Secondary nameservers

[Terence]

I know that FutureQuest provides two secondary name servers, ns2 and ns3.futurequest.net, along with the primary nameserver. If my domain registrar offers their own two nameservers (ex. directNIC), should I use them as the fourth and fifth nameservers?

What exactly is the purpose of secondary nameservers? Are they used in case the primary nameserver is down? If so, is it better to have as many secondary nameservers as possible?

Finally, since FQ tells customers to register their domains on their own before signing up, how do you prevent non-FQ users from using the three FQ nameservers for their domain?

Thanks.

[hobbes]

If my domain registrar offers their own two nameservers (ex. directNIC), should I use them as the fourth and fifth nameservers? No. If you do so, and by some chance those name servers are contacted, there is no telling what the outcome may be (e.g., just an error - could not resolve domain name, or perhaps directNIC's home page or its "this site is not up yet" page).

What exactly is the purpose of secondary nameservers? Are they used in case the primary nameserver is down? If so, is it better to have as many secondary nameservers as possible? As you surmised, secondary is used in case primary is down. Its usually best if the primary and secondary (external) DNS servers are on separate networks (and if possible separate network providers), in case an outage is localized. If you have distributed servers and more than 3 are out, you likely have other problems you'll need to be dealing with;)

how do you prevent non-FQ users from using the three FQ nameservers for their domain? I don't think you can prevent someone (other than through legal means) from listing any name server they choose for resolving their domain. Of course, the domain name server needs to know where to map the domain; if you're not their customer, your domain won't have a listing, and you customers will get an error.

[Terence]

No. If you do so, and by some chance those name servers are contacted, there is no telling what the outcome may be (e.g., just an error - could not resolve domain name, or perhaps directNIC's home page or its "this site is not up yet" page).

I must be misunderstanding how a nameserver works then. I thought nameservers store a domain name and its corresponding IP address. Is that not how it works? How come only FutureQuest's nameservers can be used?

[Matt]

Terence,
There are others here who use third party nameservers. I don't see any reason why you couldn't use your domain name provider's DNS services as a redundancy to FQ's (as NS4 & NS5 for example). Setting the IP shouldn't be a problem, but you will have to be very careful with the MX servers to set them properly. You will likely encounter some of the problems Hobbes mentioned if you don't set the IP address (or set it improperly).

It seems unlikely that your web site will be available, but not FQ's name servers. If FQ's DNS servers are unavailable (due to network outage) and your domain name resolves through your domain name provider's DNS servers, your web site is STILL likely to be unavailable. FQ is on redundant networks and I'm sure that their DNS servers are redundant as well.

Although FQ reps can give you a definitive answer, I think FQ has outstanding uptimes and using your domain name provider's DNS services may be a bit paranoid... but it *should* work.

-Matt

[Terra]

Unfortunately this is a vast topic...

In short, FutureQuest maintains your zone file within our DNS which is specific to your domain... If you add DirectNIC's name servers, then either you or they must duplicate our zone file exactly... Any changes or additions we make to your zone file must be propagated to DirectNIC as well, or there is a good chance that 50% of your clients won't see the updated information leading to overall confusion... This confusion is a burden that FutureQuest usually gets nailed with even though it was not our fault and our name servers are configured and working properly...

If you do not understand the technicalities of DNS, then I would highly recommend allowing professional DNS administrators to handle your zone file... I would rather you pull your zone file and use something like GraniteCanyon instead of tacking on 2 additional DNS servers to our already provided 3 DNS servers... If I see this condition, then I cannot provide DNS technical support to your account, nor fix anything that is broken outside of our systems... It is simply a matter of liability for which I'm not willing to burden the time loss to fix someone elses (out-of-sync) DNS server...

--
Terra
-- http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596001584/ --
FutureQuest

[Terence]

If FQ's DNS servers are unavailable (due to network outage) and your domain name resolves through your domain name provider's DNS servers, your web site is STILL likely to be unavailable. FQ is on redundant networks and I'm sure that their DNS servers are redundant as well.

Doh, that's an excellent point. Should have thought of that.

Thanks for all the responses. Don't worry, Terra, I'm not going to risk screwing anything up myself. :o