What is resolve?
Resolve, in tech, means turning a name or reference into something the computer can actually use. The most common example is DNS resolution, where a website address like “example.com” is converted into an IP address like “93.184.216.34” that computers use to locate each other on the internet.
Let's break it down
- You type a URL into your browser.
- Your computer asks a DNS server, “What IP belongs to this name?”
- The DNS server looks up its records and replies with the correct IP address.
- Your computer then connects to that IP to load the website. The whole back‑and‑forth is called “resolving” the name.
Why does it matter?
Humans find words and names easy to remember, but computers need numbers (IP addresses) to talk. Resolution bridges that gap, letting us use friendly names while the network works with numbers behind the scenes. Without it, we’d have to memorize long strings of digits for every site.
Where is it used?
- Web browsing (turning domain names into IPs)
- Email delivery (finding mail server addresses)
- Mobile apps that call APIs by host name
- Any software that references resources by name instead of raw numbers, such as cloud services and internal corporate networks.
Good things about it
- Simplicity for users: remember “google.com,” not “172.217.14.206.”
- Flexibility: change the underlying IP without changing the public name.
- Load balancing: a single name can point to multiple IPs, spreading traffic.
- Central management: administrators can update DNS records to redirect or block sites.
Not-so-good things
- Dependency on DNS servers: if they go down, name resolution fails and services become unreachable.
- Latency: each lookup adds a small delay before a connection starts.
- Security risks: attackers can spoof DNS responses (DNS poisoning) to redirect users to malicious sites.
- Caching issues: outdated cached records can cause users to reach the wrong server until the cache expires.