Your website
Domains and DNS, and why you should own both
Your domain is the one asset in this list that cannot be rebuilt. Everything else can be remade. A domain in somebody else's name is a negotiation waiting to happen.
What it is
The two things people confuse
- The registrar is where the domain is registered and renewed. It is who you pay each year.
- DNS is the directory that says which server the domain points at. It can live at the registrar or somewhere else.
- They are frequently different companies, which is why moving a website and moving a domain are two separate jobs.
How it works
Why ownership matters more than anything else here
- A website can be rebuilt. A domain that somebody else registered on your behalf cannot simply be taken back.
- We have seen businesses unable to reach their own email because a former supplier held the registration.
- The registrant should be your company, with your email address, in your account.
What to check
What to check today
- Log into the registrar yourself. If you cannot, that is the finding.
- Confirm the registrant contact is a company address, not an individual who might leave.
- Turn on auto renew and registrar lock.
- Note the expiry date somewhere that is not only in that account.
Worth knowing
The email connection nobody expects
- Your email almost certainly depends on DNS records for the same domain.
- Which is why an expired domain or a careless DNS change takes down email as well as the website, usually at the same moment.
The short version
Check you can log into the registrar. That single test finds the problem before it becomes an emergency.
Start here
Not sure you actually control your own domain?
Tell us the domain and we will help you find out who holds it and what to do if the answer is not you. This is worth checking before it is urgent.
800.274.6775Free consultation · Family owned · Never outsourced
- You talk to the people who do the work, not an account handler.
- Fixed scope and fixed price before anything starts.
- You own every file, every login, and every asset. Always.
- Straight answers, including when the answer is that you do not need us.
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