This article explains what needs to be done to put the website live. Websites go live by adding certain DNS records in your domain management environment. 

What are DNS records?

A website consists of two parts: the domain and the web server. The web server is where the website "resides," and the domain is the address where the website can be found—a kind of street name and postcode. The domain www.sitename.nl is much easier to remember than, for example, the IP address 192.1.6.121, just as a home address is easier to remember than latitude and longitude.

DNS records are configured in your domain, informing a visitor to which web server the domain is linked. A new website is usually hosted on a different web server than the old one, which is why you often need to change DNS records when transitioning to a new website. 

Which records need to be modified?

The following records need to be added to your DNS records in your domain management environment. This can be done by yourselves or by the domain hosting provider. Not sure who your domain hosting provider is? You can easily find this out for a domain ending in .nl via https://www.sidn.nl/whois. If you know your domain hosting provider, email the information below to them with a request to make these changes.

• www.<Domein> CNAME <Domein>.cms.socialschools.nl
  
  For example www.deregenboog.nl CNAME deregenboog.cms.socialschools.nl
  
  
• Any existing www (A) records should be removed.

If you are not using a redirect service for the top-level domain (if a client uses site.nl, this request is automatically redirected to www.site.nl), you can set this up yourself or use a redirect service (e.g., from your domain registrar). Below is an example of the record that needs to be added. In this case, the wwwizer redirect service is used.

• <Domein> A 174.129.25.170

Contact us beforehand when you plan to make the changes; we also need to make some adjustments on our end. Send an email to websites@socialschools.nl, mentioning the domain name you want to go live with (the final one) and the current temporary domain name you received from us (X.cms.socialschools.nl, with X usually being the school name). Keep in mind a lead time of 1 to 2 days for DNS changes, so a change for today should have been submitted to us at least the day before yesterday.

Can KidsKonnect change DNS records for me?

Our experience is that each school often has a different domain provider, each working slightly differently. Therefore, we prefer not to make the adjustment since we cannot accurately assess how easy the modification is for your domain in advance.