This blog post does contain some technical language, but we’ve tried to include examples that anyone can relate to and then understand the DNS and nameserver environment.
If you’ve ever moved from one hosting company to another one then you’ll understand what nameservers and DNS are.
Nameservers, like NS1.hostini.co.uk and NS2.hostini.co.uk are what you change on the nameserver records where your domain is located (your domain registrar). Maybe you have your current WordPress business website with the same company you bought your domain with (which we’d advise against) or you have a different provider.
What the nameserver records tell the internet is where your website and email “live” in the online world. For example, let’s say that your business URL was mybusiness.com and that your nameservers were alexa.cloudflare.com and john.cloudflare.com, and that you were managing your DNs records (the information hub about your website and your email is kept) at Cloudflare.
You bought your domain name with Namecheap, you have your email hosting with Gsuite and your concierge business hosting for your WordPress website with us at Hostini.
Your DNS records would contain information about where emails to your email address ([email protected]) will end up (in your inbox with GSuite) and where your website is hosted (with us at Hostini).
There would also be other technical parts included (such as SPF records, CNAME records and the like) to confirm the exact configuration of your email rejection policies and ensure that you’re actually the one sending the email. If you’ve ever had email inbox rejections (bounces) come into your email inbox for an email you didn’t send (was sent by a spammer) then you’ll know what we mean.
Let’s take an example
If you write your home address (where you live) for a friend to send you a postcard then most times you’ll include the postal or zip code for them to put on the envelope.
Now, the computers in the mail company knows what district office to send your friend’s letter to because it scanned the code at the bottom. The nameserver system works in a similar way: data about where to send a user if why type in your mybusiness.com domain name in their web browser or send an email to [email protected] knows the exact location.
Why would you not just have it with the web hosting company?
You sign up to one of the large hosting companies and they’ll take care of your domain, email and website hosting. Everything is going great, you’re moving along and growing your business. What could go wrong? Well, many things.
We’ve highlighted in this post about how things can turn into a nightmare with your website going down for days at a time, or in this post over relying on your hosting company to manage your emails.
But, the key reason why you wouldn’t want to keep all of your “eggs in one basket” is for diversification, less headaches and using the best providers for each of their uses.
Why wouldn’t you?
For us, it seems like good business sense to keep things separate (and with different providers), and to use companies for products and services where they excel.
Our recommendations are as follows:
Domain name: Namecheap
DNS hosting: Cloudflare
WordPress hosting: Hostini
Email hosting: GSuite
These are the recommendations we make to ensure that the deliverability, receivability and uptime of your business emails is second to none.