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• Domain Registration
• DNS

Related Articles

• Pointing Your Domain Name to a Third-Party Host Company's Servers
• Modifying .DE Name Servers
• Managing DNS for Your Domain
• Registering Your Own Name Servers
• Checking if Your Name Servers are Authoritative
• What is DNS?
• Can a domain registered elsewhere use your system to register new nameservers?
• Managing the Zone File for Your Domain

What is a zone file?

A zone is another name for a domain name or a sub-domain in a DNS server. Every domain and sub-domain has a zone. These zone files contain records, in plain text, which hold the DNS information that links a domain or sub-domain name to an IP address. Each zone file usually contains several different records.

The difference between zones and domains is hierarchy. A domain can have a sub-domain contained within its hierarchal structure. While that sub-domain also has a zone, it’s not considered a sub-zone. There is no such thing as a sub-zone. All zones are a separate entity. While zones can be linked, they do not have a hierarchal structure.