Skip to main content

​
PanelDNS Sub-Client Handbook

A guide for business owners and website managers
Your hosting company or agency has set you up with a PanelDNS portal — a white-label DNS management platform that lets you control the DNS records for your domains. This handbook walks you through everything you need to know, from logging in for the first time to setting up email and monitoring your changes globally. You do not need to be a technical expert to use this guide. Where DNS terms are unavoidable, they are explained in plain English.

​
Table of Contents

  1. What Is DNS and Why Does It Matter?
  2. Getting Started — Your Invitation Email
  3. Logging In
  4. The Zone List — Your Home Screen
  5. Inside a Zone — The Zone Detail Page
  6. Managing DNS Records
  7. DNS Record Types Explained
  8. Protected Records
  9. Pending Changes and Approval Workflows
  10. Scheduling a Change for Later
  11. Zone Change History
  12. The SPF Builder
  13. The Email Wizard
  14. The CAA Wizard
  15. Zone Templates — The Marketplace
  16. DNS Lookup Tool
  17. Invoices and Billing
  18. Profile Settings and Security
  19. Common Tasks — Quick Reference
  20. Getting Help
  21. Account Closure & Data Rights
  22. Zone Suspension — What It Means and What to Do
  23. DNS Event Notifications

​
1. What Is DNS and Why Does It Matter?

Every domain name on the internet (like yourbusiness.com) has a behind-the-scenes directory that tells the internet where to send visitors, emails, and other traffic. This directory is called DNS — the Domain Name System. Think of DNS records the way you think of entries in a phone book. When someone types your domain name into a browser, DNS translates that name into a specific server address. When someone sends you an email, DNS records tell their mail server where to deliver it. Your hosting provider manages the DNS servers that hold your records. Your job is to keep those records accurate and up to date. That is exactly what this portal lets you do.

​
2. Getting Started — Your Invitation Email

When your provider sets up your account, you will receive an invitation email from them. This email contains a unique link to activate your portal access. Steps to get started:
  1. Open the invitation email from your hosting provider.
  2. Click the activation link (it is time-limited, so use it promptly — if it has expired, contact your provider for a fresh one).
  3. You will be taken to a page asking you to set a password. Choose a strong password and confirm it.
  4. On the same page, you will see links to your provider’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and a consent checkbox. You must check the box before your password is accepted. This is required by data protection law.
  5. The same page may also include an optional checkbox to receive marketing communications from your provider. This checkbox is not pre-checked — you only opt in if you actively tick it. You can opt out at any time by clicking the Unsubscribe link in the footer of any marketing email.
  6. Click Set password & sign in — you are now logged in and will see your portal home screen.
Your portal URL will be something like portal.yourhostingcompany.com or a similar address branded by your provider. Bookmark this page for easy access in the future. If you receive marketing emails from your provider and want to opt out, click the Unsubscribe link in the footer of any marketing email. This link is unique to your account and works without logging in — clicking it immediately opts you out. Transactional emails (important notices about your account, zones, billing, or security) are always sent regardless of this setting.
Cookie consent banner: On your first visit to the portal, a consent bar appears at the bottom of the screen asking you to accept or configure cookie preferences. Essential cookies (session, security) cannot be disabled — they are required for the portal to function. Optional analytics cookies are off by default and only activate if you explicitly allow them. Your choice is stored in this browser, so the banner appears again if you clear your site data.

​
3. Logging In

The portal supports several ways to log in. Your provider determines which options are available to you.

​
Email and Password

The standard method. Enter the email address your provider registered you with, enter your password, and click Sign in. If you have forgotten your password, click the Forgot password? link on the login page. You will receive a reset link by email.

​
Passkey (Passwordless Login)

A passkey is a modern, highly secure alternative to passwords. Instead of typing a password, you authenticate using your device’s built-in security — Face ID, fingerprint reader, or a hardware security key (like a YubiKey). To use a passkey:
  1. Click Sign in with passkey on the login page.
  2. Your device will prompt you with its usual biometric or security key method.
  3. Confirm — you are logged in immediately.
You can register a passkey after your first login, from the Passkeys card on the Settings page (see Section 18).

​
SSO (Single Sign-On)

If your organisation uses a company-wide login system — such as Google Workspace, Microsoft Entra (formerly Azure AD), or Okta — your provider may have configured SSO. In that case, you will see a Sign in with SSO button on the login page. Click it and you will be taken through your organisation’s normal login flow, with no separate password required.

