The aim of this article it to explain what DNS is, why it's important, and how it relates to your website and email, without needing a technical background.
What is DNS, actually?
Think of DNS (Domain Name System) as the internet's phone book.
As humans, we like typing easy-to-remember names into our browser, like yourvenue.com. But computers don't work with names, they work with numbers - specifically, IP addresses. DNS is the system that translates the name you type into the number the computer needs, so you end up in the right place.
DNS "lives" on special servers called Nameservers. Their only job is to answer that translation question: "Where does this domain actually live?"
Every time someone visits your website, or sends an email to your organisation, this translation happens behind the scenes, instantly, and (usually) invisibly.
Why should I care about DNS?
Because DNS quietly controls two of the most important things your organisation relies on:
🌐 Your website – whether visitors can reach it at all
📧 Your email – whether messages can be sent and received
If the Nameservers are down, or the settings are wrong, it doesn't matter how good your website or email setup is. Nobody can get to them. No Nameserver response means no website, no email, nothing.
Who's responsible for what?
Here's where it gets important to understand the difference between:
- The domain and its DNS settings – who owns and manages the "phone book entry"
- The website itself – who built and hosts what the domain points to
These can be managed by different people. If your domain's DNS is managed by a separate IT supplier, and something goes wrong with the website, we first have to work out: is this a website problem, or a DNS problem, and whose responsibility is it?
If it turns out to be a DNS issue, you will need to liaise with your internal or third-party IT support.
This is why we recommend that CultureSuite manages your domain's DNS wherever possible: it means one team is responsible end-to-end, and we can act immediately if something needs fixing rather than tracking down a third party first.
"But shouldn't I keep control of my own domain?"
It's a completely understandable instinct, handing over your domain to a supplier can feel like giving up control of something important.
Reasons organisations prefer to keep DNS in-house or with their own IT supplier
- It can feel more secure to keep everything "in the family"
- Your existing IT company may want oversight if they manage other services for you too
- Larger organisations with many domains (e.g. a city council with hundreds of sites) may have procurement rules that require one central supplier for all domains
- If a supplier relationship ever became strained, some organisations feel safer knowing they hold the keys to their own domain
Reasons organisations choose to let CultureSuite manage it
- Expertise: DNS is genuinely technical, and small mistakes (a typo in a setting) can take down a website or email overnight. We work with it daily.
- Speed of response: if something goes wrong, we don't need to track down and wait on a third party; we can act immediately.
- Full visibility: since we also manage the website, we can see the whole picture and troubleshoot faster.
- Availability: DNS problems don't wait for office hours. You want whoever manages it to be reachable if something breaks at 10am on a Saturday during an on-sale.
- Cost: managing DNS is a small, predictable part of a service agreement.
There is no single right answer for every organisation. It is worth going in with clear eyes about what each option means for who you'd call, and how quickly they could help, if something goes wrong.
Questions for whoever manages your DNS:
- Do they have a strong reputation for uptime and reliability?
- Do they actively monitor the uptime and will they step in 24/7 if needed?
- Are they genuinely knowledgeable about DNS specifically (not just "IT" in general)?
- Are they reachable outside office hours if there's an emergency?
- Will you be charged every time a change is needed?
A quick word on email
Email is a much older, more fragile system than most people realise and DNS plays a big role in making sure emails sent on your behalf are trusted.
Without getting too technical, your domain's DNS settings help receiving mail servers answer questions like:
- Is this email really coming from a server this organisation is allowed to send from?
- Does this email have a valid signature proving it hasn't been tampered with?
These checks are part of why some emails land safely in an inbox, and others get marked as spam. If you ever want to strengthen your email security (for example, by enabling stricter checks), it's worth doing carefully. It needs every tool you use to send email to be set up and signed correctly first. Getting this wrong can send genuine emails straight to spam.
Content Delivery: a quick mention
You may also hear the term CDN (Content Delivery Network) in relation to your website. In simple terms, a CDN sits between your visitors and your website, storing copies of things like images closer to where your visitors actually are in the world. This makes your website faster to load and reduces the load on the main servers. Think of it as a smart assistant that handles routine requests so the main team doesn't have to.
Not sure who hosts your domain? Here's how to check
If you're not sure who currently manages your DNS, you don't need to ask around there are free tools that will tell you in seconds:
- MX Toolbox – a handy all-rounder for looking up DNS records, including where your nameservers and email currently point
- DNS Watch – another straightforward tool for checking a domain's current DNS settings
Simply pop your domain name in, and you'll be able to see where things currently point. If you're ever unsure what the results mean, send them our way and we're happy to talk you through it.
The key takeaway
DNS can sound intimidating because it's technical and mostly invisible, but at its heart, it's simple: it's the system that tells the internet where your website and email actually live.
Getting it right (and knowing who's responsible for it) means one less thing to worry about, and much faster support if anything ever goes wrong.
If you have any questions about your own domain's DNS setup, or want to talk through your options, get in touch with our Customer Success team, we're happy to talk you through it.
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