Registration of a domain name establishes a set of Start of Authority (SOA) records in the DNS servers of the parent domain, indicating the IP address (or domain name) of DNS servers that are authoritative for the domain. This provides merely a reference for how to find the domain data – not the actual domain data.
Registration of a domain does not automatically imply the provision of DNS services for the registered domain. Most registrars do offer DNS hosting as an optional free service for domains registered through them. If DNS services are not offered, or the end-user opts out, the end-user is responsible for procuring or self-hosting DNS services. Without DNS services for the domain, the registration is essentially useless for Internet services, although this situation is often encountered with domain parking and cybersquatting.