​
4. The Zone List — Your Home Screen

Your welcome panel (first login): The first time you log in, a short welcome panel appears at the top of your zones page. It explains the essentials in a few lines — where to find your domains, how to add DNS records, and how to point your nameservers at your provider so your changes take effect. It is there to get you oriented. Once you have read it, click Got it to dismiss it. It will not appear again.
After logging in, you will see a list of all the DNS zones (domains) assigned to your account. If your status shows Suspended: the zone has been restricted — usually by your provider because of a billing or account matter, or automatically by a safety check on the domain (see Section 22). Open the zone and a red notice on its page explains why it was suspended. The zone and its records stay listed in the portal, but the zone is read-only: if you try to add, edit or delete a record, the portal refuses with a message that the zone is suspended. Depending on how your provider has set up suspensions, your website’s DNS may also be pointed at a holding page until the zone is reactivated, so your website and email may be affected. Contact your provider to resolve this. Quota display: if your provider has set a limit on how many zones you can hold, you will see a Zone quota card at the top of the page showing your usage, such as “3 of 10 used.” Click any domain name in the list (or its Manage button) to open the zone detail page for that domain.

​
The Analytics Page

If your provider’s plan includes it, an Analytics item appears in the sidebar. It shows DNS query statistics across all of your domains in one place:
  • Total queries received over the period, and an average per day
  • Active zones — how many of your domains received traffic
  • NXDOMAIN rate — the share of lookups that asked for a record that doesn’t exist (a consistently high rate can mean a typo in a record somewhere, or an old reference to a name you removed)
  • A daily volume chart, a query-type breakdown, and your busiest domains
Use the 1d / 7d / 30d / 90d buttons to change the time window. If you don’t see an Analytics item, your plan doesn’t include query analytics — ask your provider.

​
5. Inside a Zone — The Zone Detail Page

The zone detail page is the main working area for any domain. It is divided into several sections:

​
Nameservers

Near the top of the page, you will see your nameservers — these are the addresses your provider uses to serve your DNS. They look like ns1.yourhostingcompany.com and ns2.yourhostingcompany.com. These nameservers must be entered at your domain registrar (the company where you bought your domain — GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare Registrar, etc.) for your DNS to work. If the nameservers at your registrar do not match what is shown here, your DNS changes will have no effect. Contact your provider or your registrar’s support team if you are unsure how to update them.

​
DNS Records Table

The main table lists every DNS record for this zone. For each record you can see the name, type, content, TTL (Time to Live — how long resolvers cache the record), and priority where applicable.

​
Zone History

The Zone History panel at the bottom of the zone page shows the last 50 changes made to this zone. Each row shows when the change was made and what triggered it. Click ± Diff to see exactly which records were added or removed. To restore a previous version, contact your provider — only your provider can perform a rollback on your behalf.

​
DNSSEC

If your provider has enabled DNSSEC (a security extension that digitally signs DNS responses), you will see a DNSSEC card here with an Enable DNSSEC (or Disable DNSSEC) button. DNSSEC cryptographically signs your records to protect against DNS cache poisoning and spoofing attacks. Not all plans or DNS providers support this feature — if you do not see it, ask your provider.
DNSSEC needs a follow-up step at your domain registrar (where you purchased your domain name). After you enable DNSSEC here, the portal shows one or more DS records. Add them at your registrar to activate the protection. Until you do, your domain keeps resolving normally but is not protected by DNSSEC.Keep the DS record at your registrar in step with the portal. A wrong or out-of-date DS record breaks resolution for visitors whose resolvers validate DNSSEC.To turn DNSSEC off safely: first remove the DS record at your registrar and wait for that change to propagate (this can take 24–48 hours), and only then click Disable DNSSEC here. Disabling DNSSEC while a DS record is still published breaks resolution.If you are unsure, contact your provider before making any changes.

​
Propagation Checker

Next to each record in the table, there is a ⚡ icon. Clicking it runs a live check across multiple DNS resolvers around the world and shows you whether your record has propagated — spread globally — yet. A tick (✓) means that resolver can see your record; a cross (✗) means it has not yet caught up. This is especially useful after making a change and waiting to see it take effect.

​
Zone Transfer

Navigate to: Portal → Zones → [zone name] → Transfer Transfer ownership of a zone to another user in your organisation.
1

Open the zone detail page

Click the zone name in your zones list, then click Transfer.
2

Enter the recipient's email

Type the email address of the recipient. They must be an active user in your organisation.
3

Submit the request

Click Submit transfer request. The transfer is logged as a pending request — a platform administrator must approve it before ownership changes.
  • You cannot transfer a zone to yourself.
  • The recipient must have available zone quota to accept the transfer.
  • While a transfer request is pending, the form is disabled to prevent duplicate requests.
  • After an approved transfer, the zone disappears from your zone list and appears in the recipient’s list. This action cannot be undone without another transfer.
You will be notified by email when the transfer is approved or rejected.

