DNS Help

What is DNS?

If you think of the Web as a huge book, inside of which is your own page, you can let other people to find your entry easily by giving them the page number. However, people aren't very good at remembering numbers, and since the book is so huge, the number could be quite long.

For this reason, many books have an index in the back, using which you can find the page you need just by looking for the entry you're interested in. The Internet uses a similar system, which is called DNS.

When you type in a domain name, such as www.example.com, your computer first talks to the DNS system, which can look up the domain name, and find out which "page" of the Internet book the website is located on. Your computer then opens up the page directly and displays the website. The page numbers themselves are actually in the form of four numbers, separated by dots, for instance: 83.170.75.41. Each is referred to as an IP Address.

Your website lives on a particular computer on the web, managed by Intelligent Web. When you first become an Intelligent Web customer, you need to ensure that the DNS system knows where your website is located (more preciesly it needs to know the IP Address of the computer that hosts it). For this reason (or if we need to move your website onto a different computer) it is necessary to update your DNS settings.

Changing DNS Myself

This is probably the quickest way to get it done...

Most of the companies that sell you domain names (such as 123reg, UK2, 1&1) will also provide you with a control panel that allows you to change settings associated with your domain, including DNS. All you need to do is log into your domain control panel using the settings probably emailed to you by the company, and look around for something like "DNS Settings", or "DNS Management".

Under the DNS management section there should be a field where you can change or set the IP Address ("A Record") associated with "www" requests. Change it to the new four-number IP address as provided to you, then update the settings. Avoid touching the "MX" record, as this has to do with your email settings and should be left as it is.

Note that it can sometimes take a little while for the new settings to take effect, as they need to filter throughout the whole DNS system. Usually your changes will have taken place after 48 hours, although it can be considerably faster in some cases.

Getting my ISP to change DNS Settings

If you're unsure, or if the company that provided your domain doesn't offer a control panel, you can contact them and ask them to do it for you.

Ask: "Please can you change the DNS Settings on [my-domain.co.uk] for www requests to the following IP address: [XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX]"

Note that it can sometimes take a little while for the new settings to take effect, as they need to filter throughout the whole DNS system. Usually your changes will have taken place after 48 hours, although it can be considerably faster in some cases.

Still Unsure?