In my line of work, you can imagine, I spend a lot of time working with clients on websites. We build websites for clients and want to make sure they go live the right way. I get questions all the time about how to understand how the internet works.
What is DNS?
DNS stands for the Domain Name System. The DNS records tell the internet where to send your internet traffic. The most common (that I will discuss later) are address (A) records, CNAME records, name server (NS) records and mail exchange (MX) records.
Many web developers simply tell their clients to point the Name Server Record to the new host and you let the web developer manage that for you. The problem you face is that you lose control of your website. If something happens to your developer or you have a falling out, your website and email can stop working... in a heart beat.
So, what does this mean for you? How do you know what you should do to maintain functionality of your site and your email? Bear in mind that my descriptions below are what I tell my my clients, but I think everyone should follow these rules.
