This guide explains how a domain name and a DNS zone work.

Preamble

1. When you browse a website https://www.abc123.xyz for example, abc123.xyz is the domain name.
2. Each domain name has a DNS (Domain Name System), which indicates where the DNS zone is located (with which provider, for example).
3. The DNS zone then allows the management of various services related to the domain name to be entrusted to different service providers.
   • For a single domain name, it is possible, for example, to entrust:
     • web hosting with a provider X (via the "A" record)
     • and the Mail Service to a provider Y (via the "MX" record)

Domain name, DNS and DNS zone, then services

Who manages what?

1. Each domain name is reserved and managed by a registrar (registration office). For example, Infomaniak is a registrar, one of the cheapest in Switzerland.
2. The DNS of a domain name are configured with the registrar that manages the domain name.
3. The DNS zone can be managed by the registrar or another service provider.
4. Web hosting and email service can be handled by any host.

In the most common example, it is therefore possible to have 1 different provider for the following services: domain name registration and DNS management, DNS zone management, Web hosting, Mail Service.

The following diagram summarizes these different possibilities, with X, Y, A and B being different providers.

Infomaniak

As a registrar and host, Infomaniak can manage all these services. It is the simplest solution.

• In the case of Infomaniak, the DNS are generally in the form of nsXX.infomaniak.com and nsXX.infomaniak.com (XX such as 11 or 12 for example).
• You can modify the DNS of your domain name, as well as modify the "inside" of these DNS, that is to say modify the DNS zone of a domain name.

And in these DNS zones, to redirect traffic to services, we distinguish:

• an MX record that allows you to point a domain name (domain.xyz for example) to a mail server.
• an A record that allows you to point a domain name (domain.xyz for example) or a subdomain (example.domain.xyz for example) to a web server with a static IP address (otherwise you would have to constantly edit the A record to update the new IP address - refer to this other guide on this subject)

Some possible situations

etc.