Demystifying Nameservers: What Are They & How Do They Work?

You start your workday the way you do everyday – grab a cup of coffee and head to your desk to catch up on the latest happenings in the digital world.

You enter the URL ‘socialsnackbar.co.za’ into your address bar and voila, your request has been processed and you’ve reached the website.

But from the moment you hit that enter button to the moment the website appeared in your browser, an array of interesting things happened.

In this article, we’re going to take a look at what exactly happens in those moments inbetween. We’re going to cover things like:

• How the internet works
• Nameservers
• How nameservers work
• DNS records

So, without any hesitation, let’s jump straight into it starting with taking a look at how the internet works.

How the internet works

In its simplest form, the internet is a bunch of computers connected together. Often referred to as ‘the net’, the internet is a global network that consists of many networks.

Here’s what’s actually happening behind the scenes:

1. When you type a website URL into your browser or click on a link, your browser sends a request to the Domain Name System (DNS) to find the IP address associated with the domain name.
2. The DNS responds with the IP address of the server that hosts the website.
3. The browser sends a request to the server at the IP address to retrieve the website content.
4. The server receives the request and searches for the requested files in its storage.
5. If the requested files are found, the server sends them back to the browser in the form of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, and other media.
6. The browser receives the website content and renders it on your screen.

What are Nameservers?

So you’ve heard the term ‘nameservers’ being thrown around before, but where do they fit in within the context of what we’ve already spoken about?

Well, nameservers play a vital role in connecting a URL with a server IP address.

These nameservers look similar to any other domain name, here’s an example:

• ns1.examplehost.com
• ns2.examplehost.com
• ns3.examplehost.com

As opposed to helping serve a website, nameservers assist in the direction of traffic. Let’s take a look at a real world example:

Say you want to visit the Social Snack Bar home page. Simple enough, right? Head to your address bar, plug in the URL and you’re there.

But behind the curtain, what’s actually happening looks a little like this:

1. You type socialsnackbar.co.za into the address bar
2. Your browser sends a request to that domain’s nameservers
3. Nameservers then respond with the IP address of the website’s server
4. Your browser requests the content from the above IP address
5. Your browser receives the content and renders it in your browser

Nameservers vs DNS records

Nameservers and DNS records are two related but distinct concepts.

Nameservers, as we’ve covered, are servers that are responsible for translating domain names into IP addresses, allowing web browsers to access the website content hosted on a server.

DNS records, on the other hand, are entries in the DNS system that specify how domain names should be resolved to IP addresses. DNS records are typically managed through a domain registrar or web hosting provider, while nameservers are often managed separately by the same or a different provider.

While nameservers and DNS records work together to ensure that a website can be accessed by users, they are distinct entities that serve different functions in the overall domain resolution process.