Nameservers

Published February 21, 2025

In this tutorial, we are going to talk about Nameservers and their importance to connecting your Website services.

In this tutorial, we'll cover what Nameservers are and what role they play in connecting your domain to services such as Web Hosting, Email Hosting and more.

What are Nameservers?

Nameservers are a set of 2 - 6 individual DNS Records that look like this:

ns1.ewhdns.com
ns2.ewhdns.com
ns3.ewhdns.com
ns4.ewhdns.com

Nameservers are the authority in terms of where you enter your DNS records to connect to services. For instance, using the 4 Namservers from the example above would mean that you're using Evolve Web Hosting Nameservers and they would be entered and managed through our portal.

Not only are Nameservers important but the backbone of them are even more important. Meaning, the network technology that the nameservers are connected to.

Unicast vs. Anycast DNS Network

How Anycast DNS Works

Unicast Anycast DNS Illustration
  1. Multiple DNS servers are set up across different geographic locations, each having the same IP address
  2. When a user makes a DNS query for a domain name, the query is sent to the nearest DNS server
  3. The DNS server receiving the query then responds with the IP address of the requested domain name
  4. The user’s device then uses this IP address to establish a connection with the server hosting the domain
  5. If the nearest DNS server is unavailable due to any reason, the query is automatically redirected to the next nearest available DNS server

Types of DNS Records

Let's start with the most popular types of DNS Records and their function in connecting to the services you use.

A Record

The A Record is an IP address that points to the server where your files are loaded so that your website displays.

MX Record

The MX Record is responsible for connecting to your email service.

TXT Record

The TXT Record serves many purposes. It can be used for DKIM and SPF records. It is also used to verify your domain with various service providers such as Microsoft, Google, Hubspot and many more.

CNAME Record

A CNAME Record (Canonical Name Record) is a type of DNS record that links an alias name to a true or canonical domain name. For example, you may have mail.yourdomain.com that links to your domain in order to make that URL work. In short it's a way of pointing 1 URL such as example.domain.com to example2.domain.com. It is also a popular DNS Record when using whitelabel services.

Here are a few additional DNS Records that you may encounter. This is not a complete list.