I've had my own domain purchased for a few years now; I'm trying to take more time to actually start to build the site, but I'm still pretty new to this. I have an UNDER CONSTRUCTION homepage so far. That's about it.

The site is through Wix, but the domain is through Squarespace (purchased the domain from Google, but they just transferred it to Squarespace). I noticed that I can transfer the domain to be managed under Wix. Does that make sense to do? Or should I put them both under Squarespace? I have zero experience with their website building tools, and only some with Wix's. I need to watch more guide videos.

It seems to be a bit of a PITA to use 2 different websites to manage this whole thing. I'm running in circles just trying to figure out the whole email/DNS crap.

I use Epik for domain registrar, cloudflare for DNS and Inmotion hosting for my web host. I’ve found it better to separate everything as I’ve had an all-in-one go defunct.

interesting

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Originally posted by mark123:
I use Epik for domain registrar, cloudflare for DNS and Inmotion hosting for my web host. I’ve found it better to separate everything as I’ve had an all-in-one go defunct.

Similar here. Inmotion for hosting is hard to beat. My registrar is OpenSRS, and they do the external DNS as well as handling incoming email. Locally, machines on my network get DNS resolution from an instance of unbound running on Debian, on a retired Mac mini.

quote:

Originally posted by henryaz:
… Locally, machines on my network get DNS resolution from an instance of unbound running on Debian, on a retired Mac mini.

I’ve got pi-hole using unbound along side pivpn on a raspberry Pi 4. Everyone should do it.

^^^Perhaps you guys could expand on the significance of all that (in English!), and why everyone should do it?

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I have zero experience with their website building tools, and only some with Wix's.

...

quote:

It seems to be a bit of a PITA to use 2 different websites to manage this whole thing. I'm running in circles just trying to figure out the whole email/DNS crap.

Is this for a business? If so, please do not spend hours trying to figure it out. If you have the time to learn, that's fine, and you can work your way through it. For a business, you may consider hiring this out.

I use WordPress exclusively, and I am not too familiar with Wix.

First off, your domain registrar, email services, website and DNS provider can all be through different companies.

The domain registrar is who you pay for the domain name. You should pay no more than $10 or maybe $12 annually. My suggestion would be Epik or maybe Cloudflare. Do not use GoDaddy (for anything).

For email services using your domain name, my preference is Google Workspace, but you can also use Namecheap's Private Email service. There are others. Pricing and features vary. Email is hosted on an email server.

You're using Wix for your website. I host using Cloudways or SiteDistrict, both of which are pretty much WordPress-exclusive. Some website plans also include email services. I do not suggest this as it has caused dozens of extra hours of wasted time for my clients. Having email and web services together used to make sense, but again, just too many issues, including hours of issues trying to set up email clients on mobile phones and computers. If you're fine with only using an email browser for email and not having any spam tools, I guess email hosting on a web server might be acceptable. (I actually totally STOPPED supporting those configurations.)

The DNS provider is basically the "post office" that directs your traffic. When you type in "yourdomain.com" or send an email to "user@yourdomain.com," it routes the traffic accordingly. It will route web traffic to your website server (Wix in this example), and email traffic will go to your email server. My preference here is Cloudflare.

Can you have them all in one place with one company? Yes. Do I suggest this? No. It does make it easy for some people, but in general, the companies that try to do everything, do everything poorly. GoDaddy is a perfect example.

Again, there are many mistakes people can make that will cost you time and more. For example, if you do not have your DNS SPF record set up correctly, any "contact" forms you have on your website might not get those emails sent to where they need to go. They may end up in spam or totally disappear and not get delivered. Do DNS SPF records sound complicated? If so, I'd suggest getting help.

If you need help, I can provide a little time to set things up for you for free. But note, I'll need access to all of your setups.

Thanks, Steve. That sheds some light on this. I still wasn't clear WTF DNS was for. This is for my small business. It's VERY small (I'm the only employee), so I wasn't too interested in paying $1000+ for someone else to do it.

