How could the .COM TLD server point me to the authoritative name servers?

How could he make the connection? There are so many .COM domains!

Easy! With the help of the Domain Registrar!

When a domain is purchased, the domain registrar reserves the name...

... and communicates to the TLD registry the authoritative name servers.

We have arrived!

Papers, please!

Oh! I'll be quick. I have no intention of staying here. I am looking for ns1.dnsimple.com.

Papers, please!

Oh boy! The only thing I have is a request for dnsimple.com. The .COM TLD told me that ns1.dnsimple.com could tell me where I could locate the IP address.

Well, in that case...

I am ns1.dnsimple.com

And I can provide you with that answer!

Currently there are 4 of us that know how to resolve any domain managed by dnsimple.com

We provide answers to DNS queries: Websites, e-mail, ...

We are the ultimate authority on this stuff.

No cached values. Not asking someone else. Only the real deal.

You see, usually there is more than one name server attached to any domain.

You, the resolver, you are given this list in some unknown order.

You might query the first name server in the list.

OR NOT! We have to be ready!

Because there is more of us, the work load is better distributed.

And the DNS zone availability is increased.

Especially in case of a failure!

So if you want to know who are the authoritative name servers for your domain, run a WHOIS query.

There are a few websites that provide this information.

So here you go: 50.31.213.210

What?

dnsimple.com IP address is: 50.31.213.210

Anything else?

Uh, no. Thanks!

I guess I'll save that.

The resolver finally got the answer he was looking for! Hurray for the Authoritative name server!

Time to go home!

Will the resolver make it back home in time?

Find out in the next episode of how DNS works.