The infographic assumes no DNS records are cached at any point. Once caching is involved, the situation becomes more complicated.

Click for a larger view. Download PDF Version of Understanding DNS Lookups

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<div align="center"><a href="http://www.rackaid.com/resources/help-understanding-dns-lookups-an-infographic/"><img src="http://www.rackaid.com/files/resources/dns-lookup-900.png" alt="understanding DNS lookups" height="550px" width="501px" border="0" /></a><br /> Created by Audrey Lyman at <a href="http://www.rackaid.com/resources/help-understanding-dns-lookups-an-infographic/" target="_blank">RackAid</a></div>

Our technical team has already found this useful in assisting clients as part of our server support services.

More Ideas

Please share your ideas for more infographics. We have a few more on DNS and email issues in the pipeline.