JasmineDesign

How does your browser finds a website or a email server?

The Domain Name System (DNS)

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a database system that translates a computer's fully qualified domain name (jasminedesign.com) into an IP address.

So in a more straight forward way, its like a phone book to lookup domain names to web server IP addresses.

Each device connected to the Internet has a unique IP address which other machines use to find the device.

DNS servers eliminate the need for humans to memorize IP addresses.

Once you have a Domain Name - Update the Name Servers

Once you have registered your domain name with a domain registrar.

You want to connect your domain name to your hosting and email.

To do this you need to update the NameServer (NS) records on your domain registrar account under NameServer/DNS.

You will be given two or four Nameserver addresses from your hosting account provider.

These NS records once updated point to where your domain zone file is. A domain zone file is a list of domain recorders for your domain name.

Tying a resource name to an IP address (The IP address tells it what server is providing that service).

Nameserver propagation: Please note that it may take up to 24 hours for a nameserver change to propagate fully.

Type of Domain Recorders

An A record maps a domain name to the IP (IPv4 Version 4) address of the computer hosting the domain.

CNAME records can be used to alias one name to another. CNAME stands for Canonical Name.

MX stands for Mail eXchange. MX Records tell email delivery agents where they should deliver your email.

A TXT record is a resource record used to provide the ability to associate text with a zone. This record allows domain administrators to insert any text content into DNS records.

An SPF record is a Sender Policy Framework record. It's used to indicate to mail exchanges which hosts are authorized to send mail for a domain.

DKIM stands for DomainKeys Identified Email. It provides a way to validate that an organization delivering an email has the right to do so.

DMARC stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance. It's an email authentication, policy, and reporting protocol that builds upon SPF and DKIM protocols to help email receivers determine if the purported message aligns with what the receiver knows about the sender.

Each domain record also has a TTL The time-to-live in seconds. This is the amount of time the record is allowed to be cached by a resolver.

Plus a lot more types, we might cover more if you want us to.

Secondary DNS Setup. The How and the Why

Setting up a secondary DNS server is a great way to improve redundancy, load balancing, and overall reliability of your DNS setup.

With a secondary DNS setup

You have a Primary DNS and a Secondary DNS configured then your Domain's NameServer records are updated to include your Secondary DNS server. Typically, you'll add an NS record for your secondary server. This will mean if the Primary DNS can't be accessed then the Secondary DNS will be available to answer the requests.

By setting up a secondary DNS, you'll ensure greater reliability and redundancy for your domain, improving uptime and performance.