DNS is short for domain name system. It’s at the core of every domain without which nothing on the internet as you know it would work.
Every time you browse the web, send an email or make audio/video calls – it relies on the DNS system to know where to send your request to.
Think of the DNS as an operator. Let’s say you want to access a website and type in www.extreme.co.tz. Your computer asks your router, which in itself asks some other servers like your ISP’s which then asks your domain system — “where do I find this website?” — and gets an IP address, a server where to direct your request to.
All that happens in just a split of a second!
This is why it’s crucial to ensure your domain is setup correctly, and to do that – the very first thing you come across while registering a domain is called nameservers.
Nameservers are DNS servers that are associated with your domain. It’s basically where your DNS records are published; and anyone who wants to find your site, send you an email, asks these servers where that request should be forwarded to.
A domain must point to atleast two nameservers, which should also be distributed geographically. In case one goes down, is not responsive or simply can’t provide the necessary information timely… then the other one can take up and serve the request otherwise you end up facing all sort of issues like email delivery problems and website not reachable problems.
Most free DNS services, including the one Extreme Web Technologies provides you for free with every domain – doesn’t support redundancy. In fact, many low cost hosting providers don’t provide redundancy for DNS.
If you plan to have especially emails configured on your domain, you should check with your provider to ensure your nameservers are redundant.
You’re better off hosting your site with a reputable provider like Extreme Web Technologies, or at the least, our Basic Starter plan to take advantage of redundant DNS servers, website redirection as well as under construction pages.
Not sure if your domain nameservers are redundant? Reach out to us on [email protected] with your domain name and we’ll be happy to check it for you.
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