What is nameserver?

 A Nameserver is a server which translates a domain name to an IP address.

The actual address of a host is not the domain name, rather an IP address.

Who you use a domain name (e.g. In your web browser or an email address) the network layer will try to communicate to the host via an IP address.

To be able to find the IP Address, it first contacts the domain registrar of the domain and asks "who is the nameserver".
Once it has the (IP)address of the nameserver and contacts the name server and says .. hey buddy .. what is the IP Address of the domain xyz.
Once it gets a response it conducts its business directly with the IP Address.
This process is called NS lookup.

Of course above is very simplified. In a lookup there might be intermediary name servers (DNS Servers) involved which will respond with the IP Address while going all the back to the actual name server.

Many internet service providers have their own name servers. When your browser asks for the IP address of a domain (again simplified) your ISP nameserver will check if it answered that query before and if so, how long ago. If it was only "Recently" it will return to you whatever it found out on the last request (possibly from a different user). If the information is too old it will check with the next name server in the chain.

Hope that makes sense .. could go into details on different types of records held in a name server, TTLs, delegation, etc .. but that might be too much ;-)

Nameservers can be explained as a part of the DNS system (large database for devices and IP addresses attached to these devices). The nameservers use this information which resides in the DNS system to translate human-readable domain names to machine-readable numerics which are called IP addresses.

It acts as a software application that provides a network service to enable responses when the queries are made to directory service.

It changes the human-readable text-based query into a numerical system based identification or component which are often called IP addresses.

It handles the queries related to various locations of various domain name services. Nameservers being the fundamental part of the Domain Name System allows us to use a domain name in place of IP addresses.

Domain Name System (DNS): Which is better, Bind or PowerDNS?

I've used both for about 12 years, although these days I try to avoid BIND.

I do like BIND but by comparison PowerDNS gives you much more choice and some cool features. The main ones are:

• Choice of back end - you can use BIND-like flat files if you want, but there's also sqlite, mysql, postgresql, ldap and more
• Choice of replication - you can use master/slave like BIND does, but you can also just replicate across your back end, e.g. by replicating your mysql database between your various nameservers
• Ability to make alterations without restarting - this is very useful if you have a large number of zones and anticipate a lot of changes, as BIND has to load these in every restart
• Customisation of caching - you can cache queries and packets - increase if you want less load on your back end, decrease for more responsiveness.
• Supermaster - one of my favourite features - you can say to a slave "That host there is your supermaster" then whenever a new zone is added to the supermaster the slave will create the zone on itself and request an AXFR. In Bind you have to create a new slave zone on every secondary.

Some negative things I've heard people say about PowerDNS:

• "I don't want my data in MySQL - that would slow it down" - in that case use caching or use a flat file format - PowerDNS gives you the choice.
• "I don't want to have to replicate my databases to update my secondaries - that sounds unreliable" - in that case use regular master/slave replicate or setup a supermaster - again you have the choice with PowerDNS.
• "X,Y or Z is so easy with BIND" - really, then try PowerDNS with SQLite3 or MySQL with PowerAdmin (web based admin tool). It really doesn't get a lot easier.

If I point the nameservers of a domain (used to add private nameservers) to another host, will that mess the private nameserver records under that domain?

If you point the nameservers of a domain that is used to add private nameservers to another host ,it will create a huge mess to the private nameservers under that domain .

This will happen because the IP of the DNS nameserver of the domains (under your domain )will point to the IP that you have .But the IP that your hosting server will show can be something different or it can also be null .

To solve this problem you need to go the edit DNS zone of your hosting server and make entries of your domain and IP corresponding it .By doing this the IP’s will match every where and no issues will be generated to the private nameserver records under that domain .

How do I change the nameserver of my domain?

The way you change the domain nameserver may vary slightly from one provider to the next. I’ll show you how to do it with GoDaddy and Google Domains

Changing GoDaddy Nameservers

To change GoDaddy nameservers you need to:

1. Log into your GoDaddy account manager

2. Click the manage button next to domains

3. Find the domain you want to change the nameserver for, click the little gear icon and select manage DNS

4. Go to settings and click manage under nameservers

5. In nameserver settings select the custom radio button and click edit nameservers link

6. Fill in the fields under edit nameservers and click ok

7. Save

8. Wait 24-72 hours for the DNS propagation to complete

Google Domains

To change Google Domain, you need to first create a resource records with your DNS provider and use at least 2 nameservers (Google recommends using 4). Once you have those, here are the steps to change your nameserver:

1. Sign in to Google Domains (it might not be available in some countries)

2. Select your domain name

3. Click DNS in the navigation panel to the left

4. Select use custom name servers under name servers

5. In the name server field, enter your custom name server

6. If you have more name servers, click the + button to add more

7. Click Save

8. If, at some point you want to restore your Google Domains name server, simply click restore the Google Domains name servers under DNS.

How come a nameserver has a name? Shouldn't it be just an IP address? What resolves the name of a nameserver into an IP address?

It is just like every domain has atleast two name nameservers which every hosting provider gives you when you buy domain from them. The second part of the question asks us why shouldn’t it be just an IP address..

Ok so adding to this i would say that even i thought of why not just any Domain pings directly to IP address..The answer is very simple, it’s just like you in every domain cPanel it is necessary to fill at least two nameservers which is mandatory to proceed further..

And according to my opinion answer to the third part of the question ..It is the nameservers which resolves into the cPanel of Nameservers in DNS Zone to ping IP address. It is the childname server which resolves nameserver in Domain Cpanel. These nameservers are resolved into DNS Zone where various records like A Record, MX Records, NS Records and cName Records are present which are responsible for mailing, configure, installing and to run a website..