​
6. Managing DNS Records

​
Adding a New Record

  1. Click the Add Record button on the zone detail page.
  2. Choose the record Type by clicking one of the type buttons (Advanced types shows the less common ones; see Section 7 for guidance on which type to choose).
  3. Fill in the Name, Content, and TTL fields. The form adjusts based on the type you have selected.
  4. Click Add Record.
Your change will either apply immediately or enter a pending queue, depending on how your provider has configured their account (see Section 9).
Record validation: The portal checks that each record you add is correctly structured before saving it. As well as everyday types like A, CNAME, MX, and TXT, the modern record types HTTPS, SSHFP, TLSA, NAPTR, and DS are validated for the correct field format — if a value is in the wrong format, the portal shows an error and the record is not saved. This helps you avoid typos that would otherwise break the record.

​
Record Validation Warnings

When you save a DNS record, the portal also checks for common configuration issues. These are advisory warnings only — your record is always saved, even if a warning appears. Warnings appear in an amber Advisory warnings box at the top of the zone page after saving.
Warnings are advisory — your record is saved regardless. Review the record if you are unsure whether it needs correcting before it propagates.

​
Editing an Existing Record

Find the record in the table and click Edit on the right-hand side of the row. Make your changes and click Save Changes.

​
Deleting a Record

Click Delete on the record’s row. A confirmation prompt will appear — confirm the deletion to proceed.
Tip: Before deleting a record, check whether anything relies on it. Deleting an MX record, for example, will stop email delivery to your domain.

​
7. DNS Record Types Explained

You do not need to memorise all of these. Refer to this table when you are unsure which type to use. For most business owners, the records you will work with most often are A, CNAME, MX, and TXT.

​
8. Protected Records

Some records in your zone will appear with a padlock icon (🔒). These records have been locked by your provider and cannot be edited or deleted by you. Protected records are typically things like:
  • The nameserver records that define where your DNS is hosted
  • A landing page record your provider controls
  • SOA (Start of Authority) technical records
If you need a change made to a protected record, contact your provider’s support team and describe what you need. They can make the change on your behalf or unlock the record if appropriate.

​
9. Pending Changes and Approval Workflows

Depending on how your provider has set up their account, changes you make may not apply instantly. Instead, they may go into a pending state and wait for your provider to review and approve them. If this applies to your account, you will see:
  • A Pending Changes item in the portal sidebar.
  • Every change you have submitted, listed with its zone, the action (Create, Update or Delete), the record and its status — Pending (or Scheduled, if it is set for a future time), Applied, or Rejected. Buttons at the top of the page switch between Pending, Applied and Rejected.
  • A Notes column where your provider’s comments appear, such as the reason for a rejection.
Once your provider approves a change, it is applied to the DNS servers automatically and moves to Applied. If a change is rejected, check the Notes column for an explanation. The Pending Changes page is read-only: you can view your changes there, but you cannot approve, cancel or edit them. If a pending change needs to be withdrawn, ask your provider. This workflow is common in managed environments where your provider wants to verify changes before they go live — particularly useful when working with providers who manage high-traffic or business-critical zones.

​
10. Scheduling a Change for Later

When adding or editing a record, you may see a “Schedule for later” option. This allows you to set a specific date and time for the change to go live automatically, without you needing to log in again. Example use cases:
  • Scheduling a website migration for 2:00 AM on a Sunday (low-traffic period)
  • Switching email providers over a planned maintenance window
  • Coordinating a domain repoint with a developer who is deploying at a specific time
Scheduled changes show up on the Pending Changes page (if your provider has it turned on) with the status Scheduled. That page is read-only, so you cannot cancel or reschedule a scheduled change from it. To cancel a change before it runs (or to move it to a different time), ask your provider — the scheduling form reminds you of this too.

​
11. Zone Change History

Navigate to: Portal → Zones → [zone name] → History button View a timeline of all DNS record changes made to your zone in the last 90 days. The history is read-only. To undo a change, create or edit the record manually.
The Zone History panel at the bottom of the zone overview page shows the last 50 changes with diff links. The History page gives you the full 90-day timeline, newest first, with before/after values for every update.

​
12. The SPF Builder

SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is a TXT record that tells receiving mail servers which services are authorised to send email on behalf of your domain. Without a correct SPF record, your emails may end up in spam folders. The SPF Builder makes this easy:
  1. Open your zone detail page and click SPF.
  2. Click one of the Common presets for the mail services you use — Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Zoho Mail, SendGrid, Mailchimp, or Postmark — or add your own mechanisms (such as include:, ip4: or mx) for a custom mail server.
  3. The page builds the correct SPF syntax for you and shows it under Generated SPF record, along with a count of DNS lookups (SPF allows a maximum of 10).
  4. Click Save SPF Record to add it directly to your zone.
If you already have an SPF record, the builder loads it for you to edit, and saving updates that record instead of adding a second one — a domain should only ever have one SPF TXT record.

