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Here's a preview from my zine, How DNS Works! If you want to see more comics like this, sign up for my saturday comics newsletter or browse more comics!

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there are 3 main levels of authoritative DNS servers

root (wearing 3 crowns): I’m in charge of EVERYTHING
.com nameserver (wearing 2 crowns): I’m in charge of all domains ending in .com
example.com nameserver (wearing 1 crown): I’m in charge of all domains ending in example.com

the root nameserver delegates

what’s the IP for example.com?
root: I am not concerned with petty details like that. Here’s the address of the .com nameserver.

the .com nameserver also delegates

what’s the IP for example.com?
.com nameserver: I am not concerned with petty details like that either. Here’s the address of the example.com nameserver

the example.com nameserver actually answers your questions

what’s the IP for example.com?
example.com nameserver: 93.184.216.34!

this design lets DNS be decentralized

example: for my domain jvns.ca

root (ICANN controls this!)
delegates to
.ca nameserver (Canada controls this!)
delegates to
jvns.ca nameserver (I control this!)