Registrars and Servers - Explained

Definitions:

Domain Registrar: A company which holds records for a domain. Examples: godaddy, network solutions etc. There are a zillion of them.

Domain Record: An entry in a registrars file for a domain which points to a server.

Web Server: A server which holds the files for a web site. Content pages, code, images etc.

Name Server: A server which holds long lists of domain names, and hands out what IP addresses the web files for those domain names can be found.

Mail Server: A server which holds email and hosts email addresses.

Explanation of how things flow:

The purpose of a registrar is to direct requests for a domain to the correct server. A Registrar does not store any files or run any special programs for a web site. All it does is direct requests for service to a server. Example of services are displaying web site files or sending email.

Your computer asks for scorpiondesign.com from godaddy. Godaddy looks up scorpiondeisgn.com in its list and finds that its primary nameserver is ns1.blahblah.com and sends the request to it. ns1.blahblah.com looks up what web server holds the files for scorpiondesign.com in its list and forwards the request to it. That web server packs up the code, sends it back the way it came, and you have a displayed web site.

Email does the same thing, except with a mail server instead of a web server.

One of our clients could have an old web site on one server and company, email on a different email company and server, his domain name on a different company/name server and he could have an account on a registrar which points to all of these. This is worst case scenario, but it happens. To make changes to these services, we would need log in information for each companies control panel for them.

Therefore it is easiest when most of these services are all with one company. Many registrars also offer web site hosting and email hosting. If their old web site, current email and domain name are all godaddy services, godaddy's registrar program can easily make changes to these records, and they will propagate fast.

So when we say we need to move the nameservers over to godaddy, or netsol, it is because the client couldn't give us log in information for the name server where the domain name is currently located, and we need to transfer the domain name over to godaddy's name servers. Without access to the name servers, we cannot make changes to the records to point the domain name to the correct web server or our email servers.