Skip to Content
Navigation:

A stick figure smiling

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!

Image of a comic. To read the full HTML alt text, click "read the transcript".

browse more comics! get the zine!
read the transcript!

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!)

Saturday Morning Comics!

Want another comic like this in your email every Saturday? Sign up here!

I'll send you one of my favourite comics from my archives every Saturday.
© Julia Evans 2024 | All rights reserved (see the FAQ for notes about licensing)