What is DNS?

DNS (Domain Name System) is the internet's address book. It translates human-readable domain names like tidalmail.com into machine-readable IP addresses like 192.0.2.1.

Without DNS, you would need to remember numeric addresses for every website and email server. DNS makes the internet usable.

For email, DNS does more than just translation. It stores critical records that tell other servers where to deliver mail, how to authenticate senders, and what policies apply to your domain.

Think of DNS as the harbor master's registry. It tells every ship where to find each dock and what rules apply at each berth.