FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions regarding DNS services (to be updated periodically):
What exactly is DNS?
The Wikipedia entry for this currently states:
The Domain Name System (DNS) associates various sorts of information with so-called domain names; most importantly, it serves as the “phone book” for the Internet by translating human-readable computer hostnames, e.g. www.example.com, into the IP addresses, e.g. 208.77.188.166, that networking equipment needs to deliver information. It also stores other information such as the list of mail exchange servers that accept email for a given domain. In providing a worldwide keyword-based redirection service, the Domain Name System is an essential component of contemporary Internet use.
DNS is key to internet infrastructure, in fact without DNS the internet wouldn’t exist as we know it.
In simple, easy-to-understand terms, the answer is this — DNS consists of computers on the internet that tell your web browser where to go when you type http://www.yooter.net in the address bar. When you send an e-mail to someone {at} yooter.net, it tells the message how to get to its recipient. Basically, DNS is the routing system for the entire internet.
Why must all domains list two name servers?
Because no one machine can be expected to be up and running 24/7/365 (or 366 in a leap year, of course). If the primary name sever is down, queries can be answered by the secondary name server.
The reason this is a concern, and one of the primary reasons Yooter DNS Hosting exists, is because most web hosting or DNS hosting firms have both name servers located on the same rack, in the same data center, plugged into the same power source. It takes only a single event at this one location to cause your website to vanish for an extended period of time, even if your web server itself is up and running.
Can I use more than 2 name servers?
Yes, and it’s suggested that you do. We recommend having at least three (3) name servers in various locations, preferably in various different regions. Yooter DNS hosting provides DNS servers in multiple physical locations throughout the United States.
With Yooter DNS, rather than having a single event at a single site causing your website to disappear for extended periods of time, an event would have to take place at several separate physical locations across the country.
What is secondary DNS hosting?
Secondary DNS hosting is, simply put, adding more name servers in other locations to your primary name servers which are hosted somewhere else.
For example, some of our clients use have their primary name servers hosted either themselves or by their web host, and then use Yooter DNS as a secondary DNS provider. Their DNS structure might look something like this…
Primary NS: ns1.somewhere.com
Secondary NS: ns2.somewhere.com
Tertiary NS: ns1.yooter.net
Quaternary NS: ns2.yooter.net…and so on, and so forth, depending how many name servers the client wishes to have.
NOTE: It is not necessary for the client to have his secondary NS hosted himself, as in the above example. To purchase secondary DNS from Yooter, the only requirement is that there be one primary name server hosted elsewhere (i.e. somewhere other than Yooter DNS).
Why is it so important to have a multi-site DNS solution?
In the example above, four separate servers in a row in three separate physical locations (or four, if the primary and secondary are also multi-site) would all have to go down at the exact same moment for this client’s website to vanish completely. Only one of the four would need to stay up in order to keep things running.
In contrast, if your DNS is hosted by two machines in a single place, both running from the same power source, it would take only one power-outage or surge at that location to cause your entire website to go offline.
This illustrates perfectly why a multi-site DNS service is so critical.