"A Domain Name Server resolves URLs (Universal Resource Locator)
to IP addresses. A request for http://www.cnn.com, for instance
would be forwarded to the local DNS server that would translate the
text-based URL to the IP address, 207.25.71.30 and then route the
http request to that location. This service is necessary in
Internet communications, or users would be required to specify IP
addresses all of the time...."
"Most likely DNS services in the form of BIND (Berkeley Internet
Name Daemon) has been included with your Linux
distribution...."
"In both the Windows NT environment and Linux, it is possible to
test the functionality of the local DNS server with the use of the
NSLookup utility. (Note that both NT and Linux servers will have to
be set to look to this new DNS as the primary DNS Server.)"