What is DNS?

What it is

Computers find each other by numeric addresses, not names. When someone types your web address or sends you an email, their device asks DNS where to go, and DNS answers with the right address. The answers are kept as records in a zone for your domain.

A business owner will mostly hear about a few record types:

• A record: points a name to the IPv4 address of a server. An AAAA record does the same for IPv6.
• CNAME: makes one name an alias for another name.
• MX: says which servers receive email for the domain.
• TXT: holds text used for verification and for email authentication. SPF, DKIM and DMARC records live here and help other mail systems judge whether a message came from you.

Why it matters to a business

• Website: a deleted or wrong A or CNAME record makes the site unreachable even though the server is running.
• Email: a wrong MX record sends mail to the wrong place or nowhere. Missing SPF, DKIM or DMARC records can push genuine messages into spam or get them rejected.
• Delays: other systems cache each record for as long as its time-to-live setting says, so a correction can take minutes or hours to reach everyone.
• Control: whoever can edit your records can redirect your site and mail, so that access belongs with the business.

How this shows up in our work

We manage DNS records for clients, including the website, mail routing, SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Sites we host use Cloudflare for DNS. For each client domain we record where it is registered and where its DNS is hosted, and we track its renewal date.

The company that rents you the name is covered in domain registrars, and the place the site runs is covered in web hosting.

Learn more

• Domain Name System on WikipediaA neutral overview of how DNS works and its record types.
• What is DNS? at CloudflareA step by step walkthrough of a name lookup, written for non-specialists.
• ICANN lookupA public tool for checking a domain's registrar and renewal date.