--- title: "DNS Outage: What to Do to Keep Site and Email Up" url: "https://globalhostia.com/blog/dns-outage-keep-website-email-online" description: "DNS outage what to do: lessons from the SkyBell outage log, plus a practical checklist to protect your website, domain and email from DNS failure." source: "GlobalHostia; prices are synced from the billing system and exclude any taxes shown at checkout" --- [Internet news](https://globalhostia.com/blog/category/internet-news) # DNS Outage: What to Do to Keep Your Website and Email Online GlobalHostia Team 5 November 20267 min read What this article explains A connected-device maker's outage log pointed to DNS and DNS server settings. Here is what to do so a DNS failure does not take down your website or email. Key takeaways - SkyBell's outage log said the outage appeared to involve DNS and DNS server settings, and that its public sites came back after a DNS update. - A DNS failure makes healthy servers unreachable by name, affecting both your website and your email authentication. - Use at least two nameservers on independent infrastructure, as recommended in RFC 2182. - Lower your TTLs before planned changes, and always keep a copy of your DNS records outside your DNS provider. - Diagnose before you change: test from outside your network and avoid making several edits at once. In this article8 sections 1. [What happened in the SkyBell outage](#what-happened-in-the-skybell-outage) 2. [Why a DNS failure can take your website and email down](#why-a-dns-failure-can-take-your-website-and-email-down) 3. [DNS outage: what to do in the first hour](#dns-outage-what-to-do-in-the-first-hour) 4. [Secondary DNS for business: remove the single point of failure](#secondary-dns-for-business-remove-the-single-point-of-failure) 5. [DNS TTL settings and your nameserver change checklist](#dns-ttl-settings-and-your-nameserver-change-checklist) 6. [What to do now: a DNS resilience checklist](#what-to-do-now-a-dns-resilience-checklist) 7. [What to watch next](#what-to-watch-next) 8. [Frequently asked questions](#frequently-asked-questions) A DNS outage is best handled before it happens: use at least two independent nameservers, keep your TTLs sensible, and know exactly where your records live. On 2–3 November 2026, SkyBell published an outage log that [described an outage appearing to involve DNS and DNS server settings](https://support.skybell.com/hc/en-us/articles/50108125966989-SkyBell-Outage-November-2026). This article covers what the log says, why it matters for your domain, and a checklist for what to do now. ## What happened in the SkyBell outage SkyBell, a maker of connected doorbells, keeps a public outage log. These are the facts it states, and nothing here goes beyond them: | Time (Pacific) | What the log says | | --- | --- | | 2 Nov, 8:18am | An outage on the SkyBell Cloud Server affected devices and logged app users out. Users could not reach [www.skybell.com](http://www.skybell.com/) or support.skybell.com. | | 2 Nov, 2:30pm | The issue "may be both server and DNS related". The main website, the support site and support-ticket submission were restored after a DNS update. Hardware and app login stayed offline. | | 2 Nov, 3:30pm | The log says the outage appears to be due to an issue with DNS and DNS server settings. | | 3 Nov, 7:30am | The log repeats that wording, with no further updates, and says the company is working to resolve it as fast as possible. | The [log page](https://support.skybell.com/hc/en-us/articles/50108125966989-SkyBell-Outage-November-2026) was last updated on 3 November. The company has not published a full cause, and the wording is hedged ("appears to be"). We are not speculating about the root cause. The useful part is the pattern: public web pages came back after a DNS change, while other services stayed down. ## Why a DNS failure can take your website and email down DNS is the lookup that turns your domain name into the servers that handle your website, email and apps. If the lookup fails, your servers can be perfectly healthy and still unreachable by name. ### Website A DNS failure means browsers cannot find your site's address. Visitors see a "server not found" error, which looks like downtime. A DNS-related change can bring web pages back, as it did for SkyBell's public site, but it will not fix problems elsewhere in your stack. ### Email DNS outage email delivery problems come from three places: - **MX records** tell other mail servers where to deliver your mail. If they cannot be looked up, inbound