For most people, the DNS is the most difficult piece to understand as it’s less tangible than a domain or hosting server. Remember the long string of numbers that is an IP address? We need a system that can tell browsers which IP address goes with your domain name, and the DNS helps us do that. We most often refer to the DNS settings when a client is ready to launch a website. Simply put, the DNS is like a directory that needs to know the locations of both the domain and hosting server; otherwise, the computers can’t communicate.