Do I Have To Use These
Setting your domains name servers are basically just letting your domain Registrar know where to send DNS requests for your domain to. So technically it is not required that you use our public name servers in order to have your domain name hosted with us.
If you already have access to directly modify your DNS records for your domain, you can simply modify your DNS records so they directly point to the IP address of the server youre using with us.
So in our case from the earlier example with InMotionHosting.com we saw the IP address we were getting back from our public name servers was 199.250.205.41.
If we update the NS records for InMotionHosting.com to use ns1/2.MyCustomDomain.com instead of our public name servers. As long as we still have an A DNS record pointing to 199.250.205.41 on those name servers as well, the website would still be pulled from the same physical web server.
What Are They Used For
Domain name servers are used
- To covert domain names into respective IP addresses and locate the web address hosted on a specific web host.
- To divert traffic that comes on your domain name to a web server at a specific web host.
- To make a website or an online business visible on the internet.
- To help your customers, locate your business.
- To safeguard data from being accessed by unwanted people as these DNS servers are monitored on a daily basis and consist of latest security patches.
- For breaking domain names into subdomains.
If you have any doubt regarding this write-up, feel free to contact and drop comments in the section below.
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How To Assign A Nameserver To A Domain
Whenever you purchase a hosting package, the provider will provide you with a set of Nameservers, a Primary Nameserver and a Secondary Nameserver which will look like this:
You might find it at other places depending on your hosting provider and you might also receive it in the welcome email from the hosting provider.
You have to copy these Nameservers, and enter it into your domain management interface like this:
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So What Is A Domain Name
A domain name is your websites equivalent of a physical address. It helps users find your site easily on a browser instead of using its IP address. Domain names consisting of a name and an extension are a key part of the internet infrastructure.
Here are some facts related to the question of what a domain name is:
How Can I Get A Free Website Domain
Web hosting providers like Hostinger offer free domain registration with some of their hosting plans. By using this method, you will be able to create a website faster than by purchasing the domain name separately.
Another way to get a free website domain is by using a website builder or CMS to create a websites subdomain. WordPress.com and Blogger are two examples of platforms that offer this service. With this method, users can own domains like test.wordpress.com instead of test.com.
However, free subdomains often come with minimal features and tools. Meanwhile, getting a free domain with a hosting service will offer the same freedom as purchasing one.
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Protecting Yourself From Dns Attacks
There are two things you should do to avoid becoming a victim of a DNS settings attack. The first is to install antivirus software so that malicious programs are caught before they can do any damage.
The second is to pay close attention to the appearance of important websites you visit regularly. If you visit one and the site looks off in some waymaybe the images are all different or the site’s colors have changed, or menus don’t look right, or you find misspellings or you get an “invalid certificate” message in your browser, it might be a sign that you’re on a faked website.
Getting The Best Of Your Dns Server
A DNS server allows you to communicate with your computer so you can visit different places on the web. It’s important to understand how to troubleshoot DNS server errors and what your best service options are so you get the fastest and most reliable web browsing experiences.
Originally published Mar 1, 2021 7:00:00 AM, updated December 03 2021
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For example, heres what it looks like to change the nameservers at a domain registered through .
You can see that the domain is originally configured to use the Google Domains nameservers:
But if you check the Use custom name servers box, you can change your domains nameservers to use your hosts nameservers instead :
Speaking of other providers, you can also use third-party nameservers. The most popular example here is Cloudflare. If you use the Cloudflare service, youll point your domains nameservers to Cloudflare, rather than your web host or your domain registrar.
Add A Txt Or Mx Record For Verification
Note
You will create only one or the other of these records. TXT is the preferred record type, but some DNS hosting providers don’t support it, in which case you can create an MX record instead.
Before you use your domain with Microsoft 365, we have to make sure that you own it. Your ability to log in to your account at your domain registrar and create the DNS record proves to Microsoft 365 that you own the domain.
Note
This record is used only to verify that you own your domain it doesn’t affect anything else. You can delete it later, if you like.
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You Manage Your Dns Records Through Your Nameservers
The important thing to remember is this:
if you change your domains nameservers away from the default nameservers at your domain registrar, youll control your domains DNS records at your nameserver provider.
For example, if you use the nameservers from Amazon Route 53 that Kinsta provides, youd then edit your individual DNS records from your Kinsta dashboard, not your domain registrar:
On the other hand, if you use Cloudflares nameservers, youll manage your DNS records through the Cloudflare interface .
Dns Caching And Time To Live
Because of the scale of the Internet, its not enough to have a system of Authoritative Name Servers and refer each client to the correct Name Server. With only Authoritative Name Servers operating, each DNS query must start with a recursive query at the root of the DNS system, which would place enormous strain on the DNS Root Servers.
To improve efficiency, reduce DNS traffic across the Internet, and improve performance, DNS Cache Servers are used. These servers store DNS query results in a cache, and can serve it immediately in response to a query, without requiring recursive DNS queries.
The DNS records are stored in cache for a period of time called time to live, defined in the configuration of each DNS record. Time to live is very significant because it determines the freshness of DNS records. Caching will not be effective if users receive stale DNS data, while the IP of the hosts has already changed.