mail cannot be routed. - **SPF, DKIM and DMARC** are published as DNS records. If receivers cannot fetch them, your outgoing mail can fail authentication or be deferred. - **Your own devices and apps** that connect to mail, booking or payment services by hostname will fail to connect. Sending servers usually retry deferred mail for a period, but retry behaviour differs between systems, so do not rely on it as a plan. Recommended for this topic ## Put this guide into practice Shared Hosting – Malaysia ### [Hostia Lite](https://globalhostia.com/p/hostia-lite) - 2 GB of Space - 50 GB Bandwidth - 10 Email Id's From **$0.25 / month** [Order](https://my.globalhostia.com/cart.php?a=add&pid=4) Shared Hosting – Singapore ### [Hostia Lite-sg](https://globalhostia.com/p/hostia-lite-sg) - 2 GB of Space - 50 GB Bandwidth - 10 Email Id's From **$0.25 / month** [Order](https://my.globalhostia.com/cart.php?a=add&pid=66) Shared Hosting – USA ### [Hostia Lite-usa](https://globalhostia.com/p/hostia-lite-usa) - 2 GB of Space - 50 GB Bandwidth - 10 Email Id's From **$0.25 / month** [Order](https://my.globalhostia.com/cart.php?a=add&pid=69) Prices from our billing system, in USD. ## DNS outage: what to do in the first hour Work out whether DNS is the problem before you change anything. 1. **Check from outside your network.** Test the domain from mobile data, and use an online DNS lookup tool or `dig yourdomain.com NS` to see whether your nameservers respond. 2. **Compare name and address.** If the site loads by its IP address but not by name, DNS is the likely cause. If it fails both ways, look at the server. 3. **Check your DNS provider's status page** and your registrar account for nameserver or zone changes you did not make. 4. **Confirm the nameservers at the registry level.** The nameservers shown in your registrar panel must match the ones that actually hold your zone. 5. **Have your zone export or record list to hand.** If you need to move DNS quickly, you will need every A, CNAME, MX and TXT record. 6. **Tell customers through a channel that does not depend on your domain,** such as a social profile or a mobile message, until things settle. Avoid making several changes at once. Every edit starts a new propagation cycle and makes the outage harder to diagnose. ## Secondary DNS for business: remove the single point of failure The standard defence is redundancy. The IETF guidance on [selecting and operating secondary DNS servers (RFC 2182)](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2182) recommends multiple authoritative servers in diverse locations, so one failure does not take the zone offline. If you are considering secondary DNS for business use, check these points: - **Independent infrastructure.** Two nameservers in the same network or data centre fail together. - **Zone transfer or sync.** Know how changes reach the second provider, and who is responsible for keeping them identical. - **Record parity.** Differences between providers cause intermittent failures that are hard to trace. - **Registrar delegation.** Both providers' nameservers must be listed at the registry. For most small sites, the simplest route is to keep DNS with one well-run provider that publishes several nameservers. If your site or email is revenue-critical, ask whether a second, independent DNS provider is justified. Our [help centre](https://globalhostia.com/help-center) or [sales and support team](https://globalhostia.com/contact) can advise on how to set up DNS for your plan. ## DNS TTL settings and your nameserver change checklist TTL (time to live) is how long resolvers cache an answer. A long TTL reduces lookups but slows down any fix. A short TTL speeds up changes but increases query volume. Many teams use a higher TTL day to day and lower it ahead of planned work. ### Planned-change routine 1. Lower the TTL on the records you will change, at least one full old-TTL period before the change. 2. Make the change, then verify from several networks. 