DNS Records for Newbies - How To Manage Website Records

In this video, we take a practical look at DNS records and how to manage and edit domain records. Whether you are a web designer, IT professional, freelancer, or someone who has a website and needs to figure out how to manage your domain records, this video will help you out.
This video is a 100% practical look at DNS records with no fluff or extremely technical explanations. By the end of this video, you will know:
- What are DNS records?
- What are the most-common DNS record types?
- What are the differences between NS records, A records, MX , CNAME, and TXT records?
- What's the difference between a domain registrar and a nameserver?
- How can you easily launch a new website without your email going down?
- What apps or tools can help you find domain records?
- What DNS record types will you need for setting up email with Google Suite / Office 365 / Microsoft Exchange / Zoho?
Like I said, this video covers a lot. The advice here is based on years of real-world experience in managing hundreds of website domains for different clients and their businesses.
Over the past decade, I've built and managed websites for hundreds of businesses. With hundreds of websites, that means hundreds of different website domain configurations and DNS record setups.
Accompanying this video is a related blog post that looks at DNS records and DNS record types, with a focus on helping web designers. You can check it out here: offsprout.com/blog/all-about-.... The companion article is great. It dives into the different DNS record types, components of the records, tools to help you manage your websites' DNS records, best practices for launching new websites and managing DNS records, and more.
If you're 100% unfamiliar with what a DNS record is - DNS stand for Domain Name System, which is a database containing information about every website. Where your website lives on the Internet, who is hosting your email, all of that information is contained in DNS records. And when you launch a new website, or add an email service to your domain, you will need to modify your domain's DNS records to make everything work. This video will help you figure all of that out.
After checking out this video, check out our channel, which has videos on sales for web designers, link-building tactics to get more website traffic, and more.
You can also check out other articles of ours at offsprout.com/blog
#dns #dnsrecords

[@laurapamelaesteban7518]

I'm here to learn more about DNS, specifically, about A records because I felt so bullied at work for not understanding the backend of website development. Fairly new with this and you have helped me understand these terms so easily. Thank you very much for the help.

[@RandyK1ng]

This is a great treatise on DNS. One thing to mention right off the bat is that DNS stands for "Domain Name Service" and refers to the network of servers that exclusively hand out these records when queried. :)

[@msp767]

4:46 NS records (Name server) 7:44 A records (Adress) 12:52 MX records (Mail exchange) 15:28 CNAME records (Canonical name) 17:34 TXT records (Text) 18:50 DNS pitfalls & tools 23:49 Workflow for launching new website

[@stevegreig8324]

That was very useful. Thanks! One really basic question I am still struggling with is this. Do you have to have a stable IP address before you can set up the DNS records to point to your site. In AWS I start and stop my EC2 instance to save money. Every time I start it I get a new IP address.

[@stepanhrdy6186]

@@stevegreig8324 No, you just need to update the DNS record every time it changes (otherwise it would direct visitors to the old IP).

[@csexecutiveservices]

​@@stevegreig8324 You can also use something like no IP - which will (install client on ec2 instance) automatically check and update the IP info for ec2-your-instance, or an AWS elastic IP, which stays stable to manage that.

[@anainmazatlan]

Thank you so very much for this very informative and clearly presented explanation of DNS records. It’s the first time someone has actually clearly explained what an NS is versus the DNS records. For a long time I thought it was the same thing!

[@nypizzadsh3706]

A million thanks for your patience, explaining all about records in the dns

[@adscairns]

Thanks for a marvellous video. The first clear practical explanation for beginners I've seen

[@jaycbrand]

Thank you for taking the time to make this video. You answered many questions for me in a clear manner.

[@davidweiss2784]

excellent tutorial! best one i have found so far. Thanks a lot for this one :)

[@francischege2766]

I had been stuck on something for a few hours this video has been of great help. Thank You Very Much.

[@MichaelRobison]

Very good delivery. Thanks for the great video and breaking things down on an understandable level.

[@CirdeceSk8er]

Amazing tutorial! Thank you so much for this. 🙏🏼

[@hemendrasahu7943]

Thank you so much for this comprehensive knowledge about the DSN. It's very very helpful.

[@NormYip]

Thank you for this very informative video, having never really understood Cname and A records for years.

[@philsipad]

Absolutely rocking. All meat and no BS.

[@fullcircle7765]

Thanks for the dns basics breakdown. This was helpful!

[@cmonster67]

Great video. Good information, straight to the point including the tips.

[@lancelotchambers3874]

I loved your explanation!! I had my domain separate from my hosting company. It's only when I watched this video that I understood how to insert my hosting company name servers with my domain registrar. Thanks much... 💎💎💋

[@OffsproutTV]

Glad it was helpful!

[@umisakura8948]

Woww. Thank you for all the effort you put in making the video carefullly and in details!

[@ghalibensouda3988]

Thanks a lot for those clear explanations 🙏

[@MatthewFurman]

Excellent video, well done. Thank you.

[@ddreamer0001]

very informative and easy to understand. Thanks a lot!!

[@marieclaireuwimbabazi2861]

Great work .Thank you.

[@shazadtify]

Thank you. Nicely explained.

[@ganesha123100]

Thank you for the valuable info and tips, very helpful.

