Which protocol is used to translate hostnames to IP addresses for network applications?

Which protocol is used to translate hostnames to IP addresses for network applications?

• A. Load Balancer
• B. SPAN
• C. Domain Name System (DNS)
• D. Unified Communications

Answer: (C)

The process of turning human-friendly hostnames into machine-readable IP addresses is handled by the Domain Name System. When a network application uses a name like example.com, a DNS resolver is asked to look up the corresponding IP address. The resolver queries a hierarchy of DNS servers—from root to TLD to authoritative servers—to find the address and return it to the application, enabling a connection to be established. DNS typically uses UDP on port 53 for queries, with TCP used for larger responses or specific features. This name-to-address translation is essential for routing and addressing on networks. The other options don’t perform this translation: a load balancer distributes traffic, SPAN is for traffic monitoring, and Unified Communications is a group of communication tools, not a protocol for resolving names to addresses.

The process of turning human-friendly hostnames into machine-readable IP addresses is handled by the Domain Name System. When a network application uses a name like example.com, a DNS resolver is asked to look up the corresponding IP address. The resolver queries a hierarchy of DNS servers—from root to TLD to authoritative servers—to find the address and return it to the application, enabling a connection to be established. DNS typically uses UDP on port 53 for queries, with TCP used for larger responses or specific features. This name-to-address translation is essential for routing and addressing on networks. The other options don’t perform this translation: a load balancer distributes traffic, SPAN is for traffic monitoring, and Unified Communications is a group of communication tools, not a protocol for resolving names to addresses.