There is a bit more involved in matching a domain name to an IP address than just having this information in a DNS table on a name server. Since there may be times when you want to add a domain name to your account, or change the way your existing domain name is handled, it is important to have some understanding of how DNS works.
There are organizations responsible for distributing domain names for those who wish to use them. Many countries have their own organization, often called an NIC agency. For most U.S. domain names, including those ending in .com, .edu, and .org, this organization is called InterNIC. InterNIC is currently owned by a company called Network Solutions, and is headquartered in Herndon, Virginia.
http://www.networksolutions.com/
In order to use a specific domain name with your account, you must register the domain name with the NIC agency responsible for that domain. The registration process differs slightly depending on the NIC agency. The registration process for U.S. domains is detailed in the next section of this guide. A domain name registration shows the contact, technical and billing information for the domain, and defines a specific name server or group of name servers that will contain the information about where that domain name should point. The name servers that appear in a domain’s registration record are called authoritative, because they contain the most current and correct name server information about the domain. For example, the domain registration for the domain cnn.com would look like this:
Registrant:
Turner Broadcasting (CNN-DOM)
1 CNN Center
Atlanta, GA 30303 US
Domain Name: CNN.COM
Administrative Contact:
TBS Legal Department (TL92-ORG) TMGROUP@TURNER.COM
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
One CNN Center
Atlanta, GA 30348
US
404-827-3470 Fax- - - - 404-827-1995
Technical Contact:
TBS Server Operations (TS309-ORG) hostmaster@TBSNAMES.TURNER.COM
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
One CNN Center
Atlanta, GA 30348
US
404-827-5000 Fax- 404-827-1593
Billing Contact:
idNames, Accounting (IA90-ORG) accounting@IDNAMES.COM
idNames from Network Solutions, Inc
440 Benmar
Suite #3325
Houston, TX 77060
US
703-742-4777 Fax 281-447-1160
Record last updated on 03-Nov-2000.
Record expires on 23-Sep-2009.
Record created on 22-Sep-1993.
Database last updated on 13-Dec-2000 05:13:19 EST.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS-01A.ANS.NET 199.221.47.7
NS-01B.ANS.NET 199.221.47.8
NS-02A.ANS.NET 207.24.245.179
NS-02B.ANS.NET 207.24.245.178
You can see from this record that the Registrant, or the organization that owns the domain, is Turner Broadcasting, LLC. The Administrative Contact, who is in charge of how this domain name is managed, is listed as "TBS Legal Department." The Technical Contact, who is in charge of managing the technical aspects of this domain, is listed as "TBS Server Operations."
A domain registration record also shows the name servers that are authoritative for the IP addresses that the domain should point to. The two name servers in this record are NS-01A.ANS.NET and NS-01B.ANS.NET.
You can view the domain registration record for any existing U.S. domain name by visiting Network Solutions web site, Whois feature, and enter the domain name (including .com, net, or .org extension).