Payman Short answer: if your website and your business email stop working at the same time, the cause is almost always your domain's DNS, the "address book" that tells the internet where your site and your mail live. Check which nameservers your domain points to. If they belong to an account that is closed, expired or forgotten, move your DNS to a provider you control, add your records back, and point the domain at it. In the case below, the site and email were back the same day.
What happened
EBC Medical is a medical equipment company in Germany. One day their emails stopped arriving, and the emails they sent bounced. Their website was gone too.
The domain was still registered and paid for. The problem was one level down: the domain's nameservers pointed to a hosting account that had been closed. Those nameservers now refused every question about the domain. So when anyone's mail server asked "where does email for ebcmedical.de go?", there was no answer, and the mail was rejected.
Nothing was hacked and nothing was deleted on purpose. An old account simply went away, and the domain was still pointing at it.
How to tell if this is your problem
- Both the website and the email stop at once. If only one breaks, the cause is usually elsewhere.
- A DNS checker shows errors. Type your domain into a free DNS lookup tool. Messages like "SERVFAIL" or "no records found" mean the internet can't read your domain.
- Your registrar lists nameservers you don't recognise. Log in where you bought the domain (Namecheap, GoDaddy and so on) and look at the nameservers. If they belong to a service you no longer use or can no longer log in to, that is the problem.
How we fixed it, step by step
- Set up DNS somewhere you control. We created a free DNS zone for the domain on Cloudflare, in an account we can log in to.
- Add the email records back. The company uses Google Workspace, so that meant one MX record (
smtp.google.com), an SPF record that lets Google send on the domain's behalf, a DKIM key from the Google admin panel, and a DMARC record. The last three keep your mail out of spam folders. - Point the domain at the new DNS. At the registrar, we replaced the old nameservers with the two new ones.
- Wait a little. The registry picked up the change within minutes. Big public resolvers like Google's caught up in about half an hour. It can take longer, but usually not much.
- Turn email signing back on. Once the DKIM record could be seen, we pressed "Start authentication" in the Google admin panel.
- Bring the website back. The site was moved to new hosting and connected to the same domain.
The one mistake we made
When Google shows you a DKIM key, it shows a label, the record name, another label, and then the value. The first time, the whole block was pasted into the DNS record, labels included, and the key didn't work. Only the part that starts with v=DKIM1; belongs in the record. If your DKIM check fails, look for this first.
Will I lose the emails sent while it was down?
Usually not. When a mail server can't deliver a message, it normally keeps trying for a few days before giving up. Once your DNS works again, most of those messages arrive on their own. Messages that bounced outright will need to be sent again.
How to make sure it never happens to you
- Keep your domain and DNS in your own name. Not in a developer's account, not in an agency's account, and not in an account nobody remembers the password to.
- Know where your DNS lives. One line in a note is enough: "Domain at Namecheap, DNS at Cloudflare, email at Google."
- When you close an old hosting or website-builder account, check the domain first. If the domain still points there, move it before you close anything.
When I build or replace a website, the domain and accounts stay in the client's name, and I write down where everything lives. That is exactly so a closed account never takes a business offline.
Questions
Why would my website and email stop working at the same time?
Usually because the domain's DNS stopped answering, for example when the nameservers point to a hosting account that was closed. Both the website and the email depend on DNS, so both stop together.
Will I lose emails sent while my domain was down?
Usually not. Mail servers normally keep retrying for a few days, so most messages arrive once DNS works again. Messages that bounced outright need to be sent again.
How long does it take to fix?
Once DNS is moved to a provider you control and your records are added back, the change is often visible within minutes to an hour.
Stuck on an old account or a website builder you want to leave? Replace your old website is $999, one time. Read the full EBC Medical project.