Domain and Email Hosting Setup

Separate the responsibilities

The registrar manages ownership of the domain, DNS publishes service records, web hosting serves the site and email hosting handles mailboxes. They may be provided by one company, but understanding each role makes troubleshooting much easier.

Record DNS before changes

Export or screenshot current A, AAAA, CNAME, MX and TXT records. Confirm which nameservers are authoritative. Avoid replacing an entire DNS zone when only one record needs to change, because unrelated verification and email records can be lost.

Connect the website

Point the root domain and www host to the destination specified by the host. Confirm both versions resolve and redirect consistently to the preferred HTTPS URL. Do not remove the old record until the new destination is ready.

Configure professional email

Create named mailboxes and functional addresses such as support or billing. Publish the exact MX records provided by the email service. Avoid mixing MX values from two providers unless the configuration explicitly supports it.

Add email authentication

SPF states which systems may send for the domain, DKIM signs messages and DMARC defines handling and reporting. Start DMARC with a monitoring policy, review reports and strengthen the policy after legitimate senders are authenticated.

Test end to end

Send messages in both directions using major mailbox providers, verify replies and inspect authentication results. Test website forms separately because they may use a different sender. Keep registrar recovery details and multi-factor authentication current.