Airlink Raven GPRS - Manual (Page 26)

Cingular GPRS Raven User Guide Version 2.01 18
CHAPTER 5
DNS: Using Names
Instead of IPs
A domain name is a name of a server or device on the Internet which is associated,
generally, with an IP address. In a way, a domain name is like the street address of
your house with the phone number being like the IP. You can contact the house
either by going to the address (name) or by calling the phone number (IP).
Domain Name Service (DNS) is a network service which translates, or redirects,
the IP, allowing someone to contact that address via the name. A DNS server is
registered to handle all addresses of a particular domain (much like the post office
for a particular town or city is known to the post offices of all other towns and cities
and is authorized to give the addresses of locations in its own location).
Configuring DNS
The Raven has an internal DNS resolver with which it can query DNS servers in
order to translate names into IPs which it can then use internally. Generally, when
your Raven receives its IP from Cingular, it will also be configured to use Cingu-
lar’s DNS servers to use for resolving (or translating) names to IP addresses. In
that case, the only one which is not overwritten is the alternate DNS.