The above source gives comprehensive definitions.

DNS Zone: The technically correct name for a section of a domain. Zone and domain are used pretty much synonymous, but a zone actually refers to a section of a domain. For instance, if you have "mydomain.com", then you have the "mydomain" section, or zone, of the "com" domain. If you have the "customers.mydomain.com" zone, you have the "customers" section of the "mydomain" section of the "com" domain.

--70.48.220.181 14:11, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

In fact (this is my add-on) there is a lot of confusion with those terms, there are lots of confusions with many computing terms, and that's due to confused computing scientists brains, seems that people whish that their pseudo-knowledge becomes mystery for the masses !

As I like simple things (in french : 'ce qui se conçoit bien s'énonce clairement') that would be my DEFINITION OF A DNS ZONE :

You can't define a DNS ZONE without its context, so here what it is :

In a network (and the web is a huge one) each computer must have an unique ID, in fact they have more than one Unique ID : device adress, IP adress, and a name.

Each computer is part of a local network which is part of a wider network which is part of... ... which is part of the WHOLE WORLD NETWORK (the www, as we don't have any computers yet on other planets).

To have some hierarchy in this wide growing network, we need more than just one name per computer, as we want to be able to adress either a file, a directory, a host, a computer, a local network...

When you register a domain name, in fact, it is the ZONE NAME that you register.

Example: you want people to accees your website by typing 'http://mypages.org'. You must first register (become the temporarly proprietary of) the 'mypages' ZONE and ask (or let someone do it for you) the 'org' DOMAIN proprietary to create this ZONE and to rent it to you.

DNS are only here like guides that help computers to find other computers on a network when using comprehensive adresses like DOMAIN NAMES (= ZONE.DOMAIN). They convert DN in IP adresses (nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn), they use a data base and never stop serving IP adresses (we should call them IPS !!!)

So a DNS ZONE, at the DNS level, is an entry in its database that describes the ZONE, containg several types of informations like :

- the name of the DNS that manage the complete DN (ZONE+DOMAIN) - Aliases (ftp.mypages.org is one for the DNS) - mail server pointer - reverse conversion field(IP to name) ...

(well, I'm not an network expert, and I'm not english, so correct whatever is wrong...)

--70.48.220.181 14:10, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

A zone in the Domain Name System (DNS) is a subdivision of the entire DNS namespace, from a single point, the zone apex, down either to leaf nodes or to the apices of other zones.

RFC 1034 § 2.4 et seq.