what would the internet and society be like if DNS was never created?

[Frost Sheridan]

this is just a fun alternate history thought experiment that popped into my head just now. imagine if DNS and domain names just never existed and the only way to directly access a website or other internet resource would be to enter in its IP address manually. how would society and the way we use the internet today be different if this was the case?

i’m imagining that everyone would probably keep a list of their friends’, organizations’, and businesses’ IP addresses much like how everyone currently keeps a list of important phone numbers in a contacts list. perhaps it would be common for entries in your contacts list to contain both phone numbers and IP addresses. maybe static IP addresses would be much more common and people would keep the same IP address for years on end, just like how people keep the same phone numbers for years on end. would ordering a pizza online involve looking up the IP address of a local pizza place in the phone book? or would google maps still end up being the primary method of finding a business’s website and contact info?

what do you guys think? would the internet of this alternate universe be wildly different from what we have now, or would the experience of the average internet user largely be the same, just with the occasional manual entry of an IP address here and there?

[starbreaker]

this is just a fun alternate history thought experiment that popped into my head just now. imagine if DNS and domain names just never existed and the only way to directly access a website or other internet resource would be to enter in its IP address manually. how would society and the way we use the internet today be different if this was the case?

i’m imagining that everyone would probably keep a list of their friends’, organizations’, and businesses’ IP addresses much like how everyone currently keeps a list of important phone numbers in a contacts list. perhaps it would be common for entries in your contacts list to contain both phone numbers and IP addresses. maybe static IP addresses would be much more common and people would keep the same IP address for years on end, just like how people keep the same phone numbers for years on end. would ordering a pizza online involve looking up the IP address of a local pizza place in the phone book? or would google maps still end up being the primary method of finding a business’s website and contact info?

what do you guys think? would the internet of this alternate universe be wildly different from what we have now, or would the experience of the average internet user largely be the same, just with the occasional manual entry of an IP address here and there?

I think that without DNS, there would be little need for ICANN (International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). Perhaps TCP/IP itself wouldn't have been particularly relevant, let alone Gopher or the World Wide Web or even FTP. I think we might still be dialing into computers to access BBSes, use Kermit, or send/receive data in bulk using UUCP (UNIX to UNIX copy).

But if TCP/IP had still caught on without DNS, along with FTP, Gopher, and the WWW, people would probably maintain their own hosts files where they would associate memorable names with IP addresses, especially if IPv6 had caught on, since IPv6 addresses are more complex than IPv4 addresses.

Absent DNS and domain names, IP addresses might become as commonly used as phone numbers. We might put our public IPs on business cards instead of phone numbers. And those without fixed IP addresses would still be second-class netizens, rather like those who don't have their own domains and personal websites are today: powerless and dependent on corporate-owned platforms.

[Memory]

The web wouldn't be as accessable, though it probably won't hinder anyone, as it's similar to having to type a phone number by hand.

Are we talking IPV4 or IPV6? If the latter would be the case, have fun...
Though bookmarking would be a more common technique then, an almost irreplaceable way to browse the favourite sites.

One great thing (or less great?) would be to type a random number in the browser and land on some random page. That's a bit harder to do when typing random words in the address bar. Lots of site names haven't been taken.

But spammers would stay spammers. Like this technique: gogle.com googl.com for example. Hope for typos to happen to redirect innocent people to spam sites.

The priciest domains would be four of the same digit (IPV4): 10.10.10.10 or 191.191.191.191 for example.

... people would probably maintain their own hosts files ...

That would be very messy, unless it would get united in one commonly used hosts file. And there we have ICANN and all the others again.
I've heard stories about people phoning John Postel, telling him the IP address of their site, and he maintained the global hosts file by hand.

And those without fixed IP addresses would still be second-class netizens, rather like those who don't have their own domains and personal websites are today: powerless and dependent on corporate-owned platforms.

I think the "dynamic DNS" would have to look like this:
127.0.0.1/starbreak/index.html
127.0.0.1/geese/index.html
127.0.0.1/melone/index.html

Or at least that's how a Neocities-like website would solve it.

[kurohaato]

I wonder if no DNS would mean a longer lifespan for ye olde phone books and address books. We need someplace to write down all these websites and email addresses after all.

There's also the question of how search engines would work. Two sites could have the same information but without the computer telling you which one is google and which one is goggle, the search engine could display the wrong (and most likely malicious) website for users.

[Memory]

Socially, I think we'd be remembering IP addresses like phone numbers or ICQ IDs. I think it's kinda fun.
Check out my website!! It's 69.63.181.15!