How DNS works, in plain words
When you type a website name, your computer has to find the machine that name points to.
DNS is the address book that makes that happen: it turns a name people can remember
(like yourbusiness.com) into the numeric address of the server that answers for
it.
The parts, briefly
- The domain is the name you own, rented a year at a time from a registrar.
- Records are the entries in the address book. An A record points your name at a server's address; a CNAME points one name at another; MX records say where your email should go.
- Nameservers are the computers that hold your records and answer the questions.
Why changes take a little while
Answers get remembered along the way so the system stays fast. When you change a record, the old answer can linger for a few minutes to a day while those memories expire. That's normal — it isn't broken, it's just catching up.
If setting records yourself sounds like a chore, it's part of what we do when we build and point your site — you tell us the name, we make it resolve to the right place.