Help - dns

DNS stands for Domain Name Service. This is the service that provides maps between hostnames and IP addresses. This check is performed by connecting to the DNS server at the remote machine and asking it to provide it's own IP address based on it's name. If the server is down, it won't be able to do this function, and an error will be returned.

If this service is down, many problems could appear. People will report slow networks or systems (due to timeouts while looking up addresses). People might not be able to connect to services or systems. In general if DNS is down you will run into multiple widespread problems.