1Phase 1 of 12

URL bar to IP address

When you visit a website like this one, before rendering anything, the browser must determine the actual location of rendermodes.com on the internet.

https://rendermodes.com

Animation loop, let it play, or use the controls.

You type https://rendermodes.com and hit Enter. The browser splits that into three pieces: the protocol https, the host rendermodes.com and the path /. But computers don't route by names, they route by numbers, so the browser still needs an IP address before it can talk to anything.

First it checks its own cache. If the name isn't there, it asks a DNS resolver, which works through a chain of servers, each one pointing closer to the answer:

1
Root servers.
“I don't know rendermodes.com, but the .com servers will. Here's where to find them.”
2
TLD servers.com
“I don't have the IP either, but I know which server is in charge of rendermodes.com. Ask them.”
3
Authoritative serverrendermodes.com
“That's me. The IP is 192.0.2.42.”

The browser caches that final IP, so the next time you visit, this whole chain is skipped.

Chrome DevTools Network tab Timing panel showing the DNS Lookup, Initial connection and SSL phases for a request to www.rendermodes.com — You can see this for real in Chrome DevTools → Network → any request → Timing. The first colored bar, "DNS Lookup", is exactly this phase.

Takeaway

Before any data can move, the human-readable name has to be turned into an IP address. That translation step is DNS.