Running a Name Portfolio
SSH: Where You Can Actually Interrogate a Name
Your browser says the name works; you need to know which nameservers said so, and what the registry thinks of it.
The short answer
SSH is an authenticated, encrypted session onto a server's command line. For anyone managing names it is the shortest route to the two answers a browser cannot give you: what a name resolves to when you ask a named server directly, and what the registry record actually says about it.
It is also where a rename collapses from an afternoon into one line, because a command-line search-replace rewrites a stored domain across every table, serialised values included, in a single pass.
Everything the panel does can be typed instead, and typing wins on speed the moment the commands are yours.
By the Hosting & Domains team · Reviewed 18 August 2026
100+
Terms in the domain glossary
2 min
Typical read
Plain
English, apex to zone file
24/7
Someone on the desk
Four commands cover most of the work. dig +short NS example.com tells you where the name is delegated. dig @ns1.provider.net example.com A asks that nameserver directly, stepping around whatever your own resolver has cached. whois example.com gives the registrar of record, the expiry date and the status codes — clientTransferProhibited among them. curl -I https://example.com shows which server answered and what it said.
That last one is the honest test. A browser shows you a cached, redirected, sometimes HSTS-pinned version of reality; a fresh request from a machine you control shows you the response as it actually stands at this moment. When the two disagree, the shell is right.
Asking a nameserver directly, instead of your own resolver
The ordinary complaint after a DNS change is that it works for one person and not another. That is caching, and it is not a fault. Query the authoritative nameserver by name and you get the record as published, with no intermediate cache in the way; query your own resolver and you get whatever it was told, valid until the TTL expires.
Do both. The difference between the two answers is precisely how much of the change is still in flight, and it tells you whether to wait or to keep looking.
Reading the registry record from the shell
whois returns the parts of a name's life that no site setting can show you: the registrar of record, the creation and expiry dates, and the status codes that decide whether the name can move at all. A name showing clientTransferProhibited is locked, and no auth code will start a transfer until it is unlocked at the current registrar.
The expiry date is the line worth reading every time. It is the only field on the page that can quietly take everything else with it.
One command for a rename
A command-line search-replace across a WordPress database handles serialised values properly, which a SQL REPLACE() does not. Run it with a dry-run flag first, read the count of rows it proposes to touch, and only then let it write. What was an afternoon in phpMyAdmin, with a typo waiting in it, becomes a line and a check.
Do the same job in the right order and it is genuinely dull: add the new name to the account, run the replace, verify with a fresh request, move the delegation.
Keys, because this credential reaches several sites
A key pair puts the private half on your machine and the public half on the server, so signing in proves possession of a file rather than memory of a phrase. On a portfolio held for other people, that is the difference between revoking one line and changing a password everywhere.
Every account on the shared plans sits inside its own isolated environment, so a shell session reaches your files, your databases and your processes and nothing beyond them.
Where it sits on this platform. SSH, Git and Composer come with the developer plans, and the same credentials serve SFTP. Read on: SFTP, Git, Cron Job and VPS.
Order hosting annually and the first year of the name's registration is included.
A glossary for people who own the name, not the server
Registry, registrar, reseller, host. Four different parties, and almost every domain problem is really a question about which of them holds the thing you are trying to change. These entries keep that distinction straight rather than blurring it.
Order hosting annually and the first year of the name's registration is included.
- Registry, registrar, reseller and host kept apart
- Clocks, locks and windows given in days
- 100+ terms, all cross-referenced
- No entry ends without the practical step
Why Hosting & Domains
Standard on every plan
Registry, registrar and host kept apart
Every entry says which of the three actually holds the setting, because that is the question hiding behind most domain problems.
The clock, given in days
Locks, grace periods, redemption windows and TTLs stated as durations, since duration is what decides whether your change has landed.
Where the record really lives
Registrar panel, DNS zone, server config or the site's own database — named explicitly, so you change it once instead of three times.
Four commands worth knowing
dig, whois and curl -I put the delegation, the registry record and the real server response in front of you in seconds.
The failure mode, named
Each entry ends on how it goes wrong: the stranded mailbox, the lapsed name, the record that quietly never propagated.
Entries that point onwards
Related terms cross-link, so one lookup turns into working knowledge of a whole zone rather than a single answer.
Quick Start
Order placed to site online
- 1
Find out which system holds it
Open your client area and your DNS panel side by side. Half of all domain confusion is simply not knowing whether a setting sits at the registrar, in the zone, or in the site's own configuration.
- 2
Read the clock before you change anything
Note the record's TTL and the name's expiry date. One decides how long your change takes to matter; the other decides how long you still have a name to change.
- 3
Keep reading
SFTP, Git and Cron Job are the neighbours here, each about two minutes.
Built In
Fitted to every plan
- The name's first year included on an annual order
- Transfers in carry over whatever registration time remains
- The renewal figure stays the one you registered at
- Names held in your own name for the term you have paid for
- SSH, Git and Composer on the developer plans
- Plan changes applied in place, with no migration
- Thirty days' money back on hosting plans, seven on reseller
- No set-up charge and no joining fee, at any point
- A person on the support desk at any hour of any day
- Spam and virus screening on every mailbox by default
Frequently Asked
Questions we field again and again
How do I see what a name resolves to without my own cache in the way?
Ask the authoritative nameserver directly: dig @ns1.provider.net example.com A. That bypasses your resolver entirely and returns the record as published. Compare it with a plain dig example.com A, which returns whatever your resolver currently holds. The gap between the two answers is how much of your change is still in flight.
Where do I read a name's lock status and expiry date?
whois example.com, from any shell. It returns the registrar of record, the creation and expiry dates and the status codes. clientTransferProhibited means the name is locked and no auth code will move it until it is unlocked at the current registrar. The expiry date is the field worth checking habitually, because it is the one that can take the rest with it.
Is a shell rename safe to run against a live site?
It is safe if you take the database export first and run the replace in dry-run mode before letting it write. What makes it safer than the alternative is that a proper search-replace understands serialised values, where a hand-written SQL replace corrupts them silently. Rehearse it on a staging copy and the live run becomes a formality.
Which plans include shell access?
SSH comes with the developer plans, alongside Git and Composer, and the same credentials work for SFTP. Each account on the shared platform sits in its own isolated environment, so a session reaches your files, your databases and your processes and nothing else on the machine.
Keep reading
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Changing provider? Work through this checklist beforehand.
A straightforward running order for a migration your visitors never spot: which files travel first, how to bring the mail across without dropping a single message, the right moment to repoint DNS, and the two errors that sit behind almost every outage we get called in to fix.
Get the record where it belongs.
Transfer in and the remaining registration term carries over, with DNS resolving the whole way through.
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