We’ve already discussed how to get your own domain and reviewed the available options for building and hosting a website and email. Now it’s time to dive into what ties all these elements together — the Domain Name System (DNS). Think of DNS as the internet’s giant phone book: when you type an address like yourbusiness.com into your browser, DNS servers help translate that name into the corresponding IP address (e.g., 192.0.2.1) so your browser knows where to connect. Without proper DNS configuration, your website won’t be accessible, and your emails won’t be delivered.

Why is DNS so important for you?

Properly configuring DNS records is the foundation of your online presence. It ensures that your customers can find your website and that important emails don’t get lost in cyberspace. Mistakes in DNS can lead to outages and missed opportunities.

Key types of DNS records you’ll need:

🟢 A Record (Address Record): Linking Your Domain to Your Website

What it is:
An A record maps your domain name (e.g., yourbusiness.com) to the IP address of your web server. Think of it as assigning a precise street address to your digital home.

Why you need it:
Without an A record, browsers won’t know where to send requests to display your site. It’s the most basic and essential record for any functioning website.

Example configuration:

yourbusiness.com. IN A 192.0.2.1

Here, yourbusiness.com is your domain, and 192.0.2.1 is the IP address of the server hosting your website.

📬 MX Record (Mail Exchange Record): Routing Your Email

What it is:
An MX record tells other mail servers where to deliver emails addressed to your domain. It’s like setting up a mail forwarding address for your email system.

Why you need it:
If you want to receive emails at addresses like [email protected], an MX record is necessary so other servers know where to send the messages.

Example configuration:

yourbusiness.com. IN MX 10 mail.yourbusiness.com. mail.yourbusiness.com. IN A 192.0.2.10

In this example, mail.yourbusiness.com is the name of your mail server, and 10 is its priority. The lower the number, the higher the priority. If you have multiple mail servers, they’ll be listed with different priorities to indicate the order in which they should be used.