DNS (Domain Name System)
The Domain Name System, or DNS, is the internet's address book. It translates a web address such as yourbusiness.in into the server that holds your website, and it also tells the world where your email should be delivered.
What it means
Computers find each other by numbers, not names. DNS is the system that connects the name people type, such as yourshop.in, to the number of the server that holds your website. Each connection is stored as a record in a small table kept by your DNS provider, which is often your domain registrar or your hosting company.
The records you will hear about
- A record: points your domain to the server's address.
- CNAME: points one name, such as www, to another name.
- MX record: says which service receives your email.
- TXT record: carries proofs, such as the ones that keep your email out of spam folders.
Why it matters for your business
DNS decides whether customers reach you at all. A wrong or missing record can take your website down or silently stop your email, and the fault often looks like something else. Changes can also take several hours to reach everyone, so a move to a new host should be planned, never done in the middle of a sale. Your domain name and your SSL certificate both depend on DNS being set up correctly.
An example
A dental clinic in Madurai moves its website to a new host. The developer switches the clinic to the new host's DNS and copies only the website record, forgetting that the email was set up separately. By evening, appointment emails stop arriving, and nobody notices for two days. The fix is one missing MX record. A copy of the old records, taken before the change, would have prevented the whole episode.
How we handle it
Launch is the moment DNS gets changed, and it falls in the Deploy step of the six-step process we follow at VS Tech Builders. Whoever does the work should note every existing record first, and DNS access should sit in your own registrar account, which fits with us handing over all project accounts on final payment. If you are planning a corporate website, our planning checklist lists what to gather in advance.
Common questions
Why does my website take hours to update after a DNS change?
DNS answers are stored temporarily by internet providers and devices around the world, for a length of time set by a value called TTL. Until those stored copies expire, some visitors still reach the old address. Lowering the TTL a day before a planned move shortens the wait. Most changes settle within a few hours, though occasionally they take a day or more.
Who should control my DNS settings?
You should, through an account in your own business name. Your developer or hosting company can be given access, and removed again, but the login must belong to you. If DNS sits only in a freelancer's account, a dispute or disappearance can leave your website and email unreachable, and recovering control takes time and paperwork.
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