1. I have emphasized that name servers only hold information for their own domains. Any other information they may have about another domain is cached, temporary data that has an expiration date attached to it. The domain that a name server has information about is said to be the domain that a name server is authoritative for. Alternatively we say: ``a name server is authoritative for the domain.'' For instance, the server ns2.cranzgot.co.za is authoritative for the domain cranzgot.co.za. Hence, lookups from anywhere on the Internet having the domain cranzgot.co.za ultimately are the responsibility of ns2.cranzgot.co.za, and originate (albeit through a long series of caches) from the host ns2.cranzgot.co.za. From Rute-Users-Guide