Article Surfing Archive

Nameservers are in many ways like a telephone directory. When you need to know someone's address or phone number, the first thing you do is pick up a telephone directory (or use the internet or by phone, these days). When you find the name of the person in the book, you're presented with their address and phone number (unless they're ex-directory). Nameservers are the telephone books of the internet.

When you need to get to a website, and you have the domain name - ie. Nunkey.com, the first thing you do is enter the name into your browser - Internet Explorer, Mozilla, etc. What people don't realize is that a domain name is not the actual address of the website. The same as someone's name isn't their address. A website's address is called an IP address. The nameserver links the two.

I can see you asking "what the heck is an IP address?". IP address stands for Internet Protocol address. It is a unique address given to each individual website and computer that is linked to the internet. It is in the form of xx.xx.xxx.xxx or similar, where the x's are a number. So it is the internet equivalent of a physical address. Nameservers will direct you to the IP address, and, ultimately, the website, just like a phone book.

There are many nameservers on the internet, just as there are many phone books and directories out there. They are held by web hosting companies. Hosting companies are akin to real estate agents who let or sell their properties - in the cyber world. Host companies use their own servers, and in essence, hold the address information for any domain name hosted with them.

When you enter a domain name into your browser, you are asking the 'phone company' (web host) to look into their 'phone book' (nameservers) and tell you the (IP) address of that site, so you can be redirected there. Upon registration, they usually take a day or two to be set up, and can be changed at anytime.

You may decide to own your own server, in which case you will be given your own nameservers. You will need to add these to any domains you own. By doing this, you effectively are in control - albeit automated - of the redirection of domain name-to-web site queries. With nameservers, a lot is done behind the scenes. So, unfortunately, people never really know how they work. I hope this clears it up for you!