So how do domain names work? Well, a domain must be registered with an entity called a “registrar“. A registrar is a company that issues and manages domain names. Examples include Network Solutions, GoDaddy, and Register.com.

Now, your website lives on a web server and has a specific address assigned to it, called an “IP address“, which stands for “Internet protocol address” and is made up of four segments separated by a period, like 123.456.789.123. This IP address points to your website.

Now, the final step is to get your domain to point to this IP address, which in turn points to your website. This is done by delegating your domain name to a set of name servers.

Name servers are machines that are set up specifically for the purpose of routing domain names to the proper IP address. When a domain name is delegated to a set of name servers, that gives authority to those name servers to point the domain name anywhere. So the whole sequence of events looks like this: registrar points the domain name to name servers, name servers point the domain name to an IP address, and IP address points the domain name to a website.

Name servers are usually set up by the company that hosts your website. For example, the hosting Company PowerDNS Hosting name servers are identified with the names ” dns-eu1.powerdns.net ” and dns-eu2.powerdns.net”. This means that if a domain name is delegated to our name servers, we can point the domain anywhere we need to. So who should control your domain name registration?

A Business owner who I knew from my Telstra retail shop days, called me a couple of weeks ago, because their emails and their website were down.

I did some checks and the servers were running, but the domain name had expired! To make matters worse the person who built their website, registered their domain name under his personal email address.   Now they were trying to find this guy and get access to the registrar account to renew the domain.

I got in touch with the registrar and after a painful process verification process, renewed the domain name and got everything working again.

Don’t let this happen to you at any cost.  If you are a business owner, please ensure that:

1. You have access to the domain’s registrar account so that you can manage your domain (including changing name servers)

2. Your email address is on the account so that you get all the notifications

3. Set the domain to auto-renew.

This may sound very trivial now, but when your website and emails are down, it will be a major headache – and to sum it up, I use the words of the business owner who approached me about this matter, “It was like having a mini heart-attack”.

If you have any questions in relation to your domain name, please do not hesitate to contact me, and I will guide you to the right channels, so that are the master of your domain name.