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 DNS (Domain Name System), which indicate where (with which provider, for example) the DNS zone is located.
3. The DNS zone then allows the management of various services related to the domain name to be entrusted to different providers.
   • For a unique domain name, it is possible, for example, to entrust:
     • web hosting to provider X (via the "A" type record)
     • and the Mail Service to provider Y (via the "MX" type 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 managing the domain name.
3. The DNS zone can be handled by the registrar or another provider.
4. Web hosting and the Mail Service can be handled by any host.

In the most complex case, it is therefore possible to have 1 different provider for the following services: domain name reservation and DNS management, DNS zone management, web hosting, Mail Service.

The following diagram summarizes these different possibilities with the involvement of different providers:

Infomaniak

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

• In the case of Infomaniak, the DNS are generally of the form nsXX.infomaniak.com and nsXX.infomaniak.com (XX like 11 or 12 for example).
• You can modify the DNS of your domain name, as well as modify the "inside" of these DNS i.e. 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 that has a static IP address (otherwise you would have to constantly edit the A record to provide the new IP address - see this other guide on this subject)

Some possible situations

etc.