Reference
Domain name guides
How domain names actually work — registration, renewal, transfers, DNS, privacy, and security — written for people who need to make a decision, not pass an exam.
Where to start
The guides are grouped into three sections, and each one opens with a page that frames the whole subject rather than summarising the guides beneath it. Buying a domain is the one to read before you register anything: what you are actually buying, who the three parties are, and which of the numbers you will be quoted is the one to plan around. Managing a domain covers everything after that — renewals, transfers, DNS, and the contact record that quietly decides whether you keep the name. And domain ownership and security deals with what ownership legally means, what the public record shows, which controls stop which attacks, and what to do when a name has already been lost.
If you arrived with a specific problem, go straight to the guide that names it. The overviews are for the reader who does not yet know which question they are asking.
Start with an overview
Buying a domain
What you are actually buying, who the three parties are, and the numbers to plan around before you register anything.
Owning and moving a domain
Renewals, transfers, DNS and the contact record — everything that decides whether a registered name keeps working.
Ownership, privacy and security
What owning a domain means, what the public record shows, the controls that protect it, and what to do when one is lost.
DNS records
Every record type, one page each — what it holds, what it cannot hold, and the way each one is most often misconfigured.
Buying a domain
What you are actually buying, who the three parties are, and the numbers to plan around before you register anything.
How to Check Domain Availability, and Trust It
What a domain availability check actually tells you, why two registrars can disagree, and how to read a result properly.
How to Choose a Domain Registrar
The criteria that separate registrars in practice, and the ones that only look like they matter.
What Domain Names Really Cost
Registration, renewal, transfer, restoration, and premium pricing, and which of those numbers you should actually plan around.
Free Domain Registration: The Honest Answer
What is genuinely free, what is a bundled first year, and what is not a domain at all.
Bulk Domain Registration and Portfolio Control
Managing a portfolio: defensive registrations, renewal exposure, and what to stop paying for.
What a Domain Name Does for SEO
What the name itself decides for search, what it does not, and which of the familiar claims Google has actually documented.
Owning and moving a domain
Renewals, transfers, DNS and the contact record — everything that decides whether a registered name keeps working.
What Happens When a Domain Expires
Every stage from expiry to deletion, with the day counts, the costs, and the point of no return.
How to Transfer a Domain to Another Registrar
Auth codes, the 60-day locks, and why most failed transfers fail for the same handful of reasons.
Nameservers vs DNS Hosting: Who Controls What
The three-way distinction that causes more support tickets than any other topic in domains.
Can You Transfer a Domain That Has Expired?
Whether a name that has already expired can still be moved, and the state that decides it.
Public Suffix List: Finding the Registrable Domain
Why the registrable domain cannot be derived from a hostname, and what reads the list that says where the boundary falls.
Ownership, privacy and security
What owning a domain means, what the public record shows, the controls that protect it, and what to do when one is lost.
How to Check Who Owns a Domain Name
What RDAP and WHOIS reveal in 2026, what GDPR removed, and the routes that still work.
WHOIS Privacy After GDPR: What It Still Does
What is published, what is redacted, where privacy services are banned, and what privacy does not protect you from.
Domain Security: Locks, DNSSEC & Hijacking
Registrar lock, registry lock, DNSSEC, and the anatomy of a real domain hijacking.
How to Recover a Stolen or Hijacked Domain
What determines whether a hijacked or stolen name comes back, and the order to work through the routes that exist.
The Fake Domain Renewal Invoice: How to Tell
The official-looking notice that is a transfer solicitation or an unrelated service, and how to tell it from a real renewal.
DNS records
Every record type, one page each — what it holds, what it cannot hold, and the way each one is most often misconfigured.
DNS A Record: What It Is and How It Works
The record every other record eventually resolves to, and the one most dangerous to leave pointing somewhere you no longer control.
DNS AAAA Record: IPv6 Addresses Explained
The IPv6 address record, and why a broken one is worse than none at all.
CNAME Records: The Alias Rule and the Apex
An alias that replaces the whole node — which is where every problem people have with it comes from.
Wildcard DNS Records: What the Asterisk Matches
What the asterisk matches, what shadows it, and why it makes a takeover problem much larger.
DNS MX Record: How Mail Finds Your Server
The only record that routes mail, the preference value nobody reads correctly, and the one change where TTL genuinely matters.
DNS TXT Records: SPF, DKIM, DMARC and Tokens
A record with no meaning of its own, and the three email-authentication uses that fill most real zones.
DNS NS Record: The Delegation That Exists Twice
The only record that exists in two places at once, and what happens when the two disagree.
DNS SOA Record: What Each Field Actually Does
The zone's own metadata, field by field, and the one value that actually bites.
PTR Record and Reverse DNS: Who Can Set One
The record most domain owners cannot create, because it follows the IP address rather than the name.
SRV Record: Fields, Lookups and What Uses It
Service discovery, the underscore naming convention, and how priority and weight really interact.
Email DNS Records: What a Receiving Server Checks
The order the checks run in, which record each one reads, and what a pass, a fail and a permerror mean for delivery.
CAA Record: Control Who Can Issue Your Certs
Which certificate authorities may issue for your name — the cheapest control here, and the one almost nobody sets.