DNS.  A Potted FAQ Kind of Document

Introduction

The DNS is a directory system that fundamentally converts machine friendly IP addresses into people friendly names.  It is a hierarchical directory and different organisations are the 'naming authorities' in charge of the various branches.  In the UK this authority is Nominet for the most common domains (.co.uk and .org.uk, but NOT .gov.uk which is controlled by a government agency - UKERNA).  In the USA the authority is the InterNIC.   The authorities have registrars which are licenced to add domains to the system.  In the UK for example Netbenefit and Gradwell are registrars whilst in the USA registrars are in flux as the old monopoly registrar Network Solutions Inc. now has to share with other ICANN approved organisations (such as Alabanza).
 

What is the DNS?

The DNS is made up of a number of servers ('Name Servers') that start with the 'root' servers.  The root DNS servers (represented by a single dot) are responsible for the top level domain names such as .com, .org, .net and country specific top level domains such as .uk, .au, .ca etc.

A DNS search generally starts by asking one of the root DNS servers for a reference to the next level DNS servers (top level), which are then asked for the next level (for example "netscape.com"), and so it goes on until the requested domain name is found.

This way a DNS server can locate any name in the world - as long as it knows the addresses of the root DNS servers (and it’s own sub-domains!).

The next level are the Domains and within the Domains are Zones.  A Zone is a Domain less any Sub-Domains delegated to other DNS servers.

A Domain represents the entire set of names / machines that are contained under an organizational domain name.  For example all domain names ending with ".com" are part of the "com" domain.

Domains are broken into Zones for which individual DNS servers are responsible.

A DNS server could be responsible for all records under the "xyz.com" domain, but by defining NS-records for "abc.xyz.com", part of the domain is delegated to another DNS server - and perhaps even a different company/entity.

A Zone has one SOA-record which describes the general properties of the zone.

Entire Zones can be transferred between DNS servers through Zone Transfers.

For an intranet (private net) DNS servers, a root zone can be defined. (by leaving the zone name blank in the Zone dialog).
 

Xhost and the DNS?

So, having now let you know how complicated DNS can be, there are a number of issues for Xhost that require either solving now or planning to solve in the near future.

These issues are bulletted here in no particular order:

Who owns a domain name that Xhost registers?  We decided at a previous conference call that Xhost was going to be the owner unless a customer paid us a 'transfer fee' to have the Domain moved to another registrar.  I'd suggest a fee of GBP25 (ex VAT - all prices mentioned here are ex-VAT) for this.  The actual mechanics of HOW this is done I will need to investigate.

Should we become a registrar and /or run our own Name Servers or use another registrar?  My personal feeling is that we should aim to run our own Name Servers as a goal and use a reseller agreement with a registrar and then become a registrar ourselves if demand is good enough, but continue for now as we have started by using another, cheap, registrar with their own Name Servers.  We have used Gradwell to date who have proved very good.  Registration with Gradwell costs us GBP20.00 (including mail and web redirection) for a '.co.uk' and GBP48.00 for a '.com' via Alabanza and GBP80.00 for a '.com' via Network Solutions.  This allows us to redirect web and mail requests via the Gradwell Name Servers to our mail and web servers.  As an intermediate step we could become a Gradwell reseller (costs GBP50 as a setup fee) which would get us lower prices (eg GBP8.50 for a .co.uk) but we would have to run our own Name Servers.  An alternative organisation we could use are Joker in Germany who are ICANN approved.  Their fees are slightly lower than Gradwells but they are not so automated and there are occasional language problems!  After running our own Name Servers we could register as a registrar which would bring the price of a '.co.uk' down to GBP5.00 (Nominet fee of GBP500 per annum).  Of course there may be other fees for other Domain authorities if we think we may need to register Kenyan Domains for example!  This final step is quite a biggie, but if the demand is there...

Of course we could sell Domain registration and Name Server hosting as independent products....

I see I have covered Costs of registering a Domain above as well!

'Vanity' Domains ('host names') This is actually a weakness of the Gradwell system which is automated and only deals in 'www.' hosts for Domains.  We could try discussing this with Gradwell or run our own Name Servers.  Hosts are 'leaves' on the Domain branches and cost NOTHING to add to a Name Server.  You can have as many 'leaves' on your branch as you require (eg 'www.xyz.com', 'myhost.xyz.com', 'clickme.xyz.com'.  The Domain here is 'xyz.com' which is what costs the money!  Hence our own 'xsupport.xhost.co.uk' which cost us nothing as we own 'xhost.co.uk'.  I suggest that we charge our customers GBP10.00 for each vanity Domain.

OK that's it for now!  Any comments and I'll keep this updated.
 

Russell