DNS, email and security
Nameserver
A nameserver is a server that holds a domain's DNS records and answers questions about it. A domain lists at least two so one can fail.
What Nameserver means in practice
The registry's zone file lists, for each name, the nameservers that are responsible for it. A name with no nameservers is registered but does not appear in the zone, and does not work.
Changing nameservers moves the control of all the domain's records to another provider.
Why it matters
Because the zone only lists names that have nameservers, a name can be registered and still be "missing" from the list. That is one reason a snapshot cannot prove a name is free.
Try it
- Availability Checker Check up to 50 names at once: taken, available, or about to drop.
- Hosting Stats Who runs the DNS for 167 million .com names, and who runs yours.
- Domain Health Check Expiry date, transfer lock, DNS, SPF and DMARC email security, and blocklists for a .com.
Related terms
- DNS (Domain Name System) DNS is the internet's phone book: it turns a domain name into the addresses and settings that browsers and mail servers need to reach it.
- DNS provider A DNS provider is the company that runs the nameservers for a domain. It is often, but not always, the registrar or the web host.
- Zone file A zone file is the registry's list of every domain in an extension that has nameservers, with those nameservers. The .com zone has well over 160 million names.