Domains & DNS
Complete and managed services for your domain, ensuring your DNS settings are correct and pointing in the right direction
Migration of existing domain names (e.g. companydomain.co.uk) to or from another provider or registration of a new domain is a task that sounds simple but unless you know what you are doing, can be quite troublesome. We can also register new domains from scratch and point your website in the right direction. There are a range of domain providers and we have worked with a range of them.
For both scenarios, the service incudes management of the domains including dealing with any requests from the registrar (e.g., Nominet or ICAAN), carrying out any updates to contact information, and implementing changes to name server records as an when required. We will also handle the renewals.
The individual services we cover:
• New domain registration
• DNS transfer IN
• Edit DNS records
• Short TTL (Time To Live) DNS services
• Complete DNS/Domain management
DNS (Domain Name System) is a directory of domain related information. It is essentially a system that translates human-readable domain names, such as www.d8a-it-services.co.uk, into IP addresses, which are the numerical addresses that computers use to identify each other on the internet. This translation process is necessary because while humans find it easier to remember and use domain names, computers rely on IP addresses to connect with each other. DNS allows computers to connect to websites and other internet resources by looking up their corresponding IP addresses.
Our domain name management service is comprehensive and covers the configuring of DNS records as and when needed. Such records include, but are not limited to the following:
• A - which is the mapping of a name to an IP address (e.g. d8a-it-services.co.uk to 23.227.38.74)
• CNAME - which is the mapping of a name to another name (e.g. businessnetworks.co.uk to www.d8a-it-services.co.uk)
• SPF (Sender Policy Framework) - which defines a list of servers that are entitled to send email on behalf of your domain (to ensure that receiving servers can make good decisions about whether an email from your domain is legitimate)
• DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)- which is another way to ensure email sent by your domain is legitimate, although this record would be used to publish a signature, ensuring that messages signed from your domain match your electronic signature.
Changes to these records can take 24 to 48 hours to take effect. This is because when a computer checks the DNS, it will cache the answer to the query for 24 to 48 hours. This presents a problem if you want to make a quick change to a record (e.g., if a web server goes down and gets moved to new hosting or during an email migration).
To assist with this, we offer short TTL (Time To Live) services which ensures that when the record is looked up, the computer checking the record is told to hold the record for no longer than about 30 to 60 minutes. For less critical domains we also offer standard DNS with longer TTL times which is included within the domain registration charges to keep costs down.
We are committed to providing a solution that is tailored to the operations of your business. It is not a one size fits all approach when it comes to our solutions. Our open-ended and custom direction is fully adaptable and can scale in-line as your company grows.
Our responsive and knowledgeable team of IT professionals are ready to discuss a managed domain and DNS solution that works for you and your business. Please contact us by calling directly on 020 8315 5820, sending an email to enquiries@d8a-it-services.co.uk or by completing our enquiry form.