I just learned my wife has some experience with Wix, so I'll let her play around with designing the site.

I really appreciate your offer of help. I have some more questions:

1. The domain registrar is now Squarespace. Can I change that (if there is a good reason), or do they own it and I rent the name from them?

2. Does the DNS provider have to be either the registrar or the website host? I believe Wix is the current DNS provider. They sent me a bunch of convoluted instructions about copy/pasting code into MX, TXT, and other fields in the DNS settings that made NO SENSE whatsoever. Still, it appears my domain email is mostly, but not completely, working.

Since I'll let the wife play with site design, I'd really appreciate some help with setting up the rest of the infrastructure around it! I'll shoot you an email from my domain email.

quote:

Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:
...
1. The domain registrar is now Squarespace. Can I change that (if there is a good reason), or do they own it and I rent the name from them?

2. Does the DNS provider have to be either the registrar or the website host? I believe Wix is the current DNS provider. They sent me a bunch of convoluted instructions about copy/pasting code into MX, TXT, and other fields in the DNS settings that made NO SENSE whatsoever. Still, it appears my domain email is mostly working.

Since I'll let the wife play with site design, I'd really appreciate some help with setting up the rest of the infrastructure around it! I'll shoot you an email from my domain email.

I received your email, but I'll answer here for others...

You can leave the domain registration with Squarespace. Ensure you have the username and password for that account and save them in a safe place. This is a company asset that you own. Note the date of expiration. This happens (normally) one time per year. Put it in the calendar. They will email you when the bill is due. Don't miss paying the annual fee. It looks like they charge $12 per year. I would not pay more than one year in advance.

After the migration from Google Domains, the DNS might be managed through Squarespace. (Google Domains stopped this service and sold the business to Squarespace.) To keep things simple for you, you can also leave the DNS at Squarespace. Moving to Cloudflare in the future is easy and free if you find this necessary. For your small business and website using Wix, I do not think this is needed at this time.

If it were managed by Wix, as you say (that seems likely if they provided you with instructions), I would probably move it to Squarespace or Cloudflare.

If you provide me with delegate access to your Squarespace and Wix accounts, I can set up the DNS configuration for you. I will reply to your email with info on that.

You do not have to change everything to WIX.

I have setup and managed many of these spaces for my IT clients.

As a general rule: every hosting company wants to have all the services controlled by them.
It is not necessary, nor recommended if you want to remain in control.

Example of what I use:

Websites: WIX
DNS: Zoneedit
Registrar: Network Solutions
Email: Microsoft O365

These are all independent services that work together that can be but do not have to be under one roof.

I have many that use GoDaddy for all mostly because they do not know better or for convenience.

So if you understand what the services are then you can also understand how to separate them out and control them yourself.

Note: I have been using the mentioned services for many years and yes there are many other good ones out there.

But just know every hosting company wants all your business hence to pressure to put it all under one roof.

I just sent you an email, but it was rejected. So you can send OUT emails, but people might not be able to send or reply to you.

This may be an issue with DNS settings or a policy setting with your email configuration with Wix.

So, I sent an email to your forum email address. So check that account.

For those wondering, the error was a 550 5.7.1 Relaying denied.

smsschulz, thanks for the info. I'll leave them separate unless something specific comes up.


According to a DNS check site, my DNS is managed by Wix. Maybe I buggered up the steps they sent me to update the settings.

I'll be taking you up on the offer, Steve. It will have to wait until I get home later this afternoon.

Thanks!

With regard to the email issue.

Note that your Registrar will say who/where your DNS is configured.

Then the DNS will have your MX record where the email server is located.

Be sure that any query is finding the correct DNS Server with authority over your Domain.

Currently in the process of building my own website for my business. Wix seems to be okay. I'm building it through Wix but host is GoDaddy.