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Domain Names, Domain Name Servers & Domain Name Management

All websites require an address that uniquely identifies them and so allows them to be retrieved for display.

What the domain name does

While it is convenient to think of websites in terms of their domain names, the domain name itself is not the address of a site, merely an unambiguous pointer to it.

Domain names provide a convenient name-based address that points to the current physical location of a website (its IP address) through a look-up system called Domain Name Servers (DNSs). As an example, sony.com is one heck of a lot easier to

1. remember, and
2. associate with the corporation that owns it

than would be an anonymous (and here fictitious!!) IP address, with the form 68.124.73.91.

This mechanism also provides an easy way of rehosting a website.

Like moving house, where you don’t change your name, just re-associate it with a different physical location, when rehosting a website it is not the domain name that changes, only the IP address that it points to.

So, the domain name provides an unchanging virtual address that always points to the current physical address of the corresponding server, a bit like a glorified telephone directory.

However, the internet still needs to know where to look for the authoritative lookup information if the addressing is to be correct and the domain respond properly.

Maintaining correspondance between virtual and physical addresses.

Whenever you setup hosting for a website the host company will provide addresses for DNSs (primary and secondary) that are authoritative for the domain as hosted on their network. If you change hosts then these authoritative DNSs will also change.

The information that identifies currently authoritative DNSs for a domain resides in the DNS records that are associated with it. This needs to be kept current if the domain and everything (e.g. email) associated with it, is to work properly.

While changes to DNS records may start working within 6-12 hours, it will typically require up to 48 hours for the propagation process to have reached all corners of the internet.

Managing domain names

When a domain name is registered it will have an associated management account that, among other things, allows the DNS records for the domain to be edited.

If these DNS records are setup wrong, then quite simply, the domain will not resolve properly, and things like websites and email that rely upon it, won’t work.

Whoever has access to this domain management account has effective control of the domain, so as a domain owner it is vitally important that you are among those who have such access. Others might legitimately include your developer, or the registrar themselves… basically, whoever might have registered the domain on your behalf.

Any reputable developer or registrar will be happy to provide the necessary access details to the owners of a domain either by default or upon request.

However, a surprisingly large proportion of website owners seem to be unaware of the importance of this to having real ownership control of a domain. They are also unaware of the potential risks to their business if they do not have this important information in their possession.