Where are my DNS records managed?
Who manages the DNS records for your domain is written in the nameservers. It is the first question behind almost every change, and the answer is often a surprise.
What does that mean?
Every domain has nameservers. They are the place that gives the authoritative answer on where the website points, where the mail goes and which services are on record. Whoever runs the nameservers therefore manages the records too.
That place does not have to be the same one the domain is registered with. Domains get transferred, websites get moved to another host, and often the registration stays with the old provider while the nameservers have long since moved elsewhere. For any change to the records, the nameserver is what counts, not the invoice.
The nameservers themselves are set at the registry, so for .com domains through the registrar at Verisign. That is the only switch thrown there.
In short
The nameserver decides where you change records. The registrar decides which nameserver that is.
What can go wrong?
- You change a record in your host's control panel, but the nameservers point somewhere else. The change never gets published.
- After a transfer, old and new nameservers run in parallel. Depending on which one a visitor asks, they get a different answer.
- Only one nameserver is on record. If it goes down, the domain is completely offline, email included.
How do you fix it?
Change the records where the nameservers point. The provider and the way through its control panel are named in the result above. If the records are meant to live somewhere else in future, create every existing record there first and only then switch the nameservers over. In that order nobody notices the switch at all.
Questions that usually come up together:
