If I register my domain with a decent registrar (see other thread), then do they usually provide use of their nameservers as part of the package?

Is that usually better than using the webhost's DNS?

Not so much concerned about performance, as what happens when I want to switch to a different webhost?

How/where do I make the changes so my domain records now point to different IPs?

In general if I were very concerned with uptime, would it be worth paying separately for DNS services that allowed for automatic failover to a mirrored site on another host?

Or can this be reasonably simulated manually without paying the extra fees?

Sorry to reply to myself - I hope I don't get hairy palms <g>

If you guys aren't able/going to answer this, can you suggest a better place to post the question?

I started to reply and then realized that I'm not the best one to reply. There are paid and free dns services, which separate the dns from the registrar and the webhost. Some people swear by this structure, but I've generally found the dns of most major registrars to be acceptable. Mostly your up time is a function of your webhost. If you use your registrar's dns, then you would url forward to your website.

lol, give people time to sleep :)

If you use your registrar's nameservers, then your domain will point to their servers :)

To get a domain to point to your server, you have to set the nameservers to your site ;)

Sorry, but I don't know enough about this to understand the answers - can anyone point to a good tutorial? (I know, I'll google)

My understanding is as follows, please correct/comment/expand:

The core of what you pay a registrar to, well, register, are the domain records themselves - what you see from WHOIS - and don't actually have anything to do with DNS do they?

Somewhere, call it X, is a "source" name server with pointers for various hosts and subdomains, tying the names to IP addresses - these get replicated around to different DNS servers around the net.

I would like to be able to

A (at first) be able to email (chat/troubleticket/phone/fax whatever) a human being and in plain English say "please set news.mydomain.com" to (IP address), or "please add a secondary/backup mail server record to (IP address), or "please change the pointer to both domain.com and www.domain.com to (IP address).

and then B (once I'm confident of my knowledge/ability, or with a new testing domain) I'd like to be able to go to an interface and add/delete/modify these DNS records myself.

I believe I have three options as to hosting these DNS records:

1. With my domain registrar (is this offered by all good ones? is it usually extra cost?)

2. With my website hosting service (actually 2b I'll probably end up with a separate email hosting service, so that's yet another options)

or

3. With a specialised DNS hosting service (which I believe is for my situation a waste of money and adds an unnecessary layer of complexity?)

Regarding option 2 - doesn't this negate the advantage of speed, flexibility and less potential hassle of keeping the domain registration separate from the web host? I'd like to be able to set up a new server at a different hosting service and just switch the DNS pointers before even suggesting to the web host that I'm going to cancel my service with them. Also allowing for a backup host with a mirror of my website, so if there are problems I can quickly switch over.

As a side issue, I manage a domain in the TH (Thailand) TLD, which I believe can only be registered with a few local services? Would it be possible for me to manage the DNS for that with my "other websites" registrar (option 1) even if the domain isn't registered with them?

But my main questions are:

Is my understanding, outlined above, correct? If yes, is #1 the best option (stu seemed to say yes)? and if so, would moniker or namecheap be better, or in this area would they be equivalent?

Thanks to those that have been patient enough to read this far, and especially to those willing to help with some answers. . .

and stapler 2025 - the Internet never sleeps! <g>

Basically yes. Most dns service provided by registrars are free. It's a free add-on. I'd go elsewhere if they wanted you to pay extra for it.

Moniker would be best because their url forwarding is a true 301 Redirect, not like in the case of most registrars which use a 302 Temporary Redirect (the difference are for another discussion). The only 2 registrar's which I'm aware of that offer 301 Redirects are Moniker & GoDaddy.

I've done a bit more research and now understand more, including why 301's better than 302 for SEO, thanks for helping me with that.

But I'm afraid I don't understand why ANY redirects would be necessary - what I'm looking for is to be able to use my registrar's (say moniker's) DNS servers to point my domain/host names directly to the relevant IP addresses, just as the host's DNS server would.

I would want to be able to (eventually) directly add/edit/delete the A/CNAME/MX etc. records there myself.

Why would redirection come into it?

You have 2 choices. Use your registrar's dns or your webhost's dns (or thirdly an independant dns service provider). To use your webhost's dns you point your domain to your webhost's servers. When you do that, you lose the ability to manage your dns with your registrar (manage email etc) and have to rely on whatever your webhost provides for dns services. Having already said that (in general) the registrar's dns are more robust, I'd not point my domain to my webhost's servers but instead url redirect to my website.

As I stated at the beginning of this thread. I'm no expert here, but since nobody more expert than me has jumped into this thread, I'm relaying my limited experience.