What is recursive DNS? Every website on the Internet needs to have at least one authoritative DNS server. Authoritative servers are where that websites records are kept. The more authoritative DNS servers your website has, the more redundant it is. To understand exactly what recursive DNS is, let’s explain what exactly DNS is.

Understanding DNS to Understand Recursive DNS

To understand exactly what recursive DNS is, let’s explain what exactly DNS is.

In order for a website to be accessed via its URL, i.e. www.noip.com, the website needs DNS. The Domain Name System performs like a phone book. It points a URL to the website’s IP address for you. If not for DNS, you would need to know the “phone number” (the IP address) of every single website. How frustrating would that be? I can barely even remember my own phone number, let alone the phone number of every single website that I want to visit.

So, How Does Recursive DNS Work?

Anyway, the place where the phone numbers of the websites are kept are the authoritative DNS servers. Each website has at least one recursive DNS server.

When you type www.noip.com into your browser, your computer queries the recursive DNS provider. If the recursive DNS server has the answer cached, it provides that answer. If it doesn’t have the answer cached, the recursive DNS server then queries the authoritative DNS server. The authoritative DNS server returns the correct answer and the website is loaded.

The Essential Role of Recursive Servers

If you want the website to be fully redundant, you’ll have more than one recursive DNS server. The servers will be located in geographically redundant locations. This means that if one server has issues or downtime, your website will not be affected.

Although it sounds quite confusing and time-consuming, all of this happens in milliseconds. Questions or comments? Get in touch with No-IP, or explore our managed DNS services!