GEO-DNS, what is it used for, how can you speed up the site in conjunction with CDN?

What is DNS?

DNS is a server where store all domains and IP addresses of sites. Domain  is  the name of your site, for example, or The IP address is a combination of 4 digits separated by a period, for example:

What are the DNS servers used for?

To get to the site, you need to know  IP address, but it's inconvenient, because you should remember the name of a site, it’s easier than remember a combination of numbers. That's why there are DNS servers. When you navigate through a domain, your browser contacts the nearest DNS server, depending on the domain, issues an IP address, which you can already download the site. Your browser receives the address what you need and loads the page.

What is GEO-DNS for?

Imagine that your site is popular in America and Europe, but DNS servers are only available in Europe. Then users  want to enter your site from America will be forced to send a request to the nearest server, and since it’s very far away, it will take a lot of time to wait for the answer. That is, the download site will be very long. Therefore GEO-DNS servers are exist. When you place  a server in America, users will already contact it. The answer will be fast, and this affects the speed of loading your site.

How can you speed up the site with GEO-DNS and CDN?

Imagine the same situation as before, only with an existing DNS server in America. When you go to your domain by a user from America, you will contact the nearest server. It gives you the right IP, after which you will go to the server that contains the content of the site, to receive it, but since  servers with content are far away, you will not receive it again quickly. If you place both CDN servers in America that will store cached data, then the download will look like this:

  • The client browser sends a request to the nearest DNS server;
  • DNS server sends back the required IP address;
  • The browser refers to the nearest CDN server and to the main server;
  • CDN server transfers for cached content to the browser;
  • While it’s loaded for the cached content from the client,  missing files come from the main server;
  • The full site will download.

In this way, a large amount of time to load the site will reduce, since files from the main server will send much less.


Technical articles