What does a successful DNS lookup return?

A successful DNS (Domain Name System) lookup translates a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) into its corresponding IP address. The primary purpose of DNS is to resolve domain names, which are user-friendly identifiers, into IP addresses that networking devices use to communicate with each other within the Internet.

When a user tries to reach a website by entering its domain name into a web browser, the browser must first perform a DNS lookup to find the server's IP address. As a result, the returned IP address enables the browser to establish a connection to the server hosting the requested web page. This is essential for the functioning of the Internet, as computers communicate using numeric IP addresses rather than the domain names that humans find easier to remember.

The other answer choices do not correctly reflect the outcome of a standard DNS lookup. While MAC addresses are involved in local network communication and indicate how devices identify each other on a local segment, they are not relevant to the DNS process that operates at a higher layer (the application layer versus the link layer for MAC addresses). Similarly, the location of a web server is not a direct result of a DNS lookup; the server's physical location is not part of the DNS resolution process, which deals strictly with domain names and IP