Tag: Domain Name

What is a Hosts File?

The hosts file is a local plain text file that maps servers or hostnames to IP addresses. This file has been in use since the time of ARPANET. It was the original method to resolve hostnames to a specific IP address. The hosts file is usually the first process in the domain name resolution procedure. Here is an example of a hosts file entry.

What is a DNS Zone?

A DNS Zone is part of a group of components that make up DNS. These objects are managed by an administrator or organization in a granular manner. DNS zones can contain varied information about a domain and subdomains. Multiple zones can also exist on the same server.  DNS information is stored within a text file called a DNS zone file.

What Is Reverse DNS?

The purpose of DNS is typically used to resolve a domain name to an IP address. This act is known as a forward resolution and is performed every time you visit a site on the internet. Reverse DNS (or rDNS), as its name implies, is a method of resolving an IP address back to a domain name.

Your domain is the most important part of your web presence. Recognizing this, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has requirements in place that help keep domain transfers secure. Of course, following these requirements means that transferring domains takes a few more steps than you might otherwise think. Here are the steps for transferring domains to and from Liquid Web:

What is DNS?

DNS stands for Domain Name System (DNS) services. When we access a website, we are using this service to locate the server where the domain's website is located. When browsing the web, we usually type in a domain name like www.google.com into our browser. This is better than trying to remember an IP address linked to a Google server.

What is DNS?

The Domain Name Service (or DNS) is the key to the presence of your server on the internet. You are probably aware your domain has an “IP” address, which stands for Internet Protocol; that number is your domain’s literal web address on the internet. A typical IP address is a series of four numbers called octets that are identified like so: 10.10.10.10.  You can think of your IP address as being similar to a postal address. The IP address is the exact location where your domain lives. I usually explain it like this;

You may have noticed, when transferring a website, that the URL is still stuck on the old site even though you have changed the virtual host file to reflect the new domain name. Or you may see the URL entirely greyed out in your WordPress portal. This mismatch can happen if you can’t change the URL within WordPress to reflect the new site name. In this tutorial, we will show you how to change the URL through the database.

Going live with your site is the last step in the process of migrating your WordPress sites into Liquid Web’s Managed WordPress portal. These instructions are for domains pointed to our DNS. To check where your name servers are pointed to visit this DNS checker and input your domain name.  If your name servers point to ns.liquidweb.com and ns1.liquidweb.com you can continue on the tutorial.  Otherwise, you’ll want to update your A record’s IP with the outside name servers.

One of the many challenges that we may face while attempting to make modifications to a zone file, is knowing what the different records are used for.  This article highlight several of the commonly used records in an attempt to help demystify them.

If your computer has trouble reaching a certain website or server this may be due to a corrupt local DNS cache. This guide will show you how to clear your local DNS cache (“flush” it) for several operating systems.