Question 4: Cloudflare Nameservers

Customer Inquiry

Subject: Cloudflare Nameservers

How are Cloudflare's nameservers different from the DNS provided by Google DNS or OpenDNS?
Can I delegate to Cloudflare nameservers while still using my host’s DNS?

Response to Customer

Hello,

Thank you for your excellent questions about Cloudflare's DNS.

The primary difference between Cloudflare's nameservers and services like Google DNS or OpenDNS is their role in the DNS ecosystem.
Cloudflare provides authoritative DNS, while Google DNS and OpenDNS provide recursive DNS (or public DNS resolvers).

• Authoritative DNS (Cloudflare): This is like the phone book for your domain.
  • It holds the official records for your domain and is responsible for telling the rest of the internet where to find your website, email servers, etc.
  • When you use Cloudflare as your authoritative DNS, you manage your DNS records in the Cloudflare dashboard.
• Recursive DNS (Google DNS, OpenDNS): This is like a librarian that looks up information in phone books.
  • When you type a domain into your browser, your computer asks a recursive resolver (like Google DNS) for the IP address.
  • The resolver then goes and finds the authoritative nameserver to get the answer.

Regarding your second question, when you delegate your nameservers to Cloudflare, you are making Cloudflare the authoritative source for your DNS records.

• This means that your host's DNS will no longer be used.
• You will need to import all of your existing DNS records from your host into Cloudflare to ensure a smooth transition and avoid any service interruptions.

I hope this explanation is helpful. Please let us know if you have any more questions.

Best regards,

João Estêvão
Customer Support Engineer
Cloudflare

Thought Process

1. Distinguish Authoritative vs. Recursive DNS:
   
   This is the core of the question. I need to explain this distinction clearly.
   The phone book/librarian analogy is a good way to make this technical concept accessible to a non-technical audience.


2. Address the "Delegation" Question Directly:
   
   The customer's second question is a direct "yes/no" type question, but with a critical caveat.
   I need to be very clear that delegating to Cloudflare means their host's DNS is no longer used and they must migrate their records.
   This is a crucial piece of information to prevent them from breaking their site.


3. Keep it High-Level:
   
   There's no need to go into the fine details of DNS lookups. The goal is to answer the customer's questions clearly and concisely.

Tools I Would Use

Internal Cloudflare Dashboard:

I would check the customer's domain in our system to see if they have already started the process of adding their domain to Cloudflare.
This would give me context on whether this is a prospective customer or someone who is in the middle of setup.

Dig/NSLookup:

If the customer provides a domain name, I could use `dig` to show them the difference.
"dig +trace example.com" would show the full DNS lookup process, illustrating the roles of both recursive and authoritative nameservers in action.
This can be a powerful educational tool for a more technical user.