In part one of pieces of a website series we discussed the need to purchase a domain name and then pointing this domain to the machine that is 'hosting' your website.

How exactly do you point to a machine?

IP Address.

The way Domain Name Server (DNS) works is something like this.

1) You as the owner of the domain name have to say which "Name Server" has the correct match of your domain name to a specific ip address.

For example you purchased a domain name - thisismydomain.com
You, as the owner of this domain have to tell the internet basically which computer to listen to that says "thisismydomain.com" is being hosted on ip "123.45.67.89"

For instance there could be other Name Servers that say I know where thisismydomain.com is, but you as owner pick who the authority Name Server is.  This is usually your hosting company name server or one you run yourself.