[@malharpatel7723]

Thank you for making this video, It is very informative!

[@bymariana6769]

Thanks a lot for this!

[@Cognitoman]

Thanks dude. I'm a web developer, and don't know much about the dev ops side of things.

[@dietmtndewbaby]

Great video..thanks so much!

[@rotomartUnplugged]

Came for DNS, Stayed for StarFox64. Thanks this was a good video on DNS settings.

[@amazdanny]

Really great information, thank you for sharing your knowledge. I subscribed and I look forward to future content! Thank you

[@OffsproutTV]

Awesome, thank you!

[@csbokweni3592]

Thank you so much this is really helpful

[@hashkeeper]

thanks and sick style dude

[@hotshotsanime]

Great video.....really helpful

[@mohammadrezakarimi2400]

You saved my life! I was getting crazy before this video 😅

[@michaelangileo2760]

Thank you and God bless you !!!

[@JoseSoto-lh6ik]

Starfox 64! Great video, it helped a lot!

[@sachintandon554]

Beautiful explanation

[@oguzhantopaloglu9442]

This video is a gem

[@mikerollin4073]

Good stuff thanks

[@ast_er_ix6000]

I dont know how to thank you i wish you would upload more videos in the future ......... Such a difficult topic explained in an easy way

[@rodolfocandelario2125]

Nice video. Very informative

[@theman7050]

Thank you soooo much.

[@chrisdann1477]

Awesome thank you

[@OffsproutTV]

Glad we could help!

[@mohammedjanabi3783]

Thank you very much. It's so useful. If you don't mind, I have some questions: Will there be any email loss when moving the domain to a new registrar without changing DNS records? They say that changing email DNS records will take up to 24 hours to take effect. During that time will there be any email loss? Will there be a time that emails will not get into the old and new destinations.

[@OffsproutTV]

There should not be any downtime as long as you create the DNS records in your new registrar. Many registrars will also give you the option of copying over your existing DNS records so that the process is seamless. You might also want to consider using a service like Cloudflare to host your DNS rather than hosting them with your registrar.

[@mohamedyoussef8835]

Awesome video +++++++++++++ 🙂

[@CodeWithRhys]

Life saver

[@Mihbizdat]

Hi I am very new to this but under the value it said PARKED and TTL 600 seconds but no IP address

[@bluex217]

One question I have is: What is the point of an MX record for an email server if, let's say, you have a NODE JS backend which is using AWS SES to send emails? In that case , you have emailing embedded into the code itself. What need would you have for an MX or an email server in this case? Hope this question makes sense..the hardest thing for me with these networking topics is really correlating my programming knowledge to the context of networking, when I haven't studied to become a networker

[@mohamedeladl6273]

thanks

[@youruleyourlife]

how about Ddns records ? how can config that in the server and client ?

[@ahmedkhater3067]

can i manage dns from bluehost if i changed name server to it i dont know i think i have to change ns first so i need to know whats happing next. is bluehost will detect the old dns record or i have to add

[@KathouQC]

how I can to IP/wordpress on my vps server?

[@Mihbizdat]

Please help I am trying to register my domain name as an LLC but the company that I am using said that there is a company already with a similar name and they want me to change the domain name which I unable to do because GO Daddy said that I have the domain name already. Is there a way I can change the domain name.

[@yiannisserpico2646]

Can I have mail hosting provider and no web hosting provider?

[@jay21mphepya73]

How can I request some help if I'm struggling to link my new domain to an already existing free site... I'm lost in terms of adding DNS zones at the website which hosts my domain 😥

[@widadwidad2278]

hello i have a problem with my web site i just launch my domain name with my hosting provider and i make a mistake and delet the host name how can i relaunch it or link it again

[@johndeseignora3486]

I am having trouble assessing my website inside my domain. My website is the same name as my domain. I did create an A record with the IP of my website, but I am still not able to access my website inside my place of business. Outside my network, I have no trouble with this issue? Do you have any ideas on how to fix this?

[@aaryachoukhany5173]

Thanks for this amazing video, finally found someone who actually helped , would you mind if i asked a few questions ?

[@hmmmm0192]

2024 and its still good :)

[@jyotikarathee3133]

Hello sir.. I have mistakenly removed AAA text from DNS record.. Will it affect my website? Plzz reply me Sir

[@OffsproutTV]

Hey, yes! A records need to be pointing to your server's IP address. You can ask your hosting company for your IP address.

[@KenyadianNurse]

I need your help Fast

[@jaimegonzalez5271]

A records 7:43

[@gershdavis9815]

Thanks for the excellent presentation . I have one question if we did end up with the 404 page not found due to the scenario you warned against ,is there a solution ,I'm talking about a domain name that i wished to forward to a site by changing the A records ,it seems i operated too fast and now get the 404 page when I click my domain name. Thanks

[@vishwaratna4195]

I know that website server setup is required to build website for global communication. But lot of developers are using 'filezilla software' and 'other software' for website development. But I want 'website server setup' by only computer OS. For example : 'Map networking drive' in My computer section for edit the website. I have unlimited Linux webhosting plan. Can advice how to setup website server without command OR without 'Filezila'?

[@lydialutz]

so glad KZbin recommended this video to me. I watched 3 less than helpful videos before this one. Excellent!