What Is A Domain Name Server (DNS)?
Every website has a unique IP address which is how computers identify them on the world wide web. But because it will be inconvenient, if not impossible to remember the IP addresses for all the websites we want to visit, the domain name system was invented. Domain names are how we access websites.
Name servers are a part of the domain name system, where the database works like a phone directory for computers. It converts a domain name to a machine-readable IP address. This database is manned by two major organizations- the Internet Corporation For Assigned Names And Numbers (ICANN) and the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).
What Is The Relevance Of Domain Name Servers?
Whenever you type a domain into your browser, the DNS database provides the IP address of the domain to your browser. Without the DNS database, the string of numbers would be what you would have to impute to visit the website.
What Are The Types Of Name Servers?
There are two major types of name servers: custom and vanity name servers
Custom name servers
A custom name server makes it possible for you to run your own name server to respond to DNS requests for your domain. This type of name server is a requirement for dedicated server and VPS accounts who would like root access on their server.
Vanity name servers
A vanity name server is a name server that is branded to a domain of your choice, in place of the public name server. Vanity name servers make your website appear more professional by hiding the use of a public name server. With vanity name servers, you are only masking the hostname of your public name server. The physical servers and IP addresses handling your website’s DNS request is still being done by the public name server.
What Are The Benefits Of A Private Name Server?
Having a primary name server is beneficial for a couple of reasons:
- You can easily change your hosting provider without updating your name servers.
- Primary name servers are easier to remember as they are the same name as your domain.
- It can go a long way to increase the sense of security your customers have with your business as your name servers matches the website domain.
- If you are a reseller, private name servers can hide this fact as you can rebrand your hosting under a domain name.
How Does Domain Name Server Work?
Domain name servers are the web equivalent of a phone directory. They maintain a list of domain names and the corresponding Internet Protocol (IP addresses). The work of a domain name server is relevant because even though domain names make it easy for web users to access a website, the machines sending access requests do so using IP addresses.
The data on all domain name servers across the web is housed under a central registry. This central registry provides Internet service providers and web hosts with a regular schedule of updated DNS information.
This means that when you type in an address, your Internet provider searches through the DNS database to find the machine-friendly address, in order to direct your search to the correct website. After you register a new domain name, it would have to go through a period known as propagation. This is when your domain name is updated on all the DNS servers across the world.
Registering Your Own Name Server
On average, you typically will not need to register the name server attached to your site. However, the use of a custom name server might be necessary in some instances For example, you may own a domain name that was purchased from a different hosting company than the one you currently use. Setting up a custom name server will develop a more individual brand identity. Most reseller server host will also need custom name servers in order to individually brand their web hosting services.
The exact steps to registering your name server would depend on your registrar – however, you would typically need the IP addresses of every name server provided to you by your web host, as well as the subdomains that they recommend (-typically NA2 and NS1). After your custom name server has propagated, it would work in a similar manner as your hosts. By the way, a good company to purchase a domain name from is Freeparking.
Creating Primary Name Servers
This is not the same as registering a private name server. In order to create a primary name server, you will first need to register your private name server with a specific domain registrar. After this is done, you can follow the following steps:
- Check to see if you have the right IP address: You can find them in your email – particularly, the welcome email address you get after buying the domain name. If you can’t find it, then you should get in touch which your registrar or host.
- Register your name servers with your preferred domain registrar keeping in mind that the process would differ depending on the registrar.
- If you are having trouble setting it up, you can go through your domain account and use “register DNS’, ‘creates DNS’ or add DNS as a guiding light -to check that you are in the right place, you should get a field of inquiry request in your IP address. When all that is completed, your primary name server should be set.
