Domains & DNS: The Professional Guide
Domains are the front door to your business on the internet. But a domain is more than a name—it’s an ownership record and a set of DNS instructions that route users to your services.
If hosting is “where your app runs,” DNS is “how users find it.”
This guide covers domain ownership, DNS records, and the best practices teams use to avoid downtime.
Domain ownership: what you actually control
When you buy a domain, you’re not “buying the name”—you’re registering the right to use it, under an agreement, for a period of time.
Professionals keep these items tight:
- Registrar account access (MFA, least privilege)
- Renewal settings (auto-renew + payment method)
- Domain lock
- Verified contact email
DNS in one paragraph
DNS maps names to destinations. You edit records (A, AAAA, CNAME, TXT, MX) and set TTL values that affect propagation speed.
Core DNS records (and when to use them)
| Record | Purpose | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| A | Name → IPv4 | Point to a server IP |