When speaking of a DNS server (Domain Name System, for its acronym in English), reference is made to a type of software that is responsible for translating the IP addresses that are detected on the Internet to domain names. It is a series of protocols and services that emerged with the purpose of web users avoiding making an effort to memorize an IP address, which has several numbers.
People have a much easier time remembering web domain names as, moreover, IP addresses can change numerically for different reasons, without the need to change the name for those same reasons.
It is important that each domain on the web has DNS servers configured, since these are the ones that can translate the domain names or subdomains to the corresponding IP address.
How to speed up the loading of a website using DNS
An example of this is offered by MrDomain 's Anycast DNS service. Anycast DNS is a traffic routing algorithm used to improve website performance by speeding up DNS resolution. This process is done by copying the DNS zone of the domains in nodes located all over the world, thus ensuring that user requests are directed to specific nodes based on factors such as the capacity and status of their server, as well as the distance between itself and the website visitor.
For example, suppose you have a domain and web page whose data center is in Spain, but you do not have hosting with Anycast DNS services, what would happen in that case if someone in America accesses this website? The browser of that user, when consulting the DNS, must make a path from practically the whole world in order to locate the IP of the server to which the domain wants to reach. In this case, due to the length of the path, it will take about 269 milliseconds to get a response.
Instead, with the Anycast DNS service running, the browser will make the IP request to the nearest server; Continuing with the previous example, the request would reach a server located in Brazil, which would translate into a response time of… 29 milliseconds.
Benefits of DNS Anycast
Other benefits that Anycast DNS provides is that it lowers latency by accelerating DNS resolution by distributing copies in different locations and then delivering users to the closest server, thus achieving optimized load times and notable improvements in web performance.
Likewise, it contributes to having redundant DNS, that is, copies of DNS located in different zones and that make the website remain active. Example: If a DNS server in Russia is failing, DNS Anycast will be able to connect from the next closest available server at the moment.
Similarly, DNS Anycast generates less impact on servers against DDoS attacks (denial of service attack), which are carried out on a server in order to saturate it and stop it from responding to requests. With Anycast it is possible that some servers fail but, in turn, others would be working normally, mitigating these failures from affecting the website.
How to know if my hosting provider offers it
If you want to know if your hosting provider offers DNS servers, you can contact them for information about it. At MrDomain, for example, they offer you a product that other companies offer as a premium, paid service. In this case, DNS Anycast is a premium service that MrDomain offers completely free of charge in all its hosting plans, also including the redirection and parking service.