The Anatomy of a DNS Zone File – Part Two: What are NS Records and Why Are They Important to DNS?

What-are-NS-Records-Important-DNS

An NS record or (name server record) tells recursive name servers which name servers are authoritative for a zone.  Recursive name servers look at the NS records to work out who to ask next when resolving a name.

You can have as many NS records as you would like in your zone file.   The benefit of having multiple NS records is the redundancy of your DNS service.  It is important to note that in order to get the most redundancy out of your NS records, they should be hosted on different network segments.  If they are not hosted on different networks segments and the network goes down, your DNS goes down with it. Check out No-IP Plus Managed DNS if you are interested in redundancy and reliability for your domain.

NS records help to ensure that all of the domains on your server are available at all times. Multiple NS records ensure that your customers are able to reach your site each and every time without any problems, even if one or more of your nameservers are unreachable. (Again only if they are hosted on different network segments.)

An example of this is if your business is located in an area that is hit by a natural disaster and your web servers at that location are down, your NS records will point to an additional name server that is hosted elsewhere (where mother nature has not wreaked havoc) and the customers are still able to reach your site and will never suspect anything is awry.

Another great example is if your website is attacked by a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack your entire website will not be down. Traffic will be routed to the other name server location that has the backup of the primary name server.

Please see the following example of the NS records for No-IP.com
no-ip.com. 73002 IN NS ns1.no-ip.com.
no-ip.com. 73002 IN NS ns2.no-ip.com.
no-ip.com. 73002 IN NS ns3.no-ip.com.
no-ip.com. 73002 IN NS ns4.no-ip.com.
no-ip.com. 73002 IN NS ns5.no-ip.com.
no-ip.com. 73002 IN NS ns1.no-ip.com.

Check out Part 1 and Part 3 of this series:

The Anatomy of a DNS Zone File: SOA Record

Anatomy of a DNS Zone File Part Three: MX Records

 

Questions or Comments? Please leave them below.

 

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No-IP loves animals! We love them so much that we are offering domain transfers from Go Daddy to No-IP for only $9.95!  So, what are you waiting for? Transfer your domain to animal friendly No-IP.com today! Enter Promo Code domain995 upon checkout!

Why Reliable DNS is Important To Your Business

Imagine, it’s 8:05am on a Monday morning. You log in to your computer and open up your email client, you read through a couple of emails that you received over the weekend and then you decide to reply to one of them, you hit send and…. NOTHING. The email won’t go out! You frantically pick up your phone and dial your IT department.

Across the country, a potential client who found your web URL on your Facebook page or some other type of advertisement wants to visit your site and see what you have to offer.  They try to type your web URL into their web browser, and…. NOTHING. So, they do a quick Google search and find one of your competitors.  Your competitor’s site is working fine, so they spend their money on that site.

Do these scenarios sound like something you don’t ever want to happen? Well, you better make sure that you have reliable DNS.

DNS is essential for many reasons. When a customer wants to visit your website, they type your Fully Qualified Domain Name, www.yourbusiness.com, into their web browser.  Without DNS, your customers would have to remember the specific IP address (i.e. XX.XX.XX.XX) that your website is listed at.  This could be very difficult, especially if your website has more than one IP address that points to that specific URL.  IP addresses can vary across the globe.  The DNS does all the work by redirecting the users to the correct web address, and making sure they are reaching the site that is hosted nearest to them, thereby ensuring that your customers are connected to your site the fastest way they can be and that traffic is balanced across all of the servers.

The location of DNS servers is important in ensuring 100% uptime. We deploy name servers across the globe at geographically unique datacenters using different tier 1 bandwidth providers to ensure a natural disaster or connectivity outage does not disrupt our robust DNS network.

DNS helps direct your emails to the proper servers, redirect customers to the proper domain and ensures that they reach your site the fastest and best way that they can at all times, even if mother nature decides to rear her ugly head.

How has having reliable DNS helped you in the past?

Common Support Questions and Answers

Common Support Questions

Q: I have No-IP Mail Reflector and a sender is blocked by the RBL I have selected, What should I do?
A: Reflector is configurable and will allow a person or domain to be added to an exception list.

Q: My monitoring system rolls over, but does not affect my host.
A: The host has not been configured. Disable the check, modify the host with your offline option and reenable the monitoring check.

Q: I am using a redirect and my host resolves to a strange IP.
A: This is correct. The first resolution is to a redirect server owned by No-IP, the second request is made by this server combining your IP:port_number.

Q: I purchased No-IP registration for $24.95, but whois says it is not registered.
A: It appears you have purchased DNS without registration. Contact No-IP directly.

Q: When I ping my hostname I get a “connection timed out” error, what’s up with that?
A: A ping request is a valid test for connectivity to a network, but not DNS resolution. So as long as you see that the name resolves to a number, DNS resolution is occurring.

Q: Am I able to get a static IP address?
A: No-IP does not offer static IP addresses, we provide you with a name that will resolve to your current IP address and can be kept updated through the use of our free software.

Q: What’s wrong with the DUC? I keep getting notices that my host will expire.
A: If your IP address does not change within 30 days, then the host is considered abandoned and removed from the account. The DUC checks for a NEW IP address, if the IP hasn’t changed, then no update is submitted. When you upgrade to Plus or Enhanced Managed DNS these notifications are disabled.

Questions, Concerns or Comments? Leave them below!

Having issues with your No-IP service that our Support Center doesn’t cover? Open a Support Request.

No-IP New Hire!

No-IP is excited to welcome our new hire, online marketing manager, Natalie Goguen. Natalie comes to us from the travel/hospitality industry where she was an online marketing manager.

“I’m excited to be a part of the No-IP team. I am looking forward to expanding our marketing efforts and further building the No-IP brand,” stated Natalie.

Welcome Natalie!

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