Member Avatar for akshayinbox

Hello.


I know what's a DNS/NAme server/etc. I read a step-by-step guide here:
SNIP

as I wanted to setup Intranet. I'm 16, a beginner. I want to know what's actually meant by nameservers.

I mean when my host says: "Set your domain names to ns1.host.tld ns2.host.tld or 123.x.x.x and 123.y.y.y" and suppose I only mention ns1... ns2... in my domain's name servers text fields: how does ns1... and ns2.... link my domain to their IP?

I know it must be fetching IP from DNS Records (iCANN and stuff). But, the thing is. ns1.host.tld is NOT a website, then how does it link my site with corresponding IP of server () ?

Most importantly, If I got a FREE DNS for my PC (an IP). How do I create this thing? and knowing its not a domain!

I just roughly wanna try to be a web host. I mean, how its like.


Thank you.
Please be as informative & simple as possible :-) since I'm a beginner.

Edited by happygeek because: link snipped
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A short practical primer that fills the gap left by the earlier replies: a nameserver name like ns1.host.tld is just a hostname used in DNS delegation — it is not a “website” in the browser sense. The parent zone (for example, .com) holds NS records that tell resolvers which hostnames are authoritative for a domain. If those hostnames live inside the same domain (ns1.example.com for example.com) the parent must also publish a glue (host) record that gives the IP for ns1 so resolvers can actually reach it.

How to make ns1.domain.com on a home PC (overview): own the domain; at the registrar create a “host/child nameserver” (often called a glue or register child nameserver) mapping ns1 to the public IP; run an authoritative DNS server on the machine (BIND, PowerDNS, Windows DNS, etc.) and create the zone for the domain; in the registrar set the domain’s nameservers to ns1 (and ns2). On the home network forward TCP/UDP port 53 to the server and ensure firewall/ISP allow it. For reliability, a second nameserver on a different IP/network is strongly recommended; many people avoid running production nameservers at home and instead use registrar or third‑party DNS hosting.

Quick tests and common traps: check delegation and glue with these commands:

dig NS domain.com +short

dig @ns1.domain.com domain.com SOA +short

dig +trace domain.com

Common issues: no glue record (circular lookup), ISP blocking port 53, only one nameserver (bad for resilience), or using CNAMEs at the zone apex (not allowed). This expands on ’s basic NAT/static‑IP points and corrects ’s reversed wording: forward lookup maps name→IP; reverse lookup maps IP→name. For learning, a home setup is fine; for any public site, prefer registrar or managed DNS for stability.

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Member Avatar for akshayinbox

NOTE: This is when I'm using WAMP / Apache+PHP+mySQL installed on my Windows PC

Member Avatar for akshayinbox

Please help as i need to know this. In a nutshell, If i get a static ip from say dyndns.com and host my website on my pc, i'll need to set my domain's name servers to what since i got a static ip. But i need something like

thanks

Member Avatar for lorryfox

Hey, you need to do a few things....

1. Get a static IP from your ISP (dyndns might be a way around this) but thats a whole lot of other stuff.
2. Get your websites DNS records updated so that your domain name () is pointing at the IP address you got from your ISP
3. On your router you need to add a NAT rule, so that any traffic coming to your router requesting your website is re-directed to the PC that you have your website on.

Basically you dont need to host the name servers your self, leave that for the Internet guys. Because everything on the Internet has an IP address, but we want to refer to everything as a name, we use name servers / services to request the IP address for a given host / domain name.

for example... say if you want to go to www.google.com. You enter this in your browser, your browser then uses a DNS server or name server (same thing) to get the IP address of where the web site for www.google.com actually is.

I think that should get you on your way. you'll probably have a load more questions now but hopefully your a bit closer to your goal.

Cheers, Lawrence

SNIP

Edited by happygeek because: fake sig snipped
commented: please use signature facility for your advert links -2
Member Avatar for akshayinbox

Lawrence, Thanks a lot. I understand that all already knew that stuff.

There's one simple think I can't get.

Suppose, I get a static IP/ Dynamic DNS service. I can make my domain point to my IP.
But, what if I want to point it to ns1.domain.com & ns2.domain.com (where domain.com is anything I desire, say my domain name itself?)

I want my domain hosted on my PC, but it'd be good, if my domain points to my PC using ns "name" links (ns1...) rather than IP.

Just wondering.

What about making ns1.domain.com (Subdomain) point to IP. And pointing domain.com to ns1.domain.com (subdomain). Should this work?

Thanks!

Member Avatar for smferoz

Hi,

DNS is defined as Domain Name Server.And this DNS is divided into 2 one is Forward Lookup-Bias and another is Reverse Lookup Bias.In Forward lookup bias it converts IP address to Hostname and in Reverse lookup bias it converts Hostname to IP Address.To see the conversion one has to goto command prompt and run command nslookup and type in either ip address or hostname and it converts as mentioned above.

Member Avatar for jingda

Nice info except you revived a dead thread.

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