\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe internet is everywhere. In another, more concrete way, it\u2019s inside massive, anonymous buildings and beneath city streets, marked by special manhole covers and cryptic, colorful symbols.\u201d -\u202fIngrid Burrington, Wired, introducing her \u201cField Guide to Internet Infrastructure\u201d project<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
So you probably already know there are domain names on the internet. And you\u2019re probably somewhat aware that there\u2019s this thing called DNS that associates domain names with IP addresses<\/a>, cname records, mx records, txt records, etc. \u201cThe phonebook of the internet.\u201d<\/em> But how does any of that work anyways?<\/p>\n
Well, name servers do the heavy lifting. They run specialized software that hosts a set of Resource Records<\/a> for services associated with your domain name. Basically, it\u2019s a hidden distributed machine-oriented directory assistance for your domain.<\/p>\n
Under the hood, these DNS records are kept in something called a DNS Zone File<\/a>. The contents of this Zone File<\/em> are what are hosted on your name servers.<\/p>\n
Example DNS Zone File (Wikipedia)<\/h4>\n
$ORIGIN example.com. ;\n$TTL 3600 ;\nexample.com. IN SOA ns.example.com. username.example.com. ( 2020091025 7200 3600 1209600 3600 )\nexample.com. IN NS ns ; ns.example.com is a nameserver for example.com\nexample.com. IN NS ns.somewhere.example. ; ns.somewhere.example is a backup nameserver for example.com\nexample.com. IN MX 10 mail.example.com. ; mail.example.com is the mailserver for example.com\n@ IN MX 20 mail2.example.com. ; equivalent to above line, \"@\" represents zone origin\nexample.com. IN A 192.0.2.1 ; IPv4 address for example.com\nwww IN CNAME example.com. ; www.example.com is an alias for example.com\nmail IN A 192.0.2.3 ; IPv4 address for mail.example.com\nmail2 IN A 192.0.2.4 ; IPv4 address for mail2.example.com<\/code><\/pre>\nBut realistically, you\u2019re probably never going to interact directly with your domain\u2019s zone file (unless you\u2019re a huge nerd). Instead, your Domain Registrar, or your Hosting Provider, or maybe even your CDN Provider<\/a> (if you have one), is going to provide you with an easy-to-use web interface for accessing your DNS records.<\/p>\n
Pair DNS Interface(s)<\/h2>\n
Here at Pair, there are two different interfaces for editing your DNS records, depending on whether you want to do it at the web hosting level or the DNS registration level. It really doesn\u2019t matter that much. The main difference is when you add a domain to your web hosting account and point the DNS there, we pre-load a bunch of DNS records for mail, www cname, IP address(es), etc.<\/p>\n
But before we talk about the two options, let\u2019s first go over how to find where your DNS is currently hosted for your domain.<\/p>\n
How to Find Your Current Name Servers (AKA Where Your DNS Is Hosted)<\/h3>\n
The easiest way is to use a site like one of the ones linked below (not affiliated) and check the values for
NS Record<\/code>.<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.whatsmydns.net\/#NS<\/a><\/p>\n
https:\/\/dnschecker.org\/#NS<\/a><\/p>\n
If your NS record is pointing to
NS#.PAIRNIC.com<\/code> then your DNS is hosted with Pair Domains<\/em><\/a> (our domain registration company).<\/p>\nWhereas, if your NS records are pointing to
ns#.ns0.com<\/code> ordns#.pair.com<\/code> then you\u2019re using Pair Networks Hosting Service<\/em><\/a> to host your DNS records.<\/p>\nIf your NS records point to some other name servers entirely, like
jamie.ns.cloudflare.com<\/code> ordns4.p01.nsone.net<\/code> then you\u2019re not hosting your DNS records with Pair.<\/p>\nPair Domains DNS Interface<\/h3>\n
If your name servers are pointing to Pair Domains (aka NS records are
NS#.PAIRNIC.COM<\/code>), then you can edit your DNS records in Pair Domains by following the steps below.<\/p>\n\n
- Log into the Pair Domains Domain Name Management System<\/a><\/li>\n
- Click on your domain name<\/li>\n
- Click
Domain Address Settings - enabled<\/code> (only enable if name servers point to NS#.PAIRNIC.COM, otherwise you could be accidentally disabling your DNS if it\u2019s hosted elsewhere)<\/li>\n- Click
Add New Records<\/code><\/li>\n- Select your record type and fill out the fields according to your needs<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
air Networks (Hosting) DNS Interface<\/h3>\n
If you\u2019re using your Pair Networks hosting account to manage your DNS (aka if your NS records are pointing to
ns#.ns0.com<\/code> ordns#.pair.com<\/code>) then you can manage the DNS records for your domain through the Account Control Center (ACC).<\/p>\nWe already have a comprehensive Knowledge Base article on managing your DNS through the ACC here:<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.pair.com\/support\/kb\/where-do-i-change-dns-setting<\/a><\/p>\n
So feel free to check that out if you have more questions about managing your DNS through the hosting side of things.<\/p>\n
Changing Your Name Servers to Point to Your Pair Networks Hosting Account<\/h2>\n
Let\u2019s say you\u2019re a Pair Domains hosting customer. You\u2019ve just purchased a new domain, and you want to point it at the new site you\u2019re building or the mailboxes you have set up on your Pair Networks web hosting account. How do you do that?<\/p>\n
Well, in the Domain Name Management System<\/a>, simply click on your domain and you should see your name servers listed there.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re pointing the domain to your Pair Networks hosting account, you\u2019ll want to log into the ACC<\/a> and add the domain to your hosting account<\/em>. Please check out our existing docs on How to add a domain to your hosting account<\/em><\/a> for more information about that.<\/p>\n
After you\u2019ve added the domain to your hosting account, copy the name server names from the ACC (my.pair.com) into the
Name Server<\/code> fields in your Pair Domains account. Once again, more info on Changing Name Servers in Pair Domains can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\nOnce your domain\u2019s name servers are pointing to your hosting account, you can then edit your DNS records<\/a> within the ACC.<\/p>\n
What the Heck Do You Do with DNS Anyways?<\/h2>\n
To oversimplify for a second, every service on the internet is hosted on an IP address and port. For example, name servers themselves run on port number 53 (traditionally).<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s say I have a server and it has the following services running on it:<\/p>\n
IP Address: 192.0.2.1\nPort 21: FTPS (Secure FTP)\nPort 22: SSH (Secure Shell)\nPort 25: SMTP (Mail Server)\nPort 80: HTTP (Web Server)\nPort 443: HTTPS (SSL Web Server)<\/code><\/pre>\nAnd now let\u2019s say we have a new domain name with no DNS records yet. How would we set it up to point to the various services running on our server?<\/p>\n
NOTE 1<\/strong>: These records are already added for you automatically if you\u2019re using Pair Networks (hosting) DNS.<\/em><\/p>\n
NOTE 2<\/strong>: This is an example generic DNS configuration meant for demonstration purposes only. This section of the post is not a guide for configuring DNS at Pair Networks. Its simply meant to explain what each basic type of DNS record is and how they work.<\/em><\/p>\n
We\u2019d first create a new A Record<\/em> (short for \u201cAddress Record\u201d) and point our base domain name to our IP address.<\/p>\n
Type: A\nHostname: .example.com # Leave blank or use @ to refer to base domain name\nIP Address: 192.0.2.1<\/code><\/pre>\n