Web hosting nameservers

[MobileTechie]

I'm being a bit thick here but can someone explain exactly how the DNS works with webhosting in this situation?:

I've bought a webhosting package with one firm and a domain name from another. I understand that I have go into my account for the firm who registers my domain name and change the name servers to those of my hosting firm. I've done this a few times and it obviously works. But what I don't quite understand is what exactly that does.

 

[MrUnknown]

The registrar acts as a master record for your domain. You are telling anyone who doesn't know the IP address of your domain to ask the DNS servers of your webhosting company.

I believe this is stored with the root DNS servers.

 

[thecoldone06]

crazysquirrel.com has a good explanation about how DNS works. Basically your domain provider points your domain name to the IP address where your website is located.

 

[MobileTechie]

The registrar acts as a master record for your domain. You are telling anyone who doesn't know the IP address of your domain to ask the DNS servers of your webhosting company.

I believe this is stored with the root DNS servers.

So it's not that the registrar is getting my hosting name servers as much as they are transferring the records to those servers to they become the zone holders?

 

[MobileTechie]

crazysquirrel.com has a good explanation about how DNS works. Basically your domain provider points your domain name to the IP address where your website is located.

Yeah I understand DNS pretty well having done the MS exams and worked with it at work but I'm not sure exactly what is happened when I supply my hosting firm's name servers to the registerting firm.

 

[MrUnknown]

So it's not that the registrar is getting my hosting name servers as much as they are transferring the records to those servers to they become the zone holders?

They are telling the root servers where to find the authoritative DNS server your domain. In the end, the point is to not query the root servers. From then on, it will query your NS to find out where WWW and such are located. I don't believe the root servers store this information.

edit: I think I made a confusing statement. They are telling the root servers the name of the authoritative DNS server is for your domain so the requesting DNS server can go there to find the answer. I am not sure if this statement is anymore clearer than the last one. lol.

 

[MobileTechie]

Yes that does make sense -thanks.