DON'T SCREW UP A CLIENT'S DNS
Don't wreck a client's email, VPN, or other mission critical services just because you don't know what you are doing.
Don't wreck a client's email, VPN, or other mission critical services just because you don't know what you are doing.
We've worked with companies from sole proprietor to Fortune 50, in every industry under the sun. But time and again we've seen web developers who do not understand DNS break mission critical systems for customers when they mess with DNS. And rather than be the heros that fix the problem, we'd rather be the ones who prevent it from getting broken in the first place.
DNS stands for Domain Name System. Think of it as the phone book for the internet. When you type in webdesignerpledge.com DNS translates that to an IP (Internet Protocol) address of 160.153.136.3 and that allows your browser to open this page. But it doesn't just do websites, contrary to what a lot of web designers think. It handles mail routing (MX or Mail Exchange records), SPAM prevention records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), VPN routing, and lots of other business critical services.
We've created this solemn Pledge for web designers to take, to ensue that clients don't have critical services (like email, VPN, and a host of others) just stop working because their web developer did not understand DNS. Look, we couldn't create a pretty website to save our lives. We hire talented web designers to make that look great. But managing DNS is a technical skill, and a very different skillset is needed than the one that makes pretty websites. This pledge will help everyone stay safe, and help them stick to their area of expertise so the customer is ultimately better served by everyone involved.