3. Raise the TTL again once everything is stable. Note that a nameserver change is slower than a record change, because the delegation at the registry has its own caching. Keep the old DNS zone active until the move is verified. ### Nameserver change checklist | Step | Why | | --- | --- | | Export or list every record at the current DNS host | Nothing gets lost in the move | | Recreate the records at the new host, including MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC | Email keeps working | | Lower TTLs in advance | Faster rollback | | Check that at least two nameservers will be listed | Basic redundancy | | Change nameservers at the registrar | Delegation switches over | | Test the website, mail flow and SSL after the change | Catch gaps early | | Keep the old zone for a few days | Cover stragglers and rollback | For the exact steps, see our guide to [changing nameservers](https://globalhostia.com/guides/change-nameservers). The [nameservers vs A record article](https://globalhostia.com/blog/point-your-domain-to-your-hosting-nameservers-vs-a-record) explains which method suits your setup. ## What to do now: a DNS resilience checklist - Log in to your registrar and confirm the contact email, domain lock and renewal settings. Losing control of a domain is a DNS outage you cannot fix quickly. - Keep your domain, DNS and hosting accounts protected with strong, unique passwords and two-factor authentication where offered. - Write down where your DNS is hosted, and who can change it. - Export your DNS records and store a copy outside the DNS provider. - Confirm that you have at least two nameservers, preferably on separate networks. - Review the TTLs on your website and MX records. - Check your SPF, DKIM and DMARC records against your [business email setup](https://globalhostia.com/guides/business-email-setup). - Make sure your [SSL certificate](https://globalhostia.com/ssl-certificate) renewals do not rely on a single DNS record you cannot reach. - Add a status or contact channel that works even if your domain does not. - Keep your domain, hosting and email with a team you can reach quickly. [Domain registration](https://globalhostia.com/domains-registration) with clear control over nameservers makes recovery faster. ## What to watch next The SkyBell log is the only source we used for this event, and it is a company's own running notes, not an independent investigation. Watch for a later update from the company with a fuller explanation. Whatever the final cause turns out to be, the practical lesson is the same: DNS is a shared dependency for your website, email and any connected service, so treat it as infrastructure you plan for, not a setting you set once and forget. Keeping your domain registration, nameservers and records under your control is the foundation of a resilient setup. Search and register your domain on our [domain registration page](https://globalhostia.com/domains-registration). ## Frequently asked questions ### What should I do first if my website is down and I suspect DNS? Test from a different network and check whether your nameservers respond. Then compare loading the site by IP address with loading it by name. If only the name fails, review your DNS host's status and your registrar's nameserver settings before changing anything. ### Will I lose emails during a DNS outage? Not necessarily. Sending servers usually retry for a while when they cannot deliver, but timings vary. Mail can be delayed or rejected if MX or authentication records cannot be fetched, so reduce the risk with redundant nameservers. ### Do I need secondary DNS for a small business? Not always. A single provider with several well-run nameservers is enough for many small sites. If your site or email is critical to revenue, a second independent DNS provider is worth considering. ### How low should I set my DNS TTL? There is no single right value. Shorter TTLs make fixes and migrations faster, at the cost of more queries. A common approach is to lower TTLs before planned changes and raise them again afterwards. ### Does changing nameservers fix a DNS outage? Only if the cause is your current DNS host and your new zone is complete and accurate. Changing delegation is slower than editing a record, so prepare the new zone first. Keep the old one running until you have verified the move. About the author GlobalHostia Team Practical guides from the GlobalHostia team in Dubai: web hosting, domains, servers and business email. Every article is reviewed by our team before it is published. Last updated: 5 November 2026 - [Domain search and registration](https://globalhostia.com/blog/tag/domain-search-and-registration) Share Share Globalhostia ## Host it with engineers on call 24/7 Free SSL, daily backups and automatic setup. We help you move in. - [**Hostia Lite**from **$0.25 / month**](https://globalhostia.com/p/hostia-lite) - [**Hostia Lite-sg**from **$0.25 / month**](https://globalhostia.com/p/hostia-lite-sg) ## Plans that fit Hand-picked for this article. 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