What better way to start the new year than learning about and implementing an additional layer of security in your computer(s)? This one I’ve used for some time but never got around to write about it.

I’m going to backtrack to some basic technical stuff that although I might have covered before, wanted to include here in the name of this article’s self-sufficiency. First, a term, domain name. For practical purposes and in the context being used here, a domain name could be said to be a label that identifies a website. Thus, remotehelpexpert.com is a domain name. So is yahoo.com, google.com, and so on. You get the idea.

Ok, so, Domain Name System (sometimes Server, or Service) or DNS, refers to the translation of a website’s name into its numeric address. Every domain has a name (in letters) and an address (in numbers). If you enter “remotehelpexpert.com” in your web browser’s address bar and press enter, the computer needs to find out what is that domain name’s numerical address to be able to find and display that website for you.

Of course due to various factors, two or more domains might share the same numerical address. Conversely, one domain might have more than one numerical address. This all might seem complicated but it’s actually pretty simple. The important thing is that what the computer uses to translate the name of a domain into its numerical address is called DNS. When the computer is able to use DNS to find a domain’s numerical address, it is said to have resolved it. Thus, DNS resolution. The computer that is asked the question  “what is the address of this domain name?” and answers it is called a DNS Server and it’s out there in the Internet. Its counterpart, most of the time your computer, is the DNS client.

Ok, you might say, let’s pretend for a moment everything that has been said so far is true. What does it all have to do with increasing security for computers? Patience, young grasshopper, we’re almost there. More often than not, your ISP (Internet Service Provider, the company you pay to have internet access) will have its own DNS servers, and typically your computer(s), or the device that connects your computers to the internet will have been set up to use those particular servers to perform the aforementioned function. But that can be changed. Why would one want to change it? Well, some DNS servers offer a number of additional services that the role of DNS server is uniquely fit to perform. Thus, we finally arrive to the starting point of this article.

But unfortunately, just as we’re about to really get started, we have run out of time. Figured I’d better break down this subject into two articles, so I can cover in detail the background theory and then what to do and how to do it and the advantages to be gained from all that. So stay tuned for next week’s article – the second and final part of this subject!