Windows Server® 2012 Unleashed

History of DNS

The Internet, as originally implemented, utilized a simple text file called a HOSTS file that contained a simple list of all servers on the Internet and their corresponding IP addresses. This file was copied manually from the master server to multiple secondary HOSTS servers. As more and more servers were added to the Internet, however, updating this file became unmanageable, and a new system became necessary.

In 1983, in direct response to this problem, the RFCs for the DNS were drawn up, and this form of name resolution was implemented on a large scale across the Internet. Instead of a small number of static HOSTS files, DNS servers formed a hierarchical method of name resolution, in which servers resolved only a certain segment ...