There are 13 root name servers, they container info about which DNS is authorative (can tell you about) a given TLD (like .com or .de) then that repeats for every part of your query with that given server.
Something. Foo. Bar. Com. (<root name server>) ^ most of the time the same as. ^ DNS for baz or bar dns again ^ DNS for Bar ^ DNS server for the .com tld ^ the one unbound asks first, not part of the domain
The root server ips are known to unbound and static.
Then it will ask that server? Like I said unbound remove the middle man and somewhat increases privacy (debatable if only you use it but anyway)
pishadoot@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
If pi hole is configured to use another DNS it will still forward your request, just not to your ISP DNS server. Essentially you’re providing your DNS requests to a 3rd party, for a slight boost to performance (because they’ll have tons of stuff cached and can do recursive queries faster if you’re requesting a site not in their cache.) Your web pages will load faster because you don’t have an SBC trying to manually figure out what’s the IP for bigfuckdaddyhairbrushemporium.net
The downside is you’re exposing your DNS queries to a 3rd party and it’s a bit of a privacy hit, as the upstream DNS server you select has your public IP correlated with your DNS requests. Doesn’t really matter to most, but it does for some.