Can I point my DNS to nameservers of different web hosts?

Question

I was told that the DNS for my domain is unreliable, so basically I was wondering

Could I set my secondary DNServers that points to another webhost altogether ? :

ns01.host-FOO.com
ns01.host-BAR.com
ns02.host-BAR.com
ns02.host-FOO.com

Or would "mixing-and-matching" as such cause things to go wrong ?

Pacerier, if you're going to make trivial edits to your question, how about accepting one of the answers while you're at it? It's your call, of course, but at least one of the answers below seems perfectly fine to me, and the question's been open a while. — MadHatter, Jan 10 '13 at 16:01

David Schwartz · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-08T11:49:10.953

So long as all those secondaries get the zone from the same primary (or are kept in sync by some other mechanism), this is what you are supposed to do. Diverse secondaries make DNS more reliable.

But I think you should continue to diagnose why you are having DNS problems. Unless your current host is very unreliable, you shouldn't be having DNS issues on anything remotely resembling a regular basis.

For example, your glue records don't match the DNS. Your record with your registrar says:

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;000webhost.com.                        IN      NS

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
000webhost.com.         172800  IN      NS      ns1.000webhost.com.
000webhost.com.         172800  IN      NS      ns2.000webhost.com.
000webhost.com.         172800  IN      NS      ns3.000webhost.com.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns1.000webhost.com.     172800  IN      A       208.43.150.234
ns2.000webhost.com.     172800  IN      A       66.197.143.117
ns3.000webhost.com.     172800  IN      A       64.120.228.114

But:

Name:   ns1.000webhost.com
Address: 208.43.173.207

Name:   ns3.000webhost.com
Address: 64.120.231.5

Name:   ns3.000webhost.com
Address: 64.120.231.2

You have all three DNS servers inside a zone that only they serve. So you are relying on the glue to find something in the first place: Hmm what server is authoritative for 000webhost.com. Oh, it's ns1.000webhost.com. Well, what's the IP address of ns1.000webhost.com? Let's see, I'll ask the server that's authoritative for 000webhost.com. Oh oh.

So in order to break the endless loop, your registrar must arrange to have the TLD nameservers serve correct DNS server IP information without needing your DNS servers to help it. Otherwise, nobody could find your DNS servers in the first place.

JFYI, now ns1.000webhost.com have troubles **only** with 000webhost.com zone. Funny! — Lazy Badger, Oct 08 '11 at 23:07
When you say *"your registrar must arrange to have the TLD nameservers serve correct DNS server IP information without needing your DNS servers to help it"* do you mean that there's nothing I can do about it? — Pacerier, Oct 09 '11 at 12:54
No, you can correct the records with your registrar. If a nameserver's name is within a zone it serves, that zone should have the nameserver's IP address entered as glue. Every registrar has a method for you to do this. — David Schwartz, Oct 09 '11 at 13:09

Lazy Badger · Answer 2 · 2011-10-08T23:08:57.110

DNS-servers and webhost are different matters. What you want to do? Replace DNS-servers for you zone? Add more secondary? It's not transparent

In common - you can do it, reflecting all changes in glue records of registrar (domain registrar) data

BTW - currently I can't see something bad with QWEOP.COM NSes from my side

> qweop.com
Server:  ns01.000webhost.com
Address:  208.43.152.32

qweop.com
        primary name server = ns01.000webhost.com
        responsible mail addr = freehosting.000webhost.com
        serial  = 2011061001
        refresh = 172800 (2 days)
        retry   = 7200 (2 hours)
        expire  = 3600000 (41 days 16 hours)
        default TTL = 172800 (2 days)
qweop.com       internet address = 31.170.161.157
qweop.com       MX preference = 0, mail exchanger = aspmx.l.google.com
qweop.com       nameserver = ns01.000webhost.com
qweop.com       nameserver = ns02.000webhost.com
ns01.000webhost.com     internet address = 208.43.152.32
ns02.000webhost.com     internet address = 64.120.10.10

btw what tools did you use to do this ? – Pacerier Oct 09 '11 at 12:53 — Pacerier, Oct 09 '11 at 12:53
Ordinary windows nslookup in interactive mode – Lazy Badger Oct 09 '11 at 21:05 — Lazy Badger, Oct 09 '11 at 21:05

Can I point my DNS to nameservers of different web hosts?

2 Answers2