A client reported that they changed email providers and now their website says it cant be reached. I logged in and sure enough it says their site isnt served on netlify and to check the DNS configuration. Maybe im not understanding the connection, but how does that affect the website being disconnected from netlify? the site in question is atlasbhw.com.
Is there no record of the website on Netlify? Or can you still see it listed and if yes are you still able to access it using the [name-of-your-site].netlify.app subdomain? You can find that subdomain by going to the site in questions (assuming it’s still listed in Netlify), then to Site Settings (Top Menu), to the sidebar menu go to Domain Management > Domains and you can see the domains which have been set.
A quick DNS lookup shows the site’s nameservers are set to Name.com’s namesevers (NS) and that the MX (mail exchange) addresses are currently pointing to ZOHO:
| Hostname | Type | TTL | Priority | Content |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| atlasbhw.com | SOA | 3600 | ns1.name.com hostmaster@nsone.net 1675365863 43200 7200 1209600 3600 | |
| atlasbhw.com | NS | 300 | ns1bdg.name.com | |
| atlasbhw.com | NS | 300 | ns2bkr.name.com | |
| atlasbhw.com | NS | 300 | ns3jwx.name.com | |
| atlasbhw.com | NS | 300 | ns4jnz.name.com | |
| atlasbhw.com | MX | 300 | 10 | mx.zoho.com |
| atlasbhw.com | MX | 300 | 20 | mx2.zoho.com |
| atlasbhw.com | MX | 300 | 50 | mx3.zoho.com |
If you can still access the website with the Nelify specific domain, then mostly likely all you need to do is change the nameserver per the domain instructions so that they point to the proper location, in this case Netlify instead of the default Name.com nameservers and wait for them to propagate:
It sounds like the client has changed their DNS records entirely, not just their MX records.
If they were previously using Netlify’s DNS this would cause the site to start resolving, but it may also break their email if the MX records that are set within the Netlify DNS don’t match what is set against the currently live DNS records (which are likely in the Name.com), as they would almost certainly revert to whatever is in the Netlify DNS.
It’s also possible they weren’t using Netlify DNS previously, in which case their wouldn’t even be any records there, (you haven’t said if their DNS has changed providers).
So another way to resolve it would be to configure the current DNS records as per Configure external DNS for a custom domain | Netlify Docs
There are records in netlify for this website but the mx records are something different than what you listed, they originally have hushmail. The domain was purchased from name.com originally if i recall so thats still the same. I am only able to view the website from the netlify generated url. So when they changed their email, they essentially forced the domain to default back to using name.coms name servers and not netlify?
@artsycoder533 Based on having records in Netlify it sounds like whoever has performed the email change work for the client has gone to their Domain Registrar (Name.com) to do it, and removed the Name Servers so that they could manage the DNS records there.
That’s correct.
Since the clients DNS was actually in Netlify the email change work should have been performed in Netlify, but someone has gone one step further up the chain.
To resolve it could be done either way around, depending on where they actually want to manage their DNS.
Either the appropriate Netlify site configuration could be added to the Name.com DNS records, or the Name Servers could be pointed back at Netlify and the correct “new” email MX records added in Netlify.
Thank you so much! This was a wild one!
More common than you would think unfortunately, best of luck getting it fixed for the client!
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