Tonic DNS Primer

Tonic Corporation maintains the primary nameserver for the .TO zone. Our nameserver is the ultimate authority for all domain names in the .TO zone. In other words, when any computer in the world needs to find the IP number for a domain name ending with .TO, it knows to ask our server.

Just like Network Solutions does for .COM, the Tonic nameserver delegates authority for all second level domains. What this means is that our server will not know the IP number for a given .TO name, but we will know which computer does know the answer, and will automatically refer any inquiry to the appropriate nameserver which is authoritative for your second level domain.

This is why when you register a .TO name with us, you have to provide the names of two (or more) nameservers that are authoritative for your domain name, so we can refer inquiries to these nameservers.

Typically, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) runs one or more nameservers, and you can arrange with your ISP to provide name service for your new .TO domain name. In their name server, they have to run two different records to provide support for your domain name. One of these is an "A" record, which provides the mapping from your domain name to the actual IP number of the machine with that name. The other is an "SOA" record, which indicates that your nameserver is authoritative for your .TO domain, i.e. that it knows how to find the IP number for any name in your .TO domain. If the details of this sound confusing, don't worry - your ISP knows all about this, and sets this up for .COM names all the time. Names in .TO work exactly the same way, the only thing that differs is the spelling.

Once you have arranged for nameservice for your .TO name, you can return to our www.tonic.to page, and select the Edit DNS icon. After providing your domain name and DNS password, you can then enter the IP numbers and names of your nameservers.

Any additions or changes you make to the Tonic database through our web page will automatically appear in the primary nameserver for .TO within 6 hours. Our secondary nameservers worldwide will have the most recent updates 12 hours later.

To check whether your DNS is properly set up, you can use the facilities available on the web at www.tonic.to/whois? . When you type in your .TO domain name after the question mark, we first check if you have specified any nameservers. If you have, we check that these machines are reachable on the net, and that they are indeed running the necessary nameserver software. If they are, we then check to see if they are properly set up to be authoritative for your domain name. A short report is immediately generated for each of the nameservers you have previously specified as nameservers for your name.

Please note that because the primary zonefile for .TO is updated 4 times daily, any changes you make to your DNS info at www.tonic.to will not be reflected in the primary zonefile until then, and not known worldwide until up to 12 hours after that.

We hope this information is of assistance in getting your new .TO domain name working quickly and easily.

Thanks for using Tonic as your domain name registry!