The registrar is USA and host UK.
I know there's many variables at play, but would like our site to load up as fast as possible.
Cheers :)
[edited by: Webwork at 4:23 pm (utc) on Feb. 19, 2006]
[edit reason] Charter [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]
There are two factors here: where is the REGISTRY? (NOT the registrar). AND, where does the registry have nameservers? In the case where your address is not cached, your nameservers have to be looked-up at the registry.
Secondly, if you are using your registrar's name servers, where are they? Once the visitor's ISP's nameserver knows where your nameservers are, it has to go there to actually look up the IP address.
You definately want to host your DNS within your target service area. So, the DNS service provided by the registrar may or may not be appropriate for you.
Worst case would be, for example, if your service area is in the U.S. but your domain is registered in the Outer Monhovia ccTLD, and you purchased your domain through a registrar in Lower Slobovia.
First, packets have to be exchanged with a server in Outer Monhovia to determine the address of your nameservers. Then, packets have to be exchanged with a server in Lower Slobivia, to get your website's IP address. NOT good.
You can minimize the second lookup by making sure that you have nameservers in your service area. (Where your users are.) There are relatively inexpensive DNS services that will give you multiple DNS servers in the U.S. as well as typically one in Europe and one in Asia. However, if your service area is somewhere else, it might be best to go shopping in that area for a DNS service.
You have no control over the first lookup. (The one that retrives the addresses of your nameservers.) HOWEVER, this is not a big issue with ccTLDs that are a member of RIPE, as RIPE has mirror servers in Florida and in other places around the world. This includes most of the western European countries.
In any case, this will (potentially) affect only the initial DNS lookup in a session for each visitor. That's still important, of course, as you don't want your visitors staring at a blank browser window when the first enter your site!
Once the visitor has the initial DNS lookup, it is cached, and the IP address is used. The visitor's ISP will also cache the address, so if your site is sufficiently popular (so that the cache will not have expired since the last user's visit), the lookup would typically be served by visitor's ISPs.
P.S. I just re-read your message, and I guess I've addressed a more general case than yours.
If your site is in the U.K., I assume that is your service area? Your registrar is in the U.S. Where is your registry, though? Is it a .com, or a .co.uk, or something else?
I don't think I would use your registrar's U.S.-based DNS service. Go with a third party for DNS. If your target audience is almost entirely within the UK, go with a UK-based DNS service. If it is broader than that, you might want to go with a U.S.-based DNS service that has a mirror in the U.K.
If your domain is a .com, you will not have an issue with the first lookup, as the root servers for .com are well-distributed around the world. .coms are the no-brainer for the first lookup.
To answer your first question, precisely, no it doesn't matter at all where your REGISTRAR is. (Where your REGISTRY is does matter.) The registrar doesn't matter one hoot in the DNS lookup process, provided that you take control of this yourself by choosing an appropriate DNS provider instead of using the DNS servers that they provide you "for free".
