Domain name and DNS explained

What is a domain name?

A domain name is the name visitors type in, for example yourcompany.nl. It consists of two parts: the name itself and the extension (.nl, .com, .eu). You never buy a domain name outright — you rent the right to use it, usually per year. As long as you renew on time, it stays yours. For .nl domains, registration is managed by SIDN.

What does DNS do?

Computers do not work with names but with IP addresses, a series of numbers indicating where a server is located. DNS (Domain Name System) is the phone book of the internet: it looks up the right number for a name. When someone types in your address, their computer asks DNS where that site is, gets the IP address back and fetches the page from there. That happens in a fraction of a second.

The most important DNS records

Every domain comes with a short list of settings, known as records. These are the ones you will come across most often:

• A-recordPoints your domain to the IP address of the web server. This determines where your website is served from.
• CNAMEForwards one name to another name. Often used to point www to your main domain.
• MX-recordIndicates which server handles your email. If this is not right, your mail will not arrive.
• TXT-recordContains textual data, for example SPF and DKIM settings that help prevent your email from being treated as spam.
• NameserversDetermine which party manages the records above. This is the master switch for your domain.

Website and email are separate from each other

A useful insight: your website and your email do not have to be in the same place. The A-record points to your web server, the MX-record to your mail server. So you can host your site with one party and your email with another. That also explains why email can simply keep working when a website is moved — provided the records are transferred carefully.

Why does a change take a while?

DNS data is remembered temporarily along the way to keep the internet fast. If you change a record, some networks will keep using the old data for a time. This is called propagation. In practice a change is often applied everywhere within a few minutes to a few hours; for a migration, allow up to 24 to 48 hours to be safe. So never delete an old environment straight away.

Linking a domain to hosting

You link a domain by pointing the nameservers or the A-record to your hosting package. You can read exactly what hosting is in what is web hosting. Straight afterwards, make sure there is also an SSL certificate in place, so that your site is reachable via https. You will find more about our packages at web hosting.