Network Troubleshooting for Beginners: The Internet’s Phone Book (DNS)

2025-09-14

Introduction

You’ve gone through all the checks from the previous articles:

• The computer has the correct IP address (ipconfig).
• The router responds (ping 192.168.1.1).
• Ping to a public address (ping 8.8.8.8) works.

Looks like the internet is fine! But the browser won’t open google.com. 🤔 Welcome to the most common cause of such issues — DNS failures.

What is DNS? 📖

The internet runs on IP addresses (e.g., 142.250.184.110), but people prefer names (google.com).