I had to explain why AT&T was slow due to DNS issues. I didn't make this up but read it somewhere (maybe here) - DNS is the equivalent of your telephone address

I had to explain why AT&T was slow due to DNS issues. I didn't make this up but read it somewhere (maybe here) - DNS is the equivalent of your telephone address book on your phone. When you "dial your mom", you just type her name and click the phone icon. Behind the scenes, you trust that your phone translates that into the correct phone number because, long ago, you told it what mom's phone number was. DNS is the same - intel.com translates to a specific IP address and, when AT&T is having DNS issues, it's akin to your phone being either (a) unable to find the phone number for "mom", or (b) the phone line at mom's is not responding properly.