How do I know who my DNS host is?
Your DNS host may be, but frequently is not, the same as the domain registrar. You can use this method to definitively find out what company hosts your DNS.
Run the following command in a Linux/Mac terminal where contoso.com is replaced with your TOP LEVEL domain only. For instance, if you want to use academy.contoso.com, use contoso.com in this command:
dig contoso.com ns
Look in the response for the ANSWER SECTION:
;; ANSWER SECTION:
contoso.com. 172800 IN NS ns1-205.azure-dns.com.
contoso.com. 172800 IN NS ns2-205.azure-dns.net.
contoso.com. 172800 IN NS ns3-205.azure-dns.org.
contoso.com. 172800 IN NS ns4-205.azure-dns.info.
This domain’s DNS provider is Microsoft Azure.
From the value after IN NS you can determine the DNS host. Here are a few big ones and what DNS host they belong to:
If you see a record that mentions… | Your DNS Host Is… |
Just your own company brand! (Or something not found on this list) | Ask your company’s Infrastructure/IT Team – they will definitely be able to set up a DNS record for you. |
| Amazon Route 53 |
| Google Domains |
| CloudFlare |
| Microsoft Azure |
| Akamai |
| NS1 (note: IBM subsidiary) |
| UltraDNS (Neustar) |
| GoDaddy |
| |
| Oracle + Dyn |
| DigiCert |
If the value in the ANSWER SECTION doesn’t match any of these, please reach out to your company’s infrastructure or IT team for help.
DNS Setup Hints by Provider
Akamai Edge DNS
Amazon Route 53
Note that if you’re setting up a Custom Domain for your Academy, there are special combo instructions to help you set up both at the same time. Otherwise, see:
Creating records by using the Amazon Route 53 console - Amazon Route 53
Navigate to your DNS zone and click “+ Record set.” Fill in the Name, select Type (CNAME or A) and fill in the correct values.
Note that Cloudflare’s subdomains settings has a very convenient feature called “Proxy” that you can use to handle DNS and the reverse proxy and SSL Certificate that Custom Academies Domains require with minimal configuration needed. We strongly recommend that you use that option if you are already using Cloudflare for DNS as it’s the fastest and easiest way to set this up.
Here are Cloudflare’s docs. Create subdomain · Cloudflare DNS docs
CSC Global/UltraDNS/Neustar
DigiCert (DNS Made Easy)
GoDaddy
If googledomains.com is present in your nameservers, you'll have to check whether you are using Google Domains or Google Cloud DNS. Your domain should have DNS settings you can edit in one of these places.
Google Domains
This is a normal domain registrar, which offers basic DNS: Manage resource records - Google Domains Help
Google Cloud DNS
This is part of Google Cloud Platform (GCP), so if you use that platform your DNS might be managed in Cloud DNS: Quickstart: Set up DNS records for a domain name with Cloud DNS | Google Cloud
NS1