When registering a new domain or transferring a domain to Freethought you have the option to add free DNS management to the domain. You can also add this free management at any time from the add-ons menu of the domain in the customer portal.
What is DNS management?
DNS management gives you the ability to manage the DNS settings for your domain directly within the customer portal independently of any product. This means that you can manage the DNS records without having to order a hosting package along with the domain, or you could have multiple products from us for a domain and manage the DNS independently of both. Or if you only have your domain with Freethought and have hosting and other services with third parties then this allows you to manage the DNS while still keeping your third party services.
Do I need DNS management?
If you have a hosting package of some kind with us then no you do not need the DNS management. Ordinarily, if you have a hosting package for a domain then you would simply manage the DNS for the domain within the control panel for that hosting and not via DNS management.
If you have a website builder package then we will automatically set up DNS management for your domain as the website builder does not have any DNS management capability like our traditional hosting does.
How much does DNS management cost?
Currently, DNS management is free for any domain that is registered through us, although we may charge in the future.
Where do I manage my DNS records?
If you need to manage the DNS records for your domain manually then as a general rule you can do this in your hosting control panel. If you have selected DNS management for your domain then you manage your DNS in the customer portal in the manage DNS menu for that domain.
To be absolutely certain where to manage your DNS records you should check what the domains name servers are set to.
- Log in to the customer portal at https://portal.freethought-internet.co.uk
- Go to Domains > My Domains in the menu or visit https://portal.freethought-internet.co.uk/clientarea.php?action=domains
- Click the domain line that you wish to check.
- Click "Nameservers" in the left-hand menu
What your name servers are set to determine where to manage the DNS.
- If your name servers are one.freethought-dns.uk, two.freethought-dns.com, and three.freethought-dns.net then you need to manage your DNS in your hosting control panel, i.e. Plesk or cPanel.
- If your name servers are four.freethought-dns.uk, five.freethought-dns.com, and six.freethought-dns.net then you need to manage your DNS at https://portal.freethought-internet.co.uk/index.php?m=solutedns
- If your name servers are ns1.mypremiumserver.com, ns2.mypremiumserver.com, and ns3.mypremiumserver.com then you need to manage your DNS in your reseller or managed server hosting control panel
- If your name servers are something else then your DNS is probably managed with a third party, contact us on 03300 882130 or support@freethought-internet.co.uk for assistance if you aren't sure.
How do I manage my DNS records?
When managing your DNS records there are 10 records you can choose from.
- NS Record - Allows you to change the authoritative server which manages your DNS zone
- A Record - Assigns an IPv4 address to the domain or subdomain
- AAAA Record - Assigns an IPv6 address to the domain or subdomain
- CNAME Record - You may assign a domain name to another domain name. E.G. "www.example.com" pointing to "example.com"
- MX Record - Mail eXchange records tell delivery agents where the mail should be delivered
- PTR Record - Pointer records assign provide the domain name associated with an IP address.
- TXT Record - Used for DKIM, DMARC, SPF, and site verification records however any text can be stored here.
- SRV Record - Used to define a service such as SIP or an Active Directory controller.
- DS Record - Delegation signer record to allow you to secure your domain preventing any changes to the domain from an unauthorised NS
- CAA Record - Certification Authority Authorization records are used to specify which certificate authorities can issues certificates to a domain.
