DNS is one of those technical terms that appears whenever you register a domain, move a website, set up email or change hosting. It can sound more complicated than it is, but the basic idea is simple.<\/p>\n
DNS stands for Domain Name System. It helps browsers and mail servers find the right destination for a domain name.<\/p>\n
Computers use IP addresses to find servers on the internet. People use domain names because they are easier to remember.<\/p>\n
When you type a website address into your browser, your device needs to find out which server is responsible for that domain. DNS is the system that helps make that connection.<\/p>\n
You can think of it a little like an address book. You ask for a domain name and DNS helps point you toward the correct server address.<\/p>\n
When you enter a domain name, your browser checks whether it already knows where to go. If it does not, it asks DNS servers to help find the right record.<\/p>\n
Once the correct address is found, the browser can connect to the web server and request the page. Most of this happens quietly in the background, often in a fraction of a second.<\/p>\n
Different DNS records do different jobs. A records point a domain or subdomain to an IPv4 address. AAAA records point to an IPv6 address. CNAME records point one name to another name.<\/p>\n
MX records tell email where to go. TXT records are often used for verification and email authentication.<\/p>\n
You do not need to memorise every record type, but it helps to know that websites and email can depend on different DNS settings.<\/p>\n
When DNS records change, the update may not appear everywhere immediately. DNS information is cached by different systems to make the internet faster and more efficient.<\/p>\n
This delay is often called propagation. In many cases changes are visible fairly quickly, but it is sensible to allow time when moving hosting, changing email providers or launching a new site.<\/p>\n
Incorrect DNS can make a website disappear, stop email from arriving or break important services such as verification, security and deliverability.<\/p>\n
That is why DNS changes should be made carefully. If you are changing nameservers, moving hosting or editing email records, take a copy of the current settings first and only change the records you understand.<\/p>\n
DNS may be invisible when everything is working, but it is one of the foundations your website and email rely on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DNS is one of the invisible systems that makes websites and email work. Here is a simple explanation of what it does and why it matters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-domains","category-hosting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4uhosting.co.uk\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4uhosting.co.uk\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4uhosting.co.uk\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4uhosting.co.uk\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4uhosting.co.uk\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1533"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.4uhosting.co.uk\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3673,"href":"https:\/\/www.4uhosting.co.uk\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533\/revisions\/3673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4uhosting.co.uk\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4uhosting.co.uk\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4uhosting.co.uk\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4uhosting.co.uk\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}