Special software is used to convert from the IP address to the domain name and back again. Two primary software services perform this activity:
- Domain Name Service (DNS) , sometimes called Domain Name System, uses distributed database provided by a top-level domain name server to look up either the domain name (to retrieve its IP address for routing) or the IP address (to get the domain name for display). The IP address assigned to a domain name can change for many reasons. Using DNS to find the IP address from the database allows the entire Internet to adjust and find the new site. The database is maintained by each level of the DNS hierarchy informing those beneath it in the IP structure of the new additions or deletions.
- Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) also uses a database and is used with Microsoft networks to resolve Windows or Windows NT host names. Its one advantage over DNS is that it records and maintains lookup values for dynamically assigned IP adresses.
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