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## 5. Notes about DNS name resolution

Everytime you connect to an ISP, it is necesary to have configured DNS name resolution, so your computer can find IP addresses associated to a computer name.

IP addresses of your DNS servers are placed into the `/etc/resolv.conf` file.

In a standalone computer connecting to Internet, this file usually contains the IP addresses of your ISP's DNS servers:

> `

>     #/etc/resolv.conf file for ISPname
>     nameserver 111.222.333.444
>     nameserver 222.333.444.555

> `

In a proxy/firewall computer, this file usually contains its own IP address (or the loopback address, 127.0.0.1), and this computer includes a DNS server that translates DNS names to IP addresses by querying external DNS servers.

> `

>     #/etc/resolv.conf file for local DNS resolution
>     nameserver 127.0.0.1

> `

Installation of a local DNS server is out of the scope of this document. There is a lot of documentation about this, but a good and quick approach can be found in the DNS-Howto (`http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/DNS-HOWTO.html`).

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