DNS explained
Your guide to pathway services
The DNS system is a hierarchy of name servers that contain a certain set of entries. Domain names are distributed across these name servers; this ensures that there is an 'even' distribution of load across various name servers that hold thousands of records.
Understanding parts of a domain name (with the example of www.qwert.us):
www . qwert . us
.us:
This section of a domain name is called a TLD or a top level domain. The top level domain (.us in this case) contains all records for domain names that end with .us. All TLDs are managed by root servers (root servers will be further explained below). Similarly, .ca contains all records for domain names that end with .ca.
Other servers, such as; .com, .org, .net, .eu, manage records for their respective domain names.
qwert:
In this example, qwert belongs to the .us TLD as the name suggests, so the .us TLD servers will have an entry for qwert.
qwert manages its own DNS records and this only applies to its own domains. For domains like cms.qwert.com and www.qwert.us; 'qwert' has records for 'cms' and 'www'.
When you type: ‘cms.qwert.us’, this is what happens:
- Your browser asks Pathway's DNS server to find out if it knows the IP address of cms.qwert.us.
- Pathway's DNS server may respond immediately with an IP address if it remembers the IP address for cms.qwert.com.
- If it does not, Pathway's DNS server looks at the domain name that is represented like this in the DNS system: cms.qwert.us. (notice the extra period? That is for the root server.)
The root server (represented by the ‘.’) contains entries for only top level domain (TLD) servers. Root servers only know where the .com servers are and respond with the IP addresses for the .com server. In other words, the root servers, represented by ‘.‘, allow you to locate the .com servers. The .com servers contain all entries for domains that end with .com.
.us servers contain an entry for qwert. These servers do not know where ‘cms.qwert.com’ is so they use Pathway’s DNS servers to fetch the IP address for qwert.us.
4. The DNS server queries qwert.us to find the IP address for cms.qwert.us. ;qwert keeps its own records on its DNS servers.
5. Finally, Pathway's DNS server gets a response from qwert's DNS server that gives it the correct IP address for cms.qwert.com.
6. This takes you to cms.qwert.us.
If you own qwert.us, our hosting control panel will allow you to manage your 'own' DNS servers. When users type cms.qwert.us on their browser, the 'qwert' DNS server will point your users to your mail server.
Managing your own DNS servers is completely optional, however, if you choose to, you will have the power and flexibility to make entries and manage your own DNS with HostPath.
You can continue using Pathway's DNS servers and request assistance from technical support to manage or make DNS changes on our behalf should you choose to move your mail and hosting environment to our new infrastructure.
