There are some things that are more frustrating than others. When you have to change where a website is, renew a domain, move the name servers, find out who is the listed REGISTRANT of a domain you may not have the notes or things may have changed before you arrived.
Recently, I was helping a professional organization dismantle, as they were closing their doors after 34 years. There are many pieces to their online presence and each term that a new board and group of officers comes in, some of the information isn’t passed along, or no one worried because one of them would always be around.
Don’t count on that! Things change, people move, change jobs, even die. You need to have a CONTACT that is CONSTANT. This is someone who will know where the website is hosted, who the hosting contact is, where the mail is hosted, not to mention all of the social media, PayPal account access or other third party systems that have been in place – current and retired.
I’m walking them through this.
Step 1: Where is the site hosted?
I do this here: http://network-tools.com/default.asp?prog=express&host= after the = sign , type in your domain: http://network-tools.com/default.asp?prog=express&host=susanfinch.com to see the information.
The TraceRoute IP address: 50.63.215.1 tells us exactly where the site is hosted. The 1-6 steps below tell you the ROUTERS it goes through or HOPS to get to the actual server that hosts my website.
The DNS server is where the site is where the domain records are controlled – where it tells us how to find your website, email and more.
Records with MX in them are all about the mail. My domain’s mail is through Google so you can see their 5 mail servers listed per their instructions.
Then, you can look up that TraceRoute IP address to see the name of the hosting company. If you did it with mine, you’d see that GoDaddy is my hosting company. Now, we can get somewhere. You can then go to the website of the hosting company and contact them. If you are taking over from someone who is no longer with your group, you may be able to call the hosting company, provide proof you are authorized to act on behalf of the group and reset some information such as password and email associated with the account.
The DNS server is where the site is where the domain records are controlled – where it tells us how to find your website, emial and more.
Records with MX in them are all about the mail. My domain’s mail is through Google so you can see their 5 mail servers listed per their instructions.