When you add a device to a network, it doesn't necessarily know how to talk to other devices. And it's not a language or a protocol thing. It's that it doesn't know the addresses of the other devices. So in order for a device to communicate with another device, they have to know each other's addresses. And every device has at least two addresses. The first is called a MAC address, M-A-C, or Media Access Control. It is a unique identifier for the network component inside a device. So it is unique. It is a fingerprint.

So it is unique. It is a fingerprint. But there's another kind of address that is more commonly used. It's called an IP address. And this is much more like a postal address. An IP address would be how we would actually send data to another device, either on the same network or onto another network, because IP addresses allow us to route data across the roads and the highways that is our network and internet. But of course, who wants to type out that IP address? Who wants to even try to remember that in order to go to Google's homepage?

But of course, who wants to type out that IP address? Who wants to even try to remember that in order to go to Google.com's homepage? No one does. So instead, what we have is called DNS. It stands for Domain Name System. And it essentially translates a human-readable name to a machine-readable IP address. So in a lot of ways, you can think of it as a phone book. I can ping Google.com, and behind the scenes, my computer is going to make a request to a DNS server to retrieve the IP address for Google.com. Now, just because Google here is a website doesn't mean that only websites can have names.

a DNS server to retrieve the IP address for Google.com. Now, just because Google.com here is a website doesn't mean that only websites can have names. Because on a LAN, almost every device is going to have a name. It might be assigned by the manufacturer. Or in the case of a computer, we can change that. The default naming scheme of Windows starts with desktop-. But this is the name of my machine right here. But if I ping this computer, it is going to translate that to, well, this address, which is my IPv6. But the important thing to take away from this is that a device needs to have an address.

is my IP6. But the important thing to take away from this is that a device needs to have an address. And in fact, it needs to have two addresses. It's going to have a MAC address, because in order to be a network device, it has to have a MAC address. From there, it's going to have an IP address. And that IP address is what's going to allow your devices not only to communicate with one another, but to communicate with other devices on other networks. But then to make all of this addressing stuff easier, we have DNS, or domain name system, which works as a phone book.

But then to make all of this addressing stuff easier, we have DNS, or domain name system, which works as a phone book. So we can assign a name to an IP address to make it easier to access certain websites or devices. And many times, the devices that we want to interact with are servers, which we will discuss in the next episode.