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Nameserver and DNS record is one of the most important things in the website or internet world. But many of us don’t know these. Today we will try to know the details about Name Server and DNS records.

What is a Nameserver?

A nameserver is a part of DNS (Domain Name System) that works as a server and saves some data records. It points a domain to a certain server. As humans, we like to remember domain names, not IP addresses. But a computer doesn’t understand the domain name, computers work through IP addresses. Specific IP addresses are assigned to the domain for different websites. Nameserver determines which domain is assigned to which IP address or which domain will work for which IP address. DNS servers can be compared to a phonebook, as the phonebook has a phone number opposite each contact detail, DNS Server has IP addresses for the domains. The nameserver’s task is to point to that DNS server once someone queries a domain name on their browser.

There are 4 types of nameserver:

  • Recursive resolvers
  • Root Name Servers
  • TLD Name Servers
  • Authoritative Name Servers

Recursive resolvers

Recursive resolvers mainly work as an interconnection between all servers. A Recursive resolver is a primary-level server that works as a middleman between the Authoritative server and the user. This server is used at the ISP level to store different types of cache for their user.

Root Name Servers

Root nameservers are nameservers of the root zone of a DNS. These types of name servers respond directly to root zone record requests through a list of authoritative servers for specific top-level domains. It’s the first step to convert a domain to an IP address.

TLD nameservers

TLD Name Servers maintain the information of common domain extensions. Such as .com, .net, .co etc. In the case of dot com (.com) domains, the TLD Name Server of dot com (.com) domains maintains the information of all the domains that have dot com (.com) at the end of the URL in the world.

Authoritative Nameservers

Authoritative Nameservers are the main DNS name servers. It does not respond from any cache server. Its response from its own data. Authoritative Nameservers store many types of DNS records for a particular domain such as A record, CName record, PTR Record, etc.

What is a DNS record?

DNS records are as important as name servers. DNS records are used to point a domain to different servers according to different needs. DNS records specify where a domain has to point for certain tasks.

Some common DNS records are:

  • A record: A record usually points a domain to an IP address.
  • CNAME record: A Canonical Name or CNAME record is a type of DNS record that associates an alias name with a real or canonical domain name. A CNAME record is usually used to point a domain or subdomain to another hostname. For example, www.yourdomain.com is redirected to yourdomain.com with CName records.
  • MX record: MX record is usually used to send an email directly to the mail server.
  • TXT record: TXT record is usually used to store any text data. It is also needed for any type of domain verification

There are also some other DNS record types too:

  • NS record: NS record is also an important DNS record that holds the name server for a DNS entry.
  • SOA record: SOA record basically stores important admin information of the domain.
  • SRV record: SRV record determines the specific port for a particular service.
  • PTR record: PTR Record is used to connect a specific IP address to a domain. Which is the same as the A record.

Reading the article, I hope you now have a basic idea about Name Servers and DNS Records. Now you can use Nameservers and DNS records through your needs.

You can change your domain nameserver from your client area following this guide: How to Change Domain Nameservers? and manage DNS records following this guideline: How to manage DNS records?

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