Nameserver

A nameserver is a server running DNS software that holds and serves zone data—records like A records, MX records, CNAME records, and NS records—for one or more domains. It translates human-readable domain names into IP addresses and other information when queried.

How it works

Domains are organized in a hierarchy. Each domain delegates to one or more authoritative nameservers, which you specify at your domain registrar. When someone visits your domain, a recursive resolver walks the DNS tree—querying root servers, then TLD servers, then your authoritative nameservers—to fetch the answer. Your nameserver responds with the records you've configured, which are cached by resolvers according to each record's TTL.

Nameservers can be primary (you edit zone records here) or secondary (they replicate from primary via zone transfer). Large setups use multiple nameservers across different locations for redundancy.

Example

You own example.com and set two nameservers at your registrar:

• ns1.exampledns.net
• ns2.exampledns.net

When someone resolves example.com, the resolver queries those nameservers, which return your configured A records, MX records, and other zone data.

WarningIf your domain's nameservers are subdomains of the domain itself (e.g., ns1.example.com for example.com), the parent zone must include glue records—direct A/AAAA records for the nameserver—or resolution can fail. Also, use at least two nameservers in different networks for redundancy; a single nameserver is unreliable and violates best practice.

Use the DNS lookup tool to query nameservers and verify zone records are live.