What is a Nameserver ?

[Bryan]

What is a Nameserver ?

A nameserver is a computer program that can translate a human-readable name (such as "ns1.eukhost.com") into a numeric address (such as "92.48.xx.xx"). A computer running a program that converts names into appropriate IP addresses and vice versa. Nameservers are the servers that issue an IP address for a given domain name.

Explanation ::
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As we all know that computer understands binary language i.e any written word is converted into numbers and then read by computer. It was easier & possible, when we had to remember some couple of numbers for 15 to 20 servers however when it turned for us to remember the server IP's for more than 1000 servers, it was difficult to remember Server IP's for each server. It was then need to name these servers for our convenience so that we could identify them easily, just as we have names for human and that becomes easy for us to identify & recognize a person.

The intelligent work to convert the names into numeric address was done by REGISTRY. Registry maintains the records of the names and the numeric addresses assigned to name & vice-versa. The key role played by Registry was to connect a name to a server and so it is called as NAMESERVER i.e a human-readable name is connected to a numeric address by running the computer program and forcing the computer to understand the name on the internet and function accordingly.

It was the demand of the Registry that to locate a server by name on the globally connected internet ( NIC Records ), the server should have atleast two different names & two unique IP's. Hence, the server has atleast two nameservers for its identification on the internet ( NIC Records ) and these records are kept by the Registry.

Example ::
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Suppose that eUKhost.com is a domain name that needs to be connected to a numeric address - 92.48.xx.xx. The server 92.48.xx.xx should have atleast one additional unique IP address binded on this server so we can fulfill the terms of the Registry. Let us assume that the IP binded on the server is 92.48.xx.xx. We then supplied two nameservers mentioned as below to the Registry, these nameservers take atleast 24 to 48 hours for propagation all over the worldwide internet.

NAMESERVERS :
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ns1.eukhost.com 92.48.xx.xx
ns2.eukhost.com 92.48.xx.xx

The server 92.48.xx.xx is then identified on the internet by name through these two nameservers mentioned above. Now , if we have the DATA for the domain eUKhost.com stored on the server - 92.48.xx.xx and we want to fetch the information on the internet by the domain name, we then just update the nameservers for the domain eUKhost.com at the Registry and the Registry connects the domain name to the server through the NAMESERVERS and thus the DATA on the server is displayed by the name eUKhost.com.

Note ::
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Nameservers can be created only through the Registrar where the actual domain name has been registered. We can have multiple names as nameserver to one IP address but we cannot have multiple IP addresses assigned to one nameserver.

Example ::
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Multiple names for one IP :: Allowed.
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ns1.eukhost.com >> 92.48.xx.xx
ns1.yourdomain.com >> 92.48.xx.xx
ns2.mydomain.com >> 92.48.xx.xx

win1.eukhost.com >> 92.48.xx.xx
win1.yourdomain.com >> 92.48.xx.xx
win2.mydomain.com >> 92.48.xx.xx
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Multiple IP's for one nameserver :: Not Allowed.
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92.48.xx.xx >> ns1.eukhost.com
92.48.yy.yy >> ns1.eukhost.com
92.48.zz.zz >> ns1.eukhost.com

213.175.xx.xx >> ns1.eukhost.com
213.175.yy.yy >> ns1.eukhost.com
213.175.zz.zz >> ns1.eukhost.com