An Acronym for Domain Name Service -- the glue that binds the InterWeb? together.

DNS is the Protocol that takes you typing 'www.JRandomWebsite.com' into your web browser, finds the InternetProtocol address of the site (which would look something like 127.0.0.1).

Practical upshot? You can remember www.amd.com instead of 64.41.192.105. And then they can change the name to point somewhere else if they need to (if something like the CodeRedBungle happens).

DNS is usually provided by a program called named(8) - usually a version of bind, the Berkeley Internet Name Daemon. See our page of NamedNotes.

RFC1034 - Domain Names - Concepts and Facilities RFC1035 - Domain Names - Implementations and Specification