​
13. The Email Wizard

Setting up DNS for email can involve several records: MX (where to deliver mail), SPF (who can send), DKIM (message signing), and DMARC (what to do with failures). Getting all of these right is important for reliable email delivery. The Email Wizard guides you through the full setup in one place:
  1. Open your zone and click Email.
  2. Select your email provider from the list (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Zoho, Fastmail, and others are typically included), then click Preview →.
  3. The wizard shows you a preview of the records it will add: MX, SPF, and DMARC. For DKIM, you will see instructions on where to find your DKIM key in your email provider’s admin panel — DKIM keys are unique to your account and cannot be pre-populated for you.
  4. Review the records — any that clash with an existing record at the same name are flagged with a ⚠ — untick any you do not want, and click Apply selected.
The Email Wizard is the recommended starting point for anyone setting up a new email service.

​
DMARC Wizard

The DMARC wizard creates a DMARC policy record (_dmarc TXT) for your domain — this tells receiving mail servers what to do when they receive email that fails SPF or DKIM checks.
1

Open the wizard

Zone detail page → DMARC.
2

Choose policy

Start with none if unsure — it monitors without blocking any mail.
3

Set report address

Enter an email address for aggregate reports (daily summaries from mail servers that processed your domain’s email).
4

Apply

Click Apply DMARC record (it reads Update DMARC record if you already have one). The record is created or replaced immediately.
Start with p=none and review the reports for a few weeks before switching to quarantine or reject.

​
14. The CAA Wizard

CAA (Certification Authority Authorisation) records control which certificate authorities (CAs) are permitted to issue SSL/TLS certificates for your domain. Without a CAA record, any CA in the world can issue a certificate for your domain. Adding CAA records significantly reduces the risk of fraudulently issued certificates. The CAA Wizard guides you through building the correct record without needing to know the wire format:
  1. Open your zone detail page and click the 🛡 CAA button.
  2. Select which certificate authorities you want to allow (common choices include Let’s Encrypt, ZeroSSL, DigiCert, Sectigo, and others). Tick Deny all issuance if you want to block certificate issuance entirely for this domain.
  3. Optionally enter an iodef — incident report destination (a violation report address) — either a mailto: email address or an https:// URL. When configured, CAs that receive a mis-issuance request for your domain will send a report there.
  4. Review the preview of the CAA record that will be created.
  5. Click Apply (the button shows how many records will be added) to add it to your zone.
Note: If you already use a specific hosting or CDN provider that manages SSL for you (e.g. Cloudflare, Fastly), check with them before adding a CAA record — they may require their own CA to be listed.

​
15. Zone Templates — The Marketplace

The Templates item in the portal sidebar opens the DNS Template Marketplace, which contains zone templates — pre-built collections of DNS records for popular services and platforms. Your provider chooses which templates appear there, so the list may be short. Examples of templates you might find:
  • Google Workspace DNS setup
  • Shopify storefront
  • WordPress hosting (common web hosts)
  • Microsoft 365
How to apply a template:
  1. Click Templates in the sidebar and browse the available templates.
  2. Click a template to see a preview of which records will be added.
  3. If everything looks right, use the Apply to a Zone panel to choose your domain, then click Apply Template.
  4. The records are added to your zone. Review them in the records table afterward.
Applying a template adds new records to your zone. Existing records are not removed. The portal does not compare the template’s records with the ones you already have, so check the records table afterwards — if the template added something that duplicates or clashes with an existing record (for example, a second set of MX records), edit or delete the one you do not want.

​
16. DNS Lookup Tool

Navigate to: Portal → DNS Lookup (sidebar) Look up live DNS records for any hostname without leaving the portal.
1

Enter a hostname

Type the hostname you want to query (e.g. example.com, mail.example.com).
2

Select the record type

Choose from: A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, NS, TXT, SOA, PTR, SRV, or CAA.
3

Click Look up

Results show all DNS records returned by your server’s resolver, including TTL values and all relevant fields for each record type.
Limits: IP address lookups are not permitted. The tool is rate-limited to 30 lookups per minute per account.

​
17. Invoices and Billing

If your provider uses PanelDNS white-label billing, you will see an Invoices section in the portal navigation. This is where your provider sends you invoices for their DNS management services.

​
What You Can Do Here

​
Overdue Invoices

If an invoice is marked Overdue, the payment due date has passed. An overdue invoice may result in your provider suspending your zones or restricting portal access. Contact your provider’s billing team as soon as possible if you are unable to pay by the due date. If you believe an invoice is incorrect — for example, it includes charges for services you did not use, or the amount does not match what was agreed — contact your provider directly to dispute it. Quote the invoice number in your message.
Invoice amounts, payment terms, and all billing decisions are set