DNS

The Domain Name System translates human-readable domain names like refitted.dev into the IP addresses that computers use to find each other on the internet. Think of it as the phone book of the web. When you type a URL into your browser, DNS is the first thing that runs before any page content loads.

The everyday analogy holds up well: you know your accountant's name, not their street address, so you look them up. Your browser does the same thing — you type the domain, DNS returns the numeric address of the server, and only then can the connection happen. DNS records also route more than websites: they tell the internet which server handles your email and prove to Google that you own your domain.

Why it matters for your project: whoever controls your DNS controls where your domain points. Keep the domain registered in an account you own — not your developer's, not an old agency's. When a new site launches, the switchover is usually a single DNS record change, which means you can build and test the new site fully before flipping traffic to it with near-zero downtime. Losing access to DNS, on the other hand, can take your site and email offline with no quick fix.

DNS changes take time to spread across the internet — minutes to a couple of days depending on settings — which is why launches are scheduled around it. DNS is also how your domain gets connected to a CDN, so visitors are served from a location near them rather than one distant server.