DNS Zones Overview

If you aren’t sure what terms like DNS, Domain and IP Address mean, this post is for you! Below, we’ll outline some of the most important terms that you need to know if you are a website owner!

Understanding these terms will help when someone asks – “Who is your registrar?” “Do you use cloudflare?”, “Whats your nameservers?”

Domain-your website address. A user friendly name that is easily remembered.

Registrar-the company from whom you purchase your domain name.
Governed by ICANN (https://www.icann.org/) Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. globally recognized ability to reserve the name for you
* the location of your nameservers

Nameservers – records that point to the DNS Server

DNS Server – A computer on the internet that stores DNS records

IP Address– Internet Protocol Address. Groupings of numbers, separated by periods, that all computers recognize. All domain names need to be converted to numbers for computers to use.

DNS Zone / DNS Records – Located on a DNS Server, a group of name and IP matches pertaining to a particular domain. This would include email for that domain, the website itself, and also FTP records.

When a user types in the name of your WordPress site into their browser, the browser does the following in the background, in a split second:
– send a request to the Registrar for domain name
– the Registrar will send back the domain’s Nameserver
– send request to Nameserver for IP address
– Nameserver sends back IP address
– continue to IP address(the numbered location of the domain)

Once the browser has located the website, it will return the content to the browser.