DNS records can be cached at several layers:
At all levels of DNS caching, if a resolver does not have the A records for the query , but it does have NS records for the Authoritative Name Servers, it queries the Name Servers directly, without performing a recursive query. This prevents lookups from the DNS Root Servers and TLD Name Servers, and helps the DNS query resolve much more quickly.
The following are common DNS records:
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Sigred: A Wormable Dns Flaw Rears Its Head
The world got a good look recently at the sort of chaos weaknesses in DNS could cause with the discovery of a flaw in Windows DNS servers. The potential security hole, dubbed SIGRed, requires a complex attack chain, but can exploit unpatched Windows DNS servers to potentially install and execute arbitrary malicious code on clients. And the exploit is “wormable,” meaning that it can spread from computer to computer without human intervention. The vulnerability was considered alarming enough that U.S. federal agencies were given only a few days to install patches.
How To Transfer A Domain Name
Domain transfer is the process of changing a domains registrar. As domain registrars offer different support and maintenance, some users transfer their domain for a better service. All transfers go through WHOIS.
Before transferring a domain name, make sure that:
With Hostinger, users can perform a domain transfer from any domain registrar. If you meet all of the requirements, move forward with the checkout process. The new server will request a domain transfer fee, costing afew dollars more than registering it.
Enter the EPP code from your current provider and confirm the transfer. The process can take from 4 to 7 days. If you face a problem while transferring a domain, contact the customer support team.
Note that some extensions are not transferable. However, there is also the option to point the nameservers to a particular hosting company if a registrar doesnt accept certain TLDs. You will need to access your DNS records to do this.
There are different ways to find nameserver information. With Hostinger, your nameservers are available on the left side of your Dashboard.
Pro Tip
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Domain Name Syntax Internationalization
The definitive descriptions of the rules for forming domain names appear in RFC 1035, RFC 1123, RFC 2181, and RFC 5892. A domain name consists of one or more parts, technically called labels, that are conventionally concatenated, and delimited by dots, such as example.com.
The right-most label conveys the top-level domain for example, the domain name www.example.com belongs to the top-level domain com.
The hierarchy of domains descends from right to left each label to the left specifies a subdivision, or subdomain of the domain to the right. For example, the label example specifies a subdomain of the com domain, and www is a subdomain of example.com. This tree of subdivisions may have up to 127 levels.
A label may contain zero to 63 characters. The null label, of length zero, is reserved for the root zone. The full domain name may not exceed the length of 253 characters in its textual representation. In the internal binary representation of the DNS the maximum length requires 255 octets of storage, as it also stores the length of the name.
How The Tld Knows Its Respective Authoritative Name Server
When we purchase the domain name from the registrar for example GoDaddy. In the registrar, we can set the authoritative nameserver that the domain should use. We can get details of authoritative nameserver when we buy a web hosting plan from companies like Hostgator.
Once the authoritative nameserver details are registered in the registrar, the registrar tells the TLD nameserver managing authority registry to update the TLD name server with the details of the authoritative nameserver. Now the TLD name server knows which authoritative nameserver will provide the exact IP of the requested website.
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The Different Types Of Dns Server
Once a DNS query is entered, it passes through a few different servers before resolution, without any end user interaction.
This is a server designed specifically to receive queries from client machines. It tracks down the DNS record and makes additional requests to meet the DNS queries from the client. The number of requests can be decreased with DNS caching, when the requested resources are returned to the recursor early on in the lookup process.
This server does the job of translating the human-friendly host names into computer-friendly IP addresses. The root server accepts the recursors query and sends it to the TLD nameservers in the next stage, depending on the domain name seen in the query.
The TLD nameservers are responsible for maintaining the information about the domain names. For example, they could contain information about websites ending in .com or .org or country level domains like www.example.com.uk, www.example.com.us and others. The TLD nameserver will take the query from the root server and point it to the authoritative DNS nameserver associated with the querys particular domain.
Flush Your Dns Cache And Reset Your Ip
If the problem isnt your browser, firewall, or router, then it could be your DNS settings. Specifically, it could be your DNS cache, which stores IP addresses and other DNS records of frequently visited domains in order to fulfill DNS queries more quickly. Flushing your DNS cache can help resolve the DNS error message.
There are several ways to do so, depending on the operating system of your device. If youre using the latest version of Mac OS, then start by opening Finder. Then click Applications > Utilities > Terminal and type in the following command: sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder.
Once you enter your password, you should see a message confirming that the DNS cache has been reset. You can then try to visit the website again in your browser.
For a complete guide on flushing DNS for Windows and other operating system, check out our post Flush DNS: What It Is, How to Do It & Why You Should.
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What Is A Dns Server
When you type or any domain name into your browsers address bar, your browser asks a particular type of server where to find the site.
These servers known as DNS servers are dedicated to answering any and all Domain Name System queries.
You can think of the DNS as the address book of the World Wide Web. It contains the IP address for every site on the internet. Browsers need that information to communicate with origin or CDN edge servers to access the original website .
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