Authoritative DNS Servers For Your Domain Print

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The authoritative DNS servers for domain names are also known as the domains name servers or nameservers, but what do they do and how can you find out which ones are used for your domain?

In this article we'll explain all, in less time than it takes to make a cup of tea!

What Is An Authoritative Name Server

These are the DNS servers that host a copy of all the DNS records for your domain and are usually considered the DNS servers that 'own' this data . Typically, one or more of these servers will be allowed to make updates and deletions to your domains DNS records. They are an essential resource in allowing devices (computers, mobile phones, etc) to discover the IP address for your domain (e.g. mydomain.com) and any object under that domain (e.g. www, mail, etc.).

How Do I Find My Domains Authoritative DNS Servers

The easiest way to find the authoritative DNS servers for you domain is to use the nslookup command available on most operating systems. To do so:

  1. Open a command prompt on your computer
  2. Type nslookup
  3. Now type, set type=ns
  4. Next enter the domain that you wish to know the name servers for (e.g. farbyte.com) or a specific host (e.g. www.farbyte.com) and hit return

An alternative is to use publicly available 'whois' services available via your web browser. There are plenty of websites out there that provide this service, a quick search for 'whois' will lead you in the right direction. For .co.uk domain names you should use http://www.nominet.org.uk.

That's all there is to it :)


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