What is DNS?

Imagine the internet as a giant library. Each book in the library has a unique location on the shelf, but it's hard to remember all those locations.

DNS (Domain Name System) is like the library's catalogue. Instead of remembering the exact location of a book, you can just look up the title in the catalogue.

So, when you type a website address like www.google.com into your browser, the DNS looks up that name and finds the corresponding location (or IP address) for Google's servers. Then, your computer can go directly to that location on the internet and show you the Google website.

DNS ensures websites are accessible, email can be sent and received, and online services can function properly. Without DNS, organisations would struggle to connect to members, partners, and suppliers. Any disruption to DNS can have severe consequences for a business's operations and reputation.

Who can configure your DNS?

As DNS is a critical part of your technical infrastructure, it’s important that only authorised people should be able to access it.

Some organisations may have IT support who manage their DNS on their behalf. Other organisations will manage their own DNS internally via a domain registrar service like GoDaddy or NetRegistry.

If you're unsure about managing your DNS records contact your domain registrar's support, each registrar manages DNS settings slightly differently, so they will be able to give specific advice about what you need to do.

DNS Settings

While your system is being set up, there are a couple of things you need to do in preparation for accessing your staging site. This will require you, or your IT/website support, to access your DNS (Domain Name System) settings to add and edit DNS records.

The following instructions as to the required DNS records provided below are generic instructions. The Membes support team will email your project lead with instructions specific to your organisation.

Staging URL subdomain

There are 2 parts to the DNS changes that need to be made to configure the staging URL subdomain, creating the subdomain and adding a CNAME record to the staging subdomain.

1. Create a new subdomain called setup on your domain for example setup.yourdomain.com or setup.membes.com.

2. Membes will provide a staging URL specific to your organisation via email.

3. Create a CNAME record on the setup subdomain that points to your staging URL.

Setting up your SSL certificate

An SSL certificate as part of the ongoing monthly licence fee. The SSL certificate uses DNS validation to enable it to be renewed automatically each year.

1. Create a CNAME record to your organisation’s root domain eg. yourcdomain.com or membes.com.

2. Membes will provide you with the following keys to added to your DNS:

   1. Record name - this is sometimes referred to as the Label or Host

   2. Record value - this is sometimes referred to as the Destination or Target

Notify Membes

1. Email support@membes.com.au to notify the support team that the DNS records have been completed.