Small Business Web Site Design – What’s in your name servers?
In one of my previous articles, I had briefly mentioned how the internet functions and how customers find out about your web site and your web pages. Today I’ll get in to a little more technical detail about what actually happens there.
Why is this important? Well, if you are not careful and one day decide to change your web hosting company, you could be in for a “pleasant” surprise. Read on to see what it is and how you can avoid this problem.
First a little background. When a internet user types in your domain name, the internals of the Internet actually translate that to a physical internet address. This Internet address is actually your web hosting company. How is this done? Well, to put it simply, this is done via domain name servers or what is lovingly called as DNS by techies. Essentially, all internet providers have tables that list out domain names and what IP addresses they correspond to. If they receive a name and don’t have the corresponding IP address, they will forward it to another machine and the process repeats till the IP address is located.
Now for the “tricky” part. When you register your domain (generally through a web host company), the name server (DNS) entries are listed as their DNS servers. So, in other words, your domain name is listed within their DNS entries. This is good, but WATCH OUT. Many web host companies do not easily give you access to changing this list.
Why would you want to change the name server entries? Well, if you want to change your web host, for one. The IP addresses have changed and now your domain name needs to point to the new web host (new IP address). Because of security reasons and because it makes sense, this can only be transferred from the “old” to the “new”. But if you do not have control and the ability to change your name server entries yourself, you could be in for a lot of trouble. Your old web host provider may not be so keen or may give you the run around.
This can be avoided if you have exclusive control over changing of the name servers. This is generally done when you register your domain name. So, as I had mentioned in one of my previous articles, along with controlling your domain name and ensuring it is registered in your name, you also want control of the name server.
A simple point but this will save a lot of grief in the long run.
Till next time,
Elvin Picardo
Delivering Net Results to Small Business
Author of numerous articles on web development and Internet Marketing for small business
10723 159th St, Surrey, BC V4N 3J1 Canada
http://www.netmedian.com
mailto: epicardo@netmedian.com
Why is this important? Well, if you are not careful and one day decide to change your web hosting company, you could be in for a “pleasant” surprise. Read on to see what it is and how you can avoid this problem.
First a little background. When a internet user types in your domain name, the internals of the Internet actually translate that to a physical internet address. This Internet address is actually your web hosting company. How is this done? Well, to put it simply, this is done via domain name servers or what is lovingly called as DNS by techies. Essentially, all internet providers have tables that list out domain names and what IP addresses they correspond to. If they receive a name and don’t have the corresponding IP address, they will forward it to another machine and the process repeats till the IP address is located.
Now for the “tricky” part. When you register your domain (generally through a web host company), the name server (DNS) entries are listed as their DNS servers. So, in other words, your domain name is listed within their DNS entries. This is good, but WATCH OUT. Many web host companies do not easily give you access to changing this list.
Why would you want to change the name server entries? Well, if you want to change your web host, for one. The IP addresses have changed and now your domain name needs to point to the new web host (new IP address). Because of security reasons and because it makes sense, this can only be transferred from the “old” to the “new”. But if you do not have control and the ability to change your name server entries yourself, you could be in for a lot of trouble. Your old web host provider may not be so keen or may give you the run around.
This can be avoided if you have exclusive control over changing of the name servers. This is generally done when you register your domain name. So, as I had mentioned in one of my previous articles, along with controlling your domain name and ensuring it is registered in your name, you also want control of the name server.
A simple point but this will save a lot of grief in the long run.
Till next time,
Elvin Picardo
Delivering Net Results to Small Business
Author of numerous articles on web development and Internet Marketing for small business
10723 159th St, Surrey, BC V4N 3J1 Canada
http://www.netmedian.com
mailto: epicardo@netmedian.com
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