Parked Domains: Using the DNS Manager

DomainNameRegistrationHow to Change Your Domain DNS Records

When you park your domain names with UK-Cheapest.co.uk, we give you full control over the management of your domain DNS records. We know this can be a complicated subject. So we make it as easy as possible for you.

You have full control over all DNS record types such as A, CNAME, MX and TXT. We also have custom DNS templates that make it easy to connect to services such as Moonfruit or Google Apps Gmail.

You have full control over Parked Domain DNS

The DNS Manager is used to edit DNS records stored on our domain parking server. To use Domain Parking Features, you need to ensure your domain name is parked.

If you are not sure it is easy to Check if your Domain Name is parked.

Locating the DNS Manager for your domain

To find the DNS manager, simply follow these steps:

  1. Login to your Client Area and go to Domains > My Domains
  2. Click Manage on the desired domain name
  3. Click Parking Tools > DNS Manager
  4. Add and Delete DNS records as required

The DNS Manager is So EASY to Use

You can freely add or delete all A, MX, TXT (SPF) and CNAME records for your domain. The records are added in realtime, there is no delay to your record changes being submitted to the server.

However, let us show you how easy it is to use our DNS templates. 3 clicks configures your domain for Google Apps Gmail. All MX records added, non required records removed, DNS zone file reloaded.

googlemx

If you get lost, it’s easy to start from scratch

Managing DNS can be a complex business. If you are new to DNS management, you may be trying a little ‘trial and error’. That’s ok. But, if your DNS Zone becomes “invalid” then you can reset it to defaults.

  1. Navigate to the Domain DNS Manager
  2. Find the DNS Operations list box
  3. Select Reset to Original Defaults
  4. Press Apply

Your DNS is now set as per the original defaults for a new domain. Any DNS record changes can take up to 24 hours to fully propagate across the global internet so do not expect instant results in your web browser.

Advanced DNS Management – For FREE

Our Advanced DNS Manager is provided FREE with all domain names registered or transferred to us. Full control, at no extra cost, where you need it most. There are no limits to the changes you can make.


Register Domain Name with FREE DNS Tools



How to: Update your Domain WHOIS Contact Details

DomainNameRegistrationChanging your WHOIS Contact Details

When you register a domain name, your contact details at the time are stored within your domain name registration record at the registry. These contact details are assigned and stored with the domain name and are independent of your Client Area contact details.

If your home or business address changes or your email address has changed, you need to ensure that you reflect these changes in each of your domain name WHOIS records.

To do this, simply follow these steps:

  1. Login to your Client Area and go to Domains > My Domains
  2. Click Manage on the desired domain name
  3. Click Management Tools > Contact Information
  4. You can now modify your WHOIS contact details as required

Why it’s important to keep these details current

The registry will use these contact details to communicate with your directly should the need arise. The registry will contact your directly for reasons such as:

  • Verification of your WHOIS details
  • Verification that your authorise changes to your domain ownership
  • Verification that you wish to transfer the domain to a new registrar
  • Notification that your domain name may be subject to abusive use
  • Notification that your domain name is coming up for renewal
  • Notification that your domain name has expired

How to: Stop Domain Renewal Invoices being created

DomainNameRegistrationPrevent Automated Renewal Invoices for Domains No Longer Required

Domain names by their very nature are usually active for very long periods of time, at least one year and up to 10 years, depending on your domain registration requirements at the time.

From time to time, you may find that you no longer wish to use a domain name, even though it has not expired. In this instance, you want to not be bothered by renewal invoices for this domain name.

To prevent renewal invoices being automatically created for unwanted domain names you need to disable the domain “Renew Notify Status”.

To do this, simply follow these steps:

  1. Login to your Client Area and go to Domains > My Domains
  2. Click Manage on the desired domain name
  3. Click Renew Notify tab and review the status
  4. Click Disable Renew Notify button
  5. If desired, you can re-enable at any time

Once Renew Notify is disabled, you will no longer receive automatically generated invoices for this domain name. You will receive renewal notifications, this is in accordance with ICANN/Nominet rules, but you can simply ignore them as you will not be billed.

