What is the purpose of DNS?

• A. To locate networked computers by resolving names to IPs.
• B. To route email.
• C. To encrypt data.
• D. To manage firewall rules.

Answer: (A)

DNS translates human-friendly domain names into numerical IP addresses, enabling devices to locate and connect to services on a network. When you try to reach a website, your computer asks a DNS resolver to find the IP address for the domain, then uses that address to establish a connection to the host. This name-resolution system is distributed across many servers and uses records like A for IPv4 or AAAA for IPv6 to map names to addresses, making it practical to remember simple names instead of long numbers and speeding up lookups through caching. The other functions described—routing email, encrypting data, and managing firewall rules—are handled by separate mechanisms and protocols, not by DNS itself.