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Domains and DNS, demystified.
Domain name, IP address, DNS, nameserver, zone, registrar, registry. The words get thrown around as if everyone knows them. These short lessons explain each one in plain English, with diagrams, and show how they fit together.
No account needed, nothing to buy. Start at lesson 1 or jump to the one that matches your problem.
The 30-second version
What happens when someone visits your website
They type a name
Your domain name is the part people remember: yourname.com.au.
DNS looks it up
The DNS finds the nameservers in charge of your domain and asks them.
A number comes back
Your DNS records answer with an IP address: where your site actually lives.
They connect
Their browser goes to that address and your website loads. It all takes a fraction of a second.
The lessons
Short lessons, practical guides and a glossary
Each lesson takes five to ten minutes, has diagrams, and ends with the terms it used and the sources behind it.
How it works
The foundations, in order. Each one builds on the one before.
What is a domain name?
The parts of a name, read right to left. Subdomains, endings, and why you hold a licence and never own it.
Read lesson 1 → Lesson 2What is an IP address?
The number behind the name. IPv4 and IPv6, public and private addresses, and why one address can serve many sites.
Read lesson 2 → Lesson 3How DNS works
One lookup, step by step: resolver, root, registry, nameservers. Plus caching, TTL and why changes take time to show.
Read lesson 3 → Lesson 4DNS records explained
A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT and the rest. A worked example, and the classic mistakes that break websites and email.
Read lesson 4 → Lesson 5Nameservers and DNS zones: which one wins
Who manages the root, the registry and your own zone. Why only one zone is live, and what wins when two places disagree.
Read lesson 5 → Lesson 6Registry, registrar, reseller: who does what
ICANN, IANA, auDA, the registry, registrars, resellers and you. Who sets the rules, and who to contact for what.
Read lesson 6 →Running your domain
The practical side: email, HTTPS, renewals, moving and staying safe. Read them in any order.
Email and your domain
How mail finds you through MX records, mailboxes versus forwards, and how SPF, DKIM and DMARC keep your mail out of spam.
Read lesson 7 → Lesson 8www, redirects and forwarding
Why your site has four addresses, how to settle on one, 301 versus 302, and why a CNAME isn’t a redirect.
Read lesson 8 → Lesson 9HTTPS and SSL certificates
What the padlock means and doesn’t, how a certificate is issued for your domain, and why it comes from your web host.
Read lesson 9 → Lesson 10Renewal and expiry
What stops when a domain expires, how long you have to get it back for .au and .com names, and how to never be in that spot.
Read lesson 10 → Lesson 11Transfers, locks and status codes
Moving a domain between providers without anything going offline: the code, the lock, the wait and the 60-day rules.
Read lesson 11 → Lesson 12WHOIS, RDAP and privacy
What the public record shows about a .au name and a .com name, what stays hidden, and why .au has no privacy option.
Read lesson 12 → Lesson 13DNSSEC explained
Signing your DNS so answers can’t be forged: the chain of trust, the DS record, and how a broken chain takes a site offline.
Read lesson 13 → Lesson 14Keeping your domain safe
How to read a fake renewal notice, stop a hijack with three locks, and handle lookalike names. Ends with a ten-minute check-up.
Read lesson 14 → ReferenceDomain and DNS glossary
More than a hundred terms in a sentence or two each: apex, auDA, ICANN, DKIM, glue record, redemption period, TTL, WHOIS.
Open the glossary →Guides
Longer answers to one .au question each: prices, renewals, eligibility, passwords, scams and setting up email. Start with the one that matches your situation.
How much did .au prices go up on 1 October 2026?
auDA’s wholesale rise in actual numbers, what it adds to a renewal, and a free five-step check of your own bill.
Read the guide → GuideWill your .com.au renew?
The ABN check at renewal, a five-minute self-check, and the fix if your ABN or company has lapsed.
Read the guide → GuideIs auDA changing who can get a .com.au?
Nothing has changed yet. What auDA has proposed for .com.au names, and a self-check.
Read the guide → GuideDomain renewal scams in Australia
The two-minute check for a fake notice, what to do if you’ve paid, where to report it, and a dated register of named senders.
Read the guide → GuideCan’t get your .com.au domain password?
Every route to the auth code, including when the registrant email is dead: who acts, and how long auDA’s rules give them.
Read the guide → GuideChange of registrant for a .com.au
Selling a business, becoming a company or fixing a mistake: what each needs and in what order.
Read the guide → GuideDo you need the .au as well?
When the matching .au is worth a yearly renewal, what happened to priority allocation, and your options if someone else holds it.
Read the guide → Guide.com.au, .au or .com?
Three questions to pick the right ending for a new business, what Google actually says about endings, and the five-year cost of each.
Read the guide → GuideNo ABN? What you can register
.au and .id.au for citizens and permanent residents, the .com.au alternatives, and the free way to an ABN.
Read the guide → GuideBusiness name, ABN, domain or trade mark?
Four registrations, four jobs: what a business name, ABN, .com.au and trade mark each get you, and the order to do them in.
Read the guide → GuideSet up Google Workspace email
The five DNS records you need for Gmail on your own domain, where each goes in your Chill dashboard, with screenshots, and how to check it works.
Read the guide → GuideSet up Microsoft 365 email
The records Outlook on your own domain needs, where each goes in your Chill dashboard, tested on our own domain with screenshots.
Read the guide → GuideSet up your Axigen mailbox
Your mailbox settings, and how to add it to the Gmail app, iPhone Mail, Outlook, Apple Mail and Thunderbird. Plus the records for a domain elsewhere.
Read the guide → GuideGmail is ending “Send mail as”
Gmail drops Send mail as and Check mail from other accounts by January 2027. What changes for your domain email, and what to do now.
Read the guide → GuideMoving an Axigen mailbox to Workspace or 365
Your mail isn’t locked in. How Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 copy an Axigen mailbox across, and the order that loses nothing.
Read the guide →Start from your question
I changed a DNS record and nothing happened. Why?
My web designer says to “point the domain” at their server. What does that mean?
A record, to their server’s IP address. Your email records stay as they are. DNS records explained walks through it.Who actually manages my nameservers?
Why is our email going to people’s spam folders?
Our email stopped when the website moved. What happened?
I got a renewal letter from a company I don’t recognise. Is it real?
My domain expired. Have I lost it?
Do I need to buy an SSL certificate with my domain?
Why does WHOIS show a different company from the one I pay?
How long until a DNS change shows up?
The website works at home but not in the office. What’s going on?
What does this word mean?
See it on a real domain. The toolbox looks up any domain’s WHOIS record, nameservers, DNS records and email settings, with no login. It’s the quickest way to check what the rest of the world sees.