How to: Check if your domain is parked

Client Area > My Domains

How to Check your Domain Parking Status

When you register a new domain name with UK Cheapest, your domain name is parked by default unless you assigned specific name servers during the registration process.

While your domain name is parked, you will have access to the domain parking features such as Homepage Builder, Email Forwarding and Web Forwarding. The parking features are useful if you do not plan to immediately host a new website using your domain.

You can immediately inspect the parking status of your domain name in Client Area > My Domains > select your domain > Overview > Parking Status.

For your domain name to be parked, your domain name servers need to be set to:

  • ns.microlite1.com (or ns.ukc.uk)
  • ns2.microlite1.com (or ns2.ukc.uk)

These name servers connect your domain name to the domain parking server. If your domain name is not parked, the domain parking features will not be accessible when managing your domain name.

Check your name server settings

There are a couple of ways to check your current name server settings.

Method 1: Check the WHOIS record for your domain name

Go to the Nominet Lookup page and check the record for your domain name. Scroll down to the name server section and there you will see how you name servers are set.

Method 2: Check the name server settings in the Domain Management area

Login to the Client Area, go to Domains > My Domains, find your domain name in the list, select Manage Domain > Nameservers. You will see the active name servers for this domain.

So is your domain parked?

If your name servers are set like this, then your domain name is parked:

  • ns.microlite1.com (or ns.ukc.uk)
  • ns2.microlite1.com (or ns2.ukc.uk)

If you name servers are set to anything else, then your domain name is not parked and the parking features will not be active.

If your domain is not parked, and you want to park it

Simply change your name servers to the parking server to activate the parking features.

  • ns.microlite1.com (or ns.ukc.uk)
  • ns2.microlite1.com (or ns2.ukc.uk)

For simplicity select “use default name servers” then click the “Change Namservers” button.

This disconnects your domain name from the original server so ensure you no longer require any services performed on the original name servers.

Be mindful that name server changes can take up to 24 hours to take effect, so be prepared to wait a little while before the parking features begin to function.

How to Reduce SPAM and Protect your Reputation

Dealing with email sent to non-existent mailboxes

Screen Shot 2015-06-03 at 12.28.22

Reducing SPAM and protecting your email reputation is an ongoing project, your job is never done. There are however some tricks, and this is one of them.

Spammers send emails to non-existent email addresses all the time. It’s part of their strategy. Here’s why.

Let’s imagine you have setup a mailbox for your domain, john.doe@yoursite.co.uk.

All email sent to john.doe@yoursite.co.uk will arrive at your inbox. So far, so good. So… What happens to emails sent to test@yoursite.co.uk?

This is determined in your Mail Settings in the Plesk panel. There’s three options.

1) Catch-all method: If you have setup a catchall to john.doe@yoursite.co.uk, then emails sent to test@yoursite.co.uk (and in fact any email for anyone@yoursite.co.uk) will arrive in your inbox – it won’t take long to fill this mailbox with this catchall email spam.

2) Forward to address method: To prevent john.doe@yoursite.co.uk filling up with spam, you may choose to send all your spam emails to an old Gmail account, john.doe@gmail.com. Great, no spam for your john.doe@yoursite.co.uk mailbox! Well, not so great i’m afraid. This is potentially disastrous. Now Google will receive all your spam, sent from @yoursite.co.uk – it won’t be long before your domain name and IP are blocked on the global blacklists. A nightmare to clear up.

Here’s the solution you have been waiting for.

3) Reject method: Using this method, the spam emails are not delivered at all. The connection attempt is rejected at the SMTP server level. No email to deliver, no email to bounce. This is the recommended and best method for dealing with emails sent to non-existent mailboxes – and it’s really easy to do.

Time to login to your Plesk Panel and set this up

Screen Shot 2015-06-17 at 14.57.31

This will not eliminate all SPAM emails, nor will it guarantee your domain/IP will never be blacklisted, but, it definitely helps. If you do not “Reject” then SPAM and blacklisting is eventually inevitable.