There are times when IT staff changes, new contractors are in place and security is boosted or changed.  This isn't a problem, unless you forget to tell everyone who needs to know.

Do certain portions of your site or certain functions reside on other servers?  Is everything in one place? How about your mail, contact forms, scheduled tasks to update databases, lists and other items automatically? Are they all working properly since your recent changes?

If you've changed your DNS information, IP addresses, MX records it could affect these things. If you've moved your website, functions may not be set up as they were with the previous hosting company.  Are you suddenly getting less mail?  Fewer contact forms?  A simple lack of communication may be the root of the problem.

DNS stands for Domain Name System – it's where your domain information is. This is where the world finds where you different online pieces are located.

Most importantly, it translates domain names meaningful to humans into
the numerical (binary) identifiers associated with networking equipment
for the purpose of locating and addressing these devices worldwide. An
often-used analogy to explain the Domain Name System is that it serves
as the phone book for the Internet by translating human-friendly computer hostnames into IP addresses. For example, www.example.com translates to 192.0.32.10.

The other important record is your mail or MX (mail exchanger) record. This item in your DNS information tells everyone where your mail server is and what it's name is, example: mail.susanfinch.com or webmail.susanfinch.com.  If your record has changed the IP address that is associated with the MX record, other systems that send to your old one, will no longer be able to get mail to you.

Sample DNS record:

Sample-dns-record If you want to find out what your record is and don't know how to get this information you can try to contact your hosting company – this is the company that hosts your website and/or mail, you can contact your domain registrar – like GoDaddy, Register.com, etc.

If you don't know that much, you can go here to get more information about your domain record:

GoDaddy's WHOIS

MXToolbox for Mail records (MX records)

WhoIs Name Tools

If you're still stuck and don't have an IT person you can contact, I'm available to help you through this muddle.  Minimum rate for this type of detective work is $75 pre-paid through PayPal.  I'll help you get your information, troubleshoot what isn't working and help you get it working again.