DNS & subdomains

What is DNS?

DNS stands for Domain Name System. The system is a worldwide decentralised database of domain names built up hierarchically. It allows the computer and the server to communicate with each other. The website (in letters) that you visit is linked to an address (in numbers); DNS is a kind of digital phone book holding every website and its address. For example, https://digitalimpact.nl/ lives at the address  185.162.56.2

What is a subdomain?

A subdomain is an extra addition to an existing domain name. The domain and the subdomain are separated by a . (dot). Should a company want to create a separate page for their vacancies, for instance, they can create that as; werkenbij.bedrijf.nl. That way it is clear that you are dealing with a specific part of this company.  Subdomains are mainly used to point to different (large) parts of the same domain that have to handle a lot of traffic or data. A website with heavy data traffic can benefit from using subdomains, because a subdomain does not have to sit on the same server as the main domain. As a result, heavy traffic on both websites does not have to affect their speed. Each website has its own server and therefore more capacity to handle the requests.

If your company has its own intranet for its employees, that most likely sits on a subdomain. The intranet's data is processed on a different server than the company website, which is safer and also faster for both environments.