Speeding up DNS Operation
Every time you want to visit a site, for example to download a new version of a CyD Software Labs program, you enter the site's address as text data. In the case of our CyD Software labs, this will be www.cydsoft.com. But the actual site address is not the text name, but an IP address. An IP address (as used in the most common 4th version of the IP protocol) consists of four groups, each of three numbers, separated by periods.
Consequently, before the site can be loaded into whatever browser you are using, its IP address must be determined by its symbolic address (name). To get the IP address, the computer sends a request to the DNS server to translate the user-friendly name into the IP address. Only after the computer receives the IP address of the server of the site from the DNS can the connection be established and the site loaded into the browser. The address translation process can take some time, so the delay can be noticeable.
Why are DNS address-translation operations needed? Because humans are not particularly good at remembering numbers. It is much easier for us to remember meaningful text names, especially if they are associated with what we are interested in. Machines, on the contrary, use numbers in their operation. So, to build a bridge to connect humans and machines, the DNS system was designed to convert human-friendly text names into the numerical IP addresses used by computers.
When you visit a site for the first time, you - or rather, your computer - have to go through the DNS system. However, if you visit a site regularly, it would make sense to dispense with the DNS system.
The IP addresses for most servers on the Internet change very seldom, if ever. Generally, only underground servers disseminating illegal information change their IP addresses often, as their owners try to stay ahead of the law. Official and legal sites don't usually need to change their IP addresses. This fact can be used to eliminate the unnecessary requests to DNS servers.
All of the sites in my Favorites folder use IP addresses, rather than text names. Consequently, a selected site is connected to and starts loading immediately, without having to spend time on going to the DNS system to find out its IP address.
You can also do the same with your Favorites. Here is how:
- Launch Internet Explorer
- Select the Favorites item in the menu. Select the site for which you want to specify the IP, right-click on it. Select the Properties item in the context menu that appears.
- This will open the site's shortcut Properties dialog window. Remember or, even better, write down the site's address in the URL field. This is the part between the double slash and the single slash. For example, the URL shown in the image bellow is for http://www.cydsoft.com/, from which we need the www.cydsoft.com part.
- Execute the Start/Run command sequence and execute the cmd command (command.com for Windows 9x). This will open the command line window. Enter command ping Site Name (e.g., ping www.sydsoft.com) and you should see text similar to that below:
Pinging www.cydsoft.com [62.118.251.15] with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 62.118.251.15: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128 Reply from 62.118.251.15: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128 Reply from 62.118.251.15: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128 Reply from 62.118.251.15: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128 Ping statistics for 62.118.251.15: Packets: Send = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms
The four groups of digits separated by periods in the square brackets in the first line are the site's IP address. This is what you need to put in the space the www.cydsoft.com address occupies in the site shortcut properties windows. Consequently, the URL will appear as follows: http://62.118.251.15/ However, before you carry out this replacement, I recommend that you test the IP address by entering it in the browser's URL window and trying to load the site. If you run into problems loading the site, it may be due to the fact that the site has no static IP address, or that you are working via a proxy server that did not let the IP address through.
If executing the ping command produced an error instead of the address, this may be due to the fact that this command is not available on your network. This occurs in corporate networks where only certain protocols can access internet and the ICMP protocol used by the ping command is unavailable. In this case, you can use the site http://www.rus.org/cgi-bit/nph-ping.cgi. Just enter the address in the only field there, and click on the Enter button.
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