IP vs. NS Domain Routing

Domain routing is extremely important to web design. Did you know there’s two different ways to route a domain name?

On the web, all domains are pointed to their particular server and their home using what is called DNS or domain name settings. Domain name settings (DNS) are universal for all domain registrars and are an important factor for routing where domains are supposed to go to servers to make websites come up online.

When building a new website, typically it is built on a temporary domain. When the website is ready to go live, it needs to be routed to the actual domain that is going to be living on. There are two different ways to go about doing this domain routing.

The first way is updating the IP settings and the second is name server or NS. I’m going to cover the reasons to use which one in this article. First, I’m going to discuss IP routing, which is the way that I usually point domain names.

The reason why I like to use IP for pointing domains, is that it only points that one specific element of the DNS and does not affect any other elements of the DNS.

The second way of domain routing is by Name Servers (NS). Inside DNS, there are many different settings for the domain such as email, Google Analytics tracking codes, and a ton of other different things can be possibly listed in the DNS.

When we just route by the IP address, there is no effect to any of these other settings, meaning that email can stay exactly as it is, Google analytics can stay exactly it is etc.

When we route a domain using the name servers (NS) it effectively changes all of the DNS settings over to the new server. So it’s very important to careful when pointing NS because if you point a domain with name servers and you have an email in place, you will mess up that email.

Only use names server pointing when you are absolutely sure you want to send the domain to the new host where you will then manage all the settings there. If you do not want to disrupt the current settings on the domain, such as emails, use the IP routing.

Do you have questions about which domain routing to use? I will be glad to help you out if you hit me up on my contact page!

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Written by: Jophiel Silvestrone

Jophiel Silvestrone has written 326 posts in the Tech Blog.

Jophiel grew up on a ranch in Paradise Valley, Montana near Chico Hot Springs. Working on the ranch instilled work ethic and self motivation. Filled with this drive, Jophiel started mowing the local school's yards twice a month throughout the summers, at the age of 12. He moved to Billings in 2004, where he has been deeply involved in the local business community ever since. A serial entrepreneur, Jophiel has ran multiple businesses in our local community. The first business, a janitorial and carpet cleaning company, founded in 2005, has employed over 50 locals. Moving on to the media industry, Jophiel and several partners founded Green Directory Montana in the spring of 2007. Green Directory's sustainability ranking software awarded points based on sustainable or "green" actions. These points counted towards a business's total "Green Score," which in turn ranked them against other businesses in their category and throughout the entire site. It also featured a limited edition print version distributed annually. A business acquisition allowed Jophiel to focus on new projects, and a few close business colleagues and Jophiel started Rocky Mountain Mr. & Ms. Magazine, a lifestyle publication for men and women in the Magic City. After a year and a half at the helm of RM3 Magazine, the business was purchased. He now runs a web development company SkyPoint Studios and fathers his son Jaoquin, who plays football, basketball, soccer, and is learning snowboarding from his dad. Recently, has expanded to locations in Havasu, Arizona & Vegas. SkyPoint Studios is a market leader in both Billings & Havasu and Jophiel is working on building that same level of market dominance in Vegas. Specialties: Extensive experience in online and offline business. Especially savvy at WordPress, and operate several sites, one example is the blog: skypointwebdesignbillingsmontana.com/tech-blog. Check out skypointwebdesignbillingsmontana.com for the latest projects from SkyPoint Studios.