Setting your site's Nameservers

Not name calling. Just name servers :-)

Remember that each website needs to have one main DNS? Which is the place where the DNS settings are to be given. It would be from that place, the settings would get propagated to other DNS servers spread across the Internet network of computers.

That main DNS is called the Name-server of your site!

Who will bell the cat?

Or in short, where on earth will anything know which of the computer/site is actually your site's name servers?

Good question.

To set the location of your name-servers, you would need to go to that place from where you purchased your domain name. (E.g. Namecheap.com). That is called the Domain Registrar technically. Then change the Name-server settings to the DNS server that actually handles your site's DNS settings.

Conventionally, when you buy a domain name; it not only handles this special setting of where the Name Servers are located; but it will also allow you to create other DNS settings needed for your website. Many people simply use the DNS provided by such a company from where you bought the domain. Of course, it is convenient to do all the work at one place. But it is actually even more practical to separate the domain name purchasing from the DNS that handles the settings for that domain. Why? Because you can later on shift the registrar to another company! If you continue to use the DNS provided within the domain name registrar itself; you can get easily tied up to that company for years -- both for renewing the domain fees and also for the DNS. It is strongly recommended to break that connection.

Then there are webhosting companies that also do this trick. Not only will they give you server space, but they would entice you with a convenient way to buy a domain (some even throw in the domain name for a year free) and also the DNS. Such companies are strongly NOT recommended at all.

Using DeSec.io for your site DNS

We strongly suggest that you entrust our utility (BushFire) to do the DNS settings for your website. It is configured to internally use the excellent free, open-source based DNS system called DeSec.io So one of the first steps you really need to do is to go to your Domain Registrar; and then set the NS (Name Servers) to the ones that points to DeSec.io -- To ensure that your root DNS is properly working, DeSec gives 2 servers for this work; and your site's NS should be pointed to the following two:

ns1.desec.io
ns2.desec.org

The Name server settings is always made for the core domain name and not for any of its sub-domains. That means if your core domain name is google.com you must NOT setup the name-servers for docs.google.com

The exact method on how the NS servers are to be changed for various domain registrars are given in the following links.

• Namecheap https://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/767/10/how-to-change-dns-for-a-domain/ (Scroll down to the section where they explain how to change the NS to custom nameservers)

• GoDaddy https://in.godaddy.com/help/change-nameservers-for-my-domains-664

• BigRock https://manage.bigrock.in/kb/node/3

• Name.com https://www.name.com/support/articles/115005091047-Adding-an-NS-Record

• Google Domains https://support.google.com/domains/answer/3290309?hl=en

• Gandi.net https://docs.gandi.net/en/domain_names/common_operations/changing_nameservers.html

Not using DeSec.io? Something else?

If you have decided NOT to use DeSec.io as the DNS for your website; then you should enter "ignore" in the field for the DeSec.io API Token. That will tell BushFire to completely bypass the DNS settings. Once the pinning is done, you would have to visit your DNS control panel (wherever it may be) and then add/change the settings as explained in this article here, manually.