Can You Access Websites with Just an IP Address? Exploring DNS

At some point, you’ve likely accessed the internet by typing a domain name like google.com or facebook.com. These names are easy to remember, and you probably don’t have to think too hard about them, right?

Think of it like your contact list. When someone gives you their number, you save it with a name that helps you remember them (e.g., Debre Susan — Software Dev, Canada). Imagine if you had to save only numbers instead of names — you’d end up dialing random numbers trying to find Kelly!

Remembering IP addresses (like phone numbers) to visit websites was really tedious and time-consuming. Thankfully, engineers — being the brilliant problem solvers they are — came up with a solution: the Domain Name System (DNS). DNS acts like your contact list or phone book. It made browsing the web much easier because we no longer had to memorize IP addresses. Instead, we could focus on using human-friendly names.

While I could dive into the technical details of how DNS resolves these names, my research led me to an intriguing question: Can you visit an IP address without knowing the domain name it’s tied to? At first, this seemed like a clever starting point for this article, but along the way, I realized something surprising — DNS isn’t as simple as the “phone book” analogy suggests.

The modern web has grown in complexity. Technologies like shared hosting, load balancers, content delivery networks (CDNs), and VPNs have transformed the relationship between IP addresses and domain names. This evolution makes DNS much more than a simple phone book — and that’s where I’ll be focusing my attention.

For most people, the phone book analogy is enough to understand DNS. But if you’re curious or have a technical background, journey with me — and don’t forget to bring some snacks ;).

Shared Hosting

Servers — essentially computers without screens — are expensive to own and maintain individually. To make hosting more affordable, companies purchase these servers and share their resources among multiple individuals or businesses. This setup is called shared hosting, and it allows several applications or websites to coexist on a single server.

Accessing an application on a shared server can be done in two ways: through a unique IP address or a domain name. However, because IPv4 (the most widely used version of IP addresses) has a limited number of available addresses, domain names have become the standard.

When you visit a website hosted on a shared server, your browser sends a request to the server. This request includes an HTTP header with a key calledHost, which specifies the domain name you’re trying to access. The server uses this information to determine which application or website to serve—since multiple websites on the same server share the same IP address.

Load Balancer

As the name suggests, a load balancer distributes traffic — or “balances the load” — across multiple servers. This ensures no single server gets overwhelmed by user requests, making websites more reliable and responsive.

With load balancing, multiple servers can handle traffic for a single domain name. When you type in a domain, the load balancer decides which server will handle your request, oft

en based on factors like server load or proximity to the user. Most of the time, users are completely unaware of which server is serving their request.

This system not only improves performance and reliability but also simplifies navigation. If users had to rely on IP addresses instead of domain names, managing this process would be far more complicated — imagine needing a list of all possible IP addresses for every server handling a website!

Content Delivery Network (CDN)

As websites grow and attract users from around the globe, delivering content efficiently becomes a challenge. For example, if a user in Australia is accessing a website hosted on a server in Canada, the long distance can cause noticeable delays — referred to as latency.

This is where a Content Delivery Network (CDN) comes in. CDNs solve this problem by setting up servers in various locations worldwide. These servers store cached copies of website content and deliver it to users from the server closest to them. This dramatically reduces latency and improves the user experience.

Each server in a CDN has its own IP address, which varies depending on its location. Asking users to memorize the IP address of the nearest server would not only be impractical but also confusing — especially as servers are frequently added or changed to optimize performance. Domain names make this process seamless, automatically routing users to the right server without them ever needing to think about it.

Conclusion

Domain Name Servers are no longer just the “phone book” of the web, mapping IP addresses to domain names. As the internet has evolved in complexity, DNS has become a cornerstone for scaling, improving performance, and driving innovation — while still embracing the simplicity of human-readable domain names.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article and picked up some new insights along the way!