The purpose of the NS record for the domain.

[Steven Sakata]

I'm in the process of testing out Resonate's Global Dispatch software.  It's
basically a smart DNS server (i.e., it will resolve DNS queries based on
server availability, network latency between client and server, and load
of server).  However, it only handles "A" records.  Therefore, it usually
works "with" a fully-capable DNS server.  For example:

If we want the web site, www.COMPANYNAME.com, I would set up DNS services
by installing a UNIX box (IP X.X.X.X) running bind 8.2.2.  I would than
register X.X.X.X as the authorative DNS server for COMPANYNAME.com.

I would configure Global Dispatch on another box (IP Y.Y.Y.Y) and have it
provide the "A" record for www.COMPANYNAME.com.

On X.X.X.X I would create an NS record for www.COMPANYNAME.com that would
point to Y.Y.Y.Y:

www.COMPANYNAME.com.		IN	NS	Y.Y.Y.Y


The above set up works fine.

However, we also want our customers to get to our web site via COMPANYNAME.com
(i.e. no preceding "www").  We would have to add an entry like:

COMPANYNAME.com.		IN	NS	Y.Y.Y.Y

I was wondering if this would cause any problems, because normally, the
entry looks like:

COMPANYNAME.com.		IN	NS	X.X.X.X


What is the purpose of the "NS" record for the domain?  If I change the entry
so that it points to Y.Y.Y.Y, does that mean the rest of the Internet will
start sending all DNS queries for *.COMPANYNAME.com to Y.Y.Y.Y instead of
X.X.X.X?  Or does this "NS" record pertain specifically to COMPANYNAME.com
and not *.COMPANYNAME.com?


Thanks, Steven.