That’s not what I was talking about.
Technitium does not (necessarily) use a third-party service, but sends all queries directly to the root nodes.
By default, any DNS server will look to the root servers for any query. The root servers only know what DNS servers are authoritative for top level domains (TLDs), and tell the client querying “Hey, go ask the “.com” (for example) server.”
That server knows what DNS servers are authoritative for the zones under .com, and says “Hey, go ask the “querieddomain” server.”
Then your machine asks that server for the “www” (for example) host, and that DNS server says “Here’s the IP.”
Unless the DNS server your machine is pointing at is configured to use a forwarder, wherein queries for any records that it isn’t authoritative for or aren’t in its local cache are resent to whatever DNS server is configured as the forwarder. The recursion like above is done between your DNS server and its forwarder, finally returning you an IP address when one is identified.
There’s a bit more to it than that, but that’s what I was talking about. Out of the box, a DNS server uses root hints, which are IP addresses of the root DNS servers. You would need to configure forwarder(s) in your DNS server if you desire them.
If your country has anyone in it that the US has decided to call “terrorists,” better start massing troops.