Name servers

Name servers are the authoritative servers that hold and answer all the DNS records for your domain.

Severity if missing

Medium

What it is

When any server on the internet needs to know something about your domain — its IP address, its mail servers, its security records — it asks your name servers. They are the source of truth for your entire DNS configuration.

Domains normally have at least two name servers. That redundancy means that if one goes offline, the other can still answer, keeping your domain reachable.

Why it matters

Name servers are a single point of failure for your whole online presence. If they all go down, nothing about your domain can be resolved — website, email and everything else stops working. Having only one name server is a reliability risk.

The risk

A single name server means that if it fails, your entire domain becomes unreachable. No name servers at all means the domain does not work.

How Pentrawl checks it

Pentrawl looks up the name servers for your domain and counts them. Two or more passes the check; a single name server is flagged as a warning; none is an issue.

How to fix it

Your domain registrar or DNS provider manages your name servers. Ensure at least two are configured — most providers set this up correctly by default.

Example (two name servers)

yourdomain.com. NS ns1.yourprovider.com.
yourdomain.com. NS ns2.yourprovider.com.

Related checks

A record → CAA records →

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