DNS stands for domain name service. It can be thought of as a large, distributed database, containing all internet domain names and hosts, such as www.mywebsite.com. The reason for using DNS names instead of IP addresses is simple: meaningful names are much easier to deal with by human beings than numbers, such 212.202.126.70 If you are using a Dialin or DSL connection to your provider, the DNS name shown is probably a somewhat cryptic name, which is used by your provider internally to organize and manage the numerous dialin ports.