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I have a basic understanding of how domains work, and would like to fill in some gaps.

Lets say you make a server request for google.com how do you get the IP Address?

Do you request your ISP, with a domain for an IP, that request the global DNS that requests your domain register?

Basically is this what happens?

client asks ISP what is IP for "google.com"?
ISP asks Global DNS what is IP for "google.com"?
Global DNS asks namecheap what is IP for "google.com"?
returns IP back up stack to client

or

Do you just send a http request packet with domain and your ISP just handles it? If so how?

and

What do domain registers like godaddy and namecheap really do?

I would love some resources and knowledge to be pushed my way. Thanks in advance.

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Did you have a look at the wiki page for DNS: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System ? Also I think this should be asked on another stackexchange site as it is not a programming question. – Nobody Mar 6 '12 at 20:25

migrated from stackoverflow.com Mar 6 '12 at 20:36

closed as off topic by John Conde♦ Mar 6 '12 at 21:25

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