Nameservers

The internet is a network of interconnected nodes. Every node on the internet has an identification code, known as an IP (Internet Protocol) address. The IP is what your computer uses to find websites and other devices. Websites, smart phones, tablets, computers, and servers all have their own, unique IP.

The thing about IPs is, they are not very human-friendly. This websites IP, for example, is 149.47.131.252. Try remembering that next time you want to read this article! To save us from having to remember IP’s, the engineers of the internet created nameservers.

A “nameserver” is a computer server that provides a response to queries against a directory. It is just like looking up a name in the telephone book to find a phone number. When you type a URL (uniform resource locator) into the browser, like boilingpotmedia.com, and hit enter, you are telling the browser to “ask” the domain name servers to find the IP address associated with the name, boilingpotmedia.com.

If you register a URL with one hosting service  and decide later to switch to another host, you will need to change the nameserver so that it no longer points to old host, but instead points to the new host. The new host should provide you with nameservers (usually, they look something like “ns1.hostdomain.com” and “ns2.hostdomain.com”).