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What is a Name Server? | Find out what a Name Server is at Ballistic Domains

What is a Name server?

What is a Name server? - Article Details

To understand name servers, it is important to understand their need. So, let’s start with the basics. The internet is a network of inter-connected computers, and computers do not understand English or any other commonly used language. This means that www.YourDomain.com would mean nothing to a computer. When we type a domain name into the web browser, the computers actually do not understand what you are requesting.

For computers to understand your request, all domain names need to be translated into a string of numbers, called IP addresses. IP addresses look something like this: 202.157.34.10. It would not be as easy to remember a string of numbers as it would be to remember a domain name. That is why we have easy to remember domain names that humans can request and each domain name has a corresponding IP address that computers understand. But for this to work, every request for a domain needs to be somehow translated into its corresponding IP address that computers on the internet understand.

Just like we need a translator to understand an unknown language, name servers translate the domain names we request into its corresponding IP address, so that computers on the internet can understand the request. A name server is akin to a directory of domain names and their corresponding IP addresses. Name servers are also called Domain Name System Servers or DNS Servers.

A central registry stores information from all the name servers around the world. When a new domain is registered, it takes between 8 and 48 hours for this information to be updated in the central registry. Name servers around the world can then access the information from the central registry and access the corresponding IP address when the domain name is requested.

When you register a domain name, it needs at least two name servers. These are usually ns1.nameservername.com and ns2.nameservername.com, where “nameservername” is the name of the server. The first is the primary name server, while the second is the secondary name server and acts as a contingency back-up server that comes into effect only if and when the first name server is not responding.

Registering a Name Server

There are certain steps you need to follow to register a domain name. While these may marginally between different domain registrars, the broad steps are indicated below. Let’s say you want to register a com name server for your domain name. The following basic steps need to be followed:

• When you register a domain name, you usually get an account with the domain registrar. Log into your account with the registrar
• You will next see an option to manage your domain names within your account console
• Select the domain name for which you would like to register a name server. This will open a page for managing the domain
• On this page, select “add name server” under the name server details section
• Enter the name and IP address of the new name server followed by “Add”
• You should then get a confirmation message indicating that you have added a new name server Once registered, you can usually start using the new name server immediately.

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