Why understanding DNS is crucial to your web presence
Browsing through the variety of pages on the Web every day, to check our email or read the morning news, we rarely think of the mechanism that stays behind that magnificent virtual generator of information. While there is absolutely no need to bother yourself with such kind of technical stuff if you are approaching the web on the user’s side, you will do need to go a little bit under the surface of web browsing and emailing if you are managing or planning to manage your own web presence. In other words – you will need to get yourself acquainted with DNS and its basic functions and features.
DNS, or the Domain Name System, is the powerful backend Internet technology that makes possible the opening of a website when you type its address (i.e. domain name) in your browser or search engine. Its main mission, performed by a DNS server, is to translate a domain name, the human-friendly name of a website (for example ntchosting.com), to that domain’s corresponding hard-to-remember system name, the IP address (ntchosting.com belongs to 66.40.65.49).
So now you can see what a crucial role the DNS plays in helping you attract visitors to your site. If no conversion mechanism were available and users had to remember long complicated combinations to reach sites, would the web have been such a friendly place to visit today?
Now that you know how import the DNS is for the online availability of your website, you must be careful to always keep your DNS settings set correctly. Otherwise, your domain name will not be pointed to your website contents and your website will therefore go offline.
When you host your domain name on a web server you usually get a static IP (non-changeable IP) address for your website, which involves the use of static name servers, or static DNS, as well. Static DNS settings provide a stable service with no interruptions and can increase the overall speed of your website. In addition, you can update them anytime you need. For instance, if you decide to transfer your website to another hosting provider, you will need to change your domain name’s name servers, so as to point your site to the new host’s server.
The change DNS procedure can also become necessary if you wish your name servers to match your domain name. Then you will have to register your own private name servers. The DNS registration service allows you to register name servers that look exactly like your domain name. For example, if your domain is my-best-domain.com, then you can replace the registrar’s or the hosting provider’s default name servers with ns1.my-best-domain.com and ns2.my-best-domain.com. This DNS update service is widely used as a marketing technique for branding the businesses’ web presence and boosting the customers’ confidence in their image.
Tags: change DNS, DNS, DNS registration, DNS server, DNS settings, domain name system, IP address, static DNS