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Nameservers (NS)

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Derek M.
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Shortcut to this page: enom.help/name-servers

  1. What is DNS?
  2. What are nameservers? 
  3. Which nameservers am I currently using?
  4. How do I change nameservers?
  5. How do I change DNS information (zone files, host records)?
  6. What are Enom's default nameservers?
  7. What are propagation delays?
  8. Why do nameservers appear in different order at the Registry?
  9. How do I manage nameservers that are based on my domain?

1. What is DNS?

DNS stands for Domain Name System. It is like a big phone book that allows your computer to look up the IP address of other computers (usually web servers). When you type the address "www.google.com" into your web browser, your computer uses DNS servers to look up the IP address of the google web server. Once it has the IP address, your web browser can contact our server and ask for the web page.

2. What are nameservers? 

Nameservers lets the rest of the world know where to go when they are looking for your website or deliver an email to your domain.  Each domain usually has two nameservers.  Some domains may have eight or more.  Enom's nameservers look like: 

dns1.name-services.com
dns2.name-services.com

Nameservers usually hold DNS records for thousands of domains. Each domain usually have one or two A records that specify where the website is being served from.  If there is email service going through the domain, the domain will also have a MX record.  

Enom provides free nameservers to use for domains managed by Enom.  Alternatively, you can use nameservers maintained by a third party.  Some web hosting provider might want you to use their nameservers instead of Enom's.  In that case, you can change the domain's nameservers to them.  If you have email service for the domain, make sure the nameservers you are switching to knows about the MX record for the email service.

Suppose someone wants to visit the website adamrocks.live.  Their computer would use the Domain Name System to look up which registrar adamrocks.live is registered under.  Since it's registered under Enom, it would ask Enom which nameservers are the correct nameservers for this domain.  Enom replies with the name server dns1.name-services.com.  The computer then goes to dns1.name-services.com and ask for the A record. dns1.name-services.com looks at the DNS records it has stored and find the A record 162.88.61.23.  The computer then goes to 162.88.61.23 and ask for the HTML files and images that makes up the website.  

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3. Which nameservers am I currently using?

To find out your current nameservers, you can use a website like G Suite Toolbox Dig.  Enter just the domain name in the search.  For example, if your website is www.acmeinc.biz, enter acmeinc.biz 

screenshot_2.png

In the example above, the nameservers for acmeinc.biz are ns1.systemdns.com, ns2.systemdns.com, ns3.systemdns.com   These are not Enom's nameservers. 

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4. How do I change nameservers?

Nameservers can be changed at either the access.enom.com portal or the Enon/Enomcentral/Bulkregister portal.  Before making the change, however, make sure you've copied over the host records from the current nameservers.  Otherwise, your website or email service will go down.  

  1. Locate the domain you want to manage.
  2. Click DNS Server Settings, or on the Manage Domain menu, click DNS Server Settings.
    dnsservers.png
  3. In DNS Server Settings, first choose either Our Servers or Custom.
    a. Choose Our Servers to use our nameservers.  While using our nameservers, you to control your host records from your account with us. ourservers.png
    b. Choose Custom to enter other nameservers.

Name server changes take 24 to 48 hours to take effect due to propagation delays. 

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5. How do I change DNS information (zone files, host records)?

Please see How to: Change DNS Host Records

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6. What are Enom's default nameservers?

dns1.name-services.com
dns2.name-services.com
dns3.name-services.com
dns4.name-services.com
dns5.name-services.com

You can choose "Our Servers" to have the domain use Enom's default nameservers.

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7. What are propagation delays?

For efficiency, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) store name server and host record information in a DNS cache, and update that cache only every so often. A propagation delay is time between when a change is made to a domain's nameservers, and your local ISP next updates its DNS cache, thereby allowing to you see the change's effects. 

Enom's guideline for how often we'd like others to refresh their DNS cache for our records, is set to hourly. Whether or not such guidelines are followed by ISPs is strictly voluntary.

Please allow time for propagation to complete after changing the assigned nameservers, or changing host records for a domain.  Until propagation is complete, you will not be able to see the effects of those changes.

Propagation can take up to 48 hours, world-wide. The rate depends on your ISP. This is a true case of "up to", meaning it can finish in seconds, minutes, hours, or days.

If you switch to a different network, you might be able to see the changes you made.  For example, if you update the nameservers on your desktop computer, you can switch your phone from the wifi network to the cellular network to see the changes. 

You can also use sites like the DNS Checker to check how far the changes have propagated. 

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8. Why do nameservers sometimes appear in a different order?

The order of the name server have no effect on how they actually work.

In the Domain Name System, sets of nameservers are inherently not ordered.  Due to this, there's no predictable order to how nameservers are queried. DNS queries can also be answered by any of the nameservers assigned to a domain. The order is of no relevance.

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9. How do I manage nameservers that are based on my domain?

This section is for people who want to run nameservers based off of their own domain name.  For example, if you have the domain acmeinc.biz and you want to setup the nameservers ns1.acmeinc.biz and ns2.acmeinc.biz, you would follow the instructions in this section.  However, setting up your own nameservers is a very advanced step and is not necessary for most people.  For the majority, changing the nameservers to the web host's nameservers or using Enom's default nameservers are sufficient.  

If you really are sure you need to setup nameservers on your domain, visit the Register a name server page by:

  1. Sign into your account.
  2. At the top of the site, on the Domains menu, click Advanced Tools.  
  3. Next, click Register a Name Server.

register.png

Here, you can manage your nameservers, by registering new ones, and modify existing registrations. Occasionally, they can also be deleted.

update.png

How do I register new nameservers?

Before you can use a name server based on your registered domains, you must inform the registry of its name and IP, by registering it.  To do so:

  1. On the Register a Name Server page, locate the section labeled Register a new Name Server.

  2. Enter the new name server's name, and then IP, into the fields.
  3. Click the button Register Name Server.

How do I check name server status and IP Address?

You can check the status of an existing name server for one of your domains, using the below two steps: 

  1. On the Register a Name Server page, locate the section labeled Check the status of a Name Server.
  2. Enter the name server's name and click the button Check Name Server.

Only a few TLDs, such as .COM and .NET , will return the IP address as part of a status check.

How do I update a name server IP?

Updating the IP address of an existing name server for one of your domains requires its name, the current IP, and new IP. If you have all of this information, you follow the below steps to make the update:

  1. On the Register a Name Server page, locate the section labeled Update a Name Server.

  2. Enter the name server's name, current IP, and new IP into the fields provided.

  3. Click the Update Name Server button.

How do I delete nameservers?

Where allowed by the registry, you can delete nameservers based on on of your domains via the below two steps:

  1. On the Register a Name Server page, locate the section labeled Delete a Name Server.

  2. Enter the name server's name, then click the Delete Name Server button.

Please be aware that most registries don't allow deleting a name server which is currently, or recently assigned to any domains. This means name server deletion does not commonly succeed.  Feel free to still take your name server out of operation, even if you can't delete it at the registry.  When out of operation long enough, registries will typically remove nameservers on their own.

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