Domain name system (DNS) is a network service that translates domain names to IP addresses. There are different types of DNS servers, including primary master servers, secondary servers, and caching name servers. DNS abbreviates the domain name system and uses port 53 to resolve domain names to IP addresses through a process called address resolution. DNS has a hierarchy with the root level at the top, then top-level domains like .com, .net, and country-level domains, and finally subdomains that can be defined by users up to 127 levels.