Domains: tutorials & guidesAll tutorials around domains and DNS

A domain is the readable name under which your project can be reached - technically an entry in the Domain Name System, which resolves the name to an IP address. It is not bought permanently but registered for a term: the extension's registry keeps the central database, the registrar registers the domain there, and you as the owner are the legal proprietor.

At the beginning, there are two decisions, and only one of them can be conveniently corrected later. You set the extension practically permanently, because a change drags along links, email addresses, business cards and search results. Where the domain is managed, on the other hand, can be changed at any time - a change of provider and a change of nameservers are even two different processes that can be carried out independently of each other.

After that, the topic of domains becomes mainly a topic of DNS. Almost everything you set up later - website, mailboxes, subdomains, a game server under its own name - is a record in your domain's zone. Always reckon with the TTL: changes only take effect once the old answer has dropped out of the resolvers' caches. A wrongly set record is quickly corrected, but the wait for it cannot be shortened.

The guides cover exactly these three levels: the basics for everyone registering a domain for the first time, DNS practice for everything that comes afterwards, and management from transfer to owner details.

Basics

When your first own domain is due, these guides answer the questions beforehand. Above all, look at the renewal rather than the first year: the regular annual price of an extension is the real cost factor, whereas cheap introductory offers only apply once. With us, both run via the prepaid balance without a contract. We remind you by email before the renewal date, and if you like, you can switch on automatic renewal via PayPal.

Before extension and price comes the name. It is the only decision that can practically no longer be corrected later - which is why there is a separate guide for it with criteria, idea patterns and a look at trademark law.

On the extension itself: .de is the expected signal in Germany and is read by visitors as a local address, .com is the internationally neutral choice. Umlaut domains work in the browser without problems, but still cause difficulties with email addresses to this day - which is why there is a separate guide on them in this group.

Buying & paying

Two questions come up again and again before ordering: do I have to sign a contract? And how do I pay if I do not want to store a bank account or credit card? Both answers depend on the prepaid model. You top up a balance on your customer account and pay for the domain from it for one year - without a minimum term, without a notice period and without any charge you did not trigger yourself.

The first guide explains what this means in everyday life: how renewal works, what happens if you miss a date and why the renewal price matters more than a cheap first year. The second shows the route via a Paysafecard, with which the balance can be topped up without any bank details - with a 15 % surcharge, which is named there.

DNS in practice

Everything you set up in the web interface after registration. The first guide is the reference - it explains A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, PTR and SRV including TTL with example values. The others are concrete use cases, each of which relies on exactly these record types. If you do not know which type your project needs, start with the reference.

One misunderstanding up front, because it is the most common confusion in this area: changing the nameservers is not a domain transfer. Nameservers only determine who answers the DNS queries for your domain - it stays registered with the previous provider. Conversely, you can transfer a domain to us and leave DNS management elsewhere. They are separate processes with separate consequences.

With us, every domain comes with 4 redundant nameservers and DNS management in the web interface. There, you set all the record types mentioned yourself and create as many subdomains as you like - a subdomain is pure zone work and does not have to be applied for at any registry.

Three guides show what gamers and small teams most often need the zone for: a Minecraft server under its own name, mailboxes at Google or Microsoft under your own address and the verified domain in your Discord profile. All three get by with a few records - usually an A or MX record and a TXT record.

Managing & transferring

What needs to be clarified around ownership and switching providers. A transfer rarely fails because of the technology and almost always because of a detail at the releasing provider: a missing or expired auth code, a transfer lock that is still set or outdated owner details. Clarify these three points before you place the order. For IONOS, Strato and GoDaddy, there are separate tutorials: with the first two, the domain usually hangs on a package that continues to run after the transfer; with GoDaddy, an identity check comes before the code.

For .de, the process is called a KK request; for all other extensions, it runs via the auth code or EPP code. Transferring to us is free - you only pay the regular annual price of the extension. Important for the process: set up the DNS records before the transfer so that they continue to apply unchanged after the switch; then the site remains reachable throughout.

The last guide clarifies who the domain actually belongs to. That is not a formality: whoever is entered as the owner decides on sale, transfer and deletion. So never let yourself be listed only as the contact person if the domain is meant to belong to you - and with an existing domain, take a look at who is actually listed there.

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