DNS or A Record?

Is it better to change to nameservers?

[Murmur]

I have a query regarding switching my domain name over to my web server. My concern is response times and I think I have misunderstood the situation.

If I switch my domain to the Nameservers of my webhost, wont there be the added time it takes for the visitor of my website to reach my web hosts nameserver before the A record is delivered and they are redirected to my unique IP?

(1) For example, visitor types in Domain.com
They go to nameservers ns1.webhost.com and ns2.webhost.com
They get redirected to the A record and end up at my IP

(2) If I simply change the A record at Domain.com registrar to my IP then wont they just go directly to the IP.

My concern is that in the situation (1) if the visitor is from Africa, they may be forces to go to nameservers of a webhost in the USA before being redirected to our server location in Africa.

Have I completely misunderstood?
Does it make any difference whether you use A record or nameserver for your domain name?

[LifeinAsia]

Visitors do not go to your nameserver then get redirected to your server. DNS nameservers are the central clearinghouses that map domain names to IP addresses.

Here's how it works-
Setup:
On your nameservers, you register example.com to IP a.b.c.d.
Your visitors have DNS servers registered in the network configuration on their computers.

Process:
A visitor types example.com in their browser (or follows a link).
If the information for example.com is not cached locally, the browser sends a request to their DNS server asking for the IP address for example.com.
If that DNS server does not have that information, it forwards the request to a higher tier DNS server. (This may continue for a few more tiers depending on how the respective DNS servers are setup.)
If none of the DNS servers have the information, the request finally gets to a top level DNS server that sends the request to your nameserver.
Your nameserver replies with a.b.c.d and the information gets sent back down the chain until it eventually gets back to your browser.
After the initial request, the information is stored at each DNS server for a certain period of time.

So after an initial propagation, DNS lookups should be very quick as the information gets stored at multiple locations around the globe.

The only real issue is if your nameservers do not respond to a top level request. Then no information will be available (and people can't get to your site) until your nameservers come back up and provide the info. So it's more of a matter of reliability. Do you think your hosting company is more reliable than your registrar for keeping its nameservers available?

Also, there's no reason why you can't specify multiple nameservers. (However, if you do, you'll have to remember to update ALL of them if your IP address changes.)