Domains, hosting and DNS, explained once and properly

A student pays for a domain in the morning and hosting in the afternoon. That evening he types the address into his phone and gets nothing. Next morning, still nothing.

He assumes he has been scammed and starts writing an angry message to the hosting company.

He has not been scammed. He bought two separate things from two separate companies and never introduced them to each other. Neither company did anything wrong. Nobody told him there was a third thing — the introduction — and that it is the part beginners never hear about until it fails.

This lesson makes sure that never happens to you, and that you never sound uncertain explaining it to a client who is about to spend money.

Words in this lesson

The three things, and what each one does

Think of a shop in a busy market.

The domain is your registered business name on the signboard. The hosting is the actual shop space you rent — the place with your goods in it. DNS is the market directory that says "Sharp Cuts — Block C, Shop 14."

Register the name and rent no shop, and customers ask for you and find nothing. Rent the shop and register no name, and you exist but nobody can ask for you. Do both but never get into the directory, and you are sitting in a fully stocked shop while customers are told you don't exist.

That third case is the student above. It is the most common, because it's the only one that has no receipt.

Renting, not buying

Nobody buys a domain. You rent it, usually a year at a time.

This matters more than it sounds:

• A domain that expires stops working, and the site goes dark even though hosting is paid and the files are fine
• After a grace period, an expired domain can be registered by somebody else
• A business that has printed the address on its signboard, cars and packaging cannot simply change it

Every year a few businesses lose their web address because a renewal email went to a staff member who left. In Module 8 you will hand over renewal dates in writing, and this is why.

Who owns the domain — read this twice

The domain must be registered in the client's name, in an account the client controls.

Not yours. Not "yours for now, it's simpler". Not your agency's.

Register a client's domain in your own account and one of two things happens:

1. You are decent, and years later you are still doing unpaid admin for a business you no longer work with, chasing renewals for people who barely remember you.
2. You fall out, and you are now holding their business address hostage — whether you meant to or not. Even handing it back is slow, awkward, and makes you look exactly like the kind of person clients warn each other about.

The professional arrangement is simple: the client pays for the domain with their own card, in their own account, and adds you as a user if the registrar allows it. You do the work; they hold the keys.

If a client genuinely cannot set it up, register it in their name with their details and hand over the login in writing at handover. Then it is theirs from the start and there is nothing to argue about later.

How the introduction actually happens

Two ways. You will meet both.

Nameservers — the whole directory

You tell the registrar: "for this domain, ask my host's directory." The host then controls all the details.

This is the usual choice, and the one to prefer when you can. One setting, changed once, in the registrar's control panel. After that, the host handles everything.

A record — one specific entry

You keep the directory where it is and change a single line: "this name points at this machine number."

Use this when the domain's directory is already doing other jobs you must not disturb — most often the business's email.

The mistake that costs a client their email: changing nameservers moves every record, including the mail ones. A business whose email runs through the current directory can lose mail delivery the moment you switch. Ask first: "does your email run on this domain?" If yes, prefer the A record, or copy the mail records across before switching. Losing a client's email is a much bigger deal than a website being down.

Propagation, and why two phones disagree

Change the directions and the world does not learn instantly. Computers everywhere keep the old answer for a while, because asking every time would be slow.

So for a period — often minutes, sometimes considerably longer — some people see the new site and some see the old one, or nothing. Your phone on mobile data may show the new site while your laptop on Wi-Fi shows the old.

Nothing is broken. Nothing needs changing. The single worst thing you can do here is decide it failed and start changing settings, because then you genuinely do have a problem, and you no longer know which change caused it.

Tell the client this before you make the change, not after. "It may take a few hours to reach everybody" is reassurance in advance and an excuse afterwards.

Common mistakes

The short version

• Three things, not two: the domain (name), the hosting (space), and DNS (the directions connecting them).
• The commonest failure is owning both and never connecting them — and it's the one with no receipt.
• You rent a domain. Expired domains take working sites down and can be taken by someone else.
• The domain belongs in the client's own account. Anything else ends badly, whatever you intend.
• Nameservers hand the whole directory to your host. An A record changes one line.
• Ask whether their email runs on the domain before switching nameservers.
• Propagation means different people see different things for a while. Say so in advance, and change nothing.

Try it yourself

No money yet. This is a paper exercise, and it's the conversation you'll have with every client.

Pick the business you've been using since Module 1 and write out, in your own words:

1. The domain you would recommend, and a second choice in case it's taken. Do not buy anything.
2. Who will pay for it and whose account it will live in — written as you'd say it to them.
3. One sentence asking whether their email runs on that domain, phrased so a non-technical owner understands why you're asking.
4. What you'll tell them about propagation, in advance, in one sentence.

Then explain the three things — domain, hosting, DNS — to somebody who is not doing this course. A sibling, a friend, anyone. If they can repeat it back, you understand it. If they look confused, you have found the part you only half know, and it will be the part that fails you in front of a client.

You'll know you've got it when you can explain why a paid domain and paid hosting can still show nothing, without using the word DNS until you've already made it make sense.