people to remember. For example, on the web, it's much easier to remember the domain name www.amazon.com
than it is to remember its corresponding IP address (207.171.166.48). DNS allows you to connect to another
networked computer or remote service by using its user-friendly domain name rather than its numerical IP address.
Conversely, Reverse DNS (rDNS) translates an IP address into a domain name.

Each organization that maintains a computer network will have at least one server handling DNS queries. That
server, called a name server, will hold a list of all the IP addresses within its network, plus a cache of IP addresses
for recently accessed computers outside the network. Each computer on each network needs to know the location of
only one name server. When your computer requests an IP address, one of three things happens, depending on
whether or not the requested IP address is within your local network:

 If the requested IP address is registered locally (i.e., it's within your organization's network), you'll receive
a response directly from one of the local name servers listed in your workstation configuration. In this case,
there usually is little or no wait for a response.

 If the requested IP address is not registered locally (i.e., outside your organization's network), but someone
within your organization has recently requested the same IP address, then the local name server will
retrieve the IP address from its cache. Again, there should be little or no wait for a response.

 If the requested IP address is not registered locally, and you are the first person to request information
about this system in a certain period of time (ranging from 12 hours to one week), then the local name
server will perform a search on behalf of your workstation. This search may involve querying two or more
other name servers at potentially very remote locations. These queries can take anywhere from a second or
two up to a minute (depending on how well connected you are to the remote network and how many
intermediate name servers must be contacted). Sometimes, due to the lightweight protocol used for DNS,
you may not receive a response. In these cases, your workstation or client software may continue to repeat
the query until a response is received, or you may receive an error message.

When you use an application such as telnet to connect to another computer, you most likely type in the domain name
rather than the IP address of that computer. The telnet application takes the domain name and uses one of the above
methods to retrieve its corresponding IP address from the name server. A good analogy is to think of DNS as an
electronic telephone book for a computer network. If you know the name of the computer in question, the name
server will look up its IP address.

What is WINS?

WINS is a service run on Windows NT servers to provide Windows clients a way to find other Windows computers.
WINS (Windows Internet Naming Service) resolves Windows network computer names (also known as NetBIOS
names) to Internet IP addresses, allowing Windows computers on a network to easily find and communicate with
each other.

Using a WINS server is essential for any Windows client computer to work with other Windows computers over the
Internet. In addition, using a WINS server is essential for any Windows client computer at Indiana University that
intends to use Microsoft network resources. To use WINS services, you must insert into your TCP/IP networking
configuration the IP address of the WINS servers you wish to use.

At IUB, the WINS servers are:

129.79.1.200 129.79.5.200 134.68.220.14

At IUPUI, the WINS servers are:

134.68.220.14 134.68.220.15 129.79.1.200

What does TCP/IP mean?

TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, which is a set of networking protocols that
allows two or more computers to communicate

 IP - is responsible for moving packet of data from node to node. IP forwards each packet based on a four
byte destination address (the IP number). The Internet authorities assign ranges of numbers to different
organizations. The organizations assign groups of their numbers to departments. IP operates on gateway
machines that move data from department to organization to region and then around the world.
 TCP - is responsible for verifying the correct delivery of data from client to server. Data can be lost in the
intermediate network. TCP adds support to detect errors or lost data and to trigger retransmission until the
data is correctly and completely received.
 Sockets - is a name given to the package of subroutines that provide access to TCP/IP on most systems.

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is the basic communication language or protocol of the
Internet. It can also be used as a communications protocol in a private network (either an intranet or an extranet).
When you are set up with direct access to the Internet, your computer is provided with a copy of the TCP/IP
program just as every other computer that you may send messages to or get information from also has a copy of
TCP/IP.