Running a site
Domain, DNS and hosting: who does what
When a website disappears, the cause is usually one of three accounts. Knowing which does what turns a panic into a phone call to the right company.
Three separate things have to work for a visitor to open your website, and they are often sold together under one bill. When one fails, the symptom looks the same: the site does not load. This note separates them.
Three jobs
The domain name is the address people type to reach your site. MDN points out that you cannot buy a domain outright. You pay a registrar for the right to use it for a period, and you renew it. The registrar keeps the record that links the domain to you, and it is the company to contact about renewals, contact details and transfers.
DNS, the Domain Name System, is the directory that turns that address into the number of the computer that holds the site. When a visitor types your address, the browser, or a DNS server it asks, looks up the number registered for your domain. DNS holds more than one kind of record: some point visitors to the website, others say where email for the domain should go.
Hosting is the computer that stores your site’s files and sends them to visitors. If hosting is switched off, unpaid or misconfigured, the site stops even though the domain is fine.
Why changes take time
DNS information is kept in many places and remembered for a while. MDN notes that cached records expire and are refreshed, so a change does not appear everywhere at once. For a newly registered domain it describes this typically taking a few hours. That is why a developer who changes where your domain points may say “give it a few hours”. Email records can be affected too, so a change to DNS should be made with a copy of the old settings kept.
Who to contact
| What you see | Most likely cause | Who to contact first |
|---|---|---|
| The site does not load, but other websites do | Hosting problem, or DNS pointing to the wrong place | The hosting company, then whoever manages DNS |
| A page says the domain has expired or is for sale | The domain was not renewed | The registrar |
| The site loads but shows the wrong or an old version | A caching delay, or the wrong files were published | Your developer |
| Email stopped arriving after a change | A DNS email record was changed or removed | Whoever manages DNS |
This is a guide to likely causes, not a diagnosis; one fault can look like another.
What to write down
Keep one page, kept somewhere safe and shared with whoever may need it:
- the registrar’s name, the account’s email address and who holds the login;
- the date the domain expires and whether renewal is automatic;
- the company that runs your DNS (it is often the registrar, but not always);
- the hosting company, the account, and what it costs and when it renews;
- a payment method that is current, because an expired card is a common reason a domain lapses.
Moving to another registrar or host
To move a domain to a different registrar you need an authorisation code from the current one. ICANN says a registrar must provide that code within five calendar days of the registrant’s request, and that changing the registered owner can trigger a 60-day lock on moving the domain afterwards. Moving a site to a new host is a separate job: the site is copied to the new host, then DNS is changed to point to it. Who owns your website, domain and hosting explains why the name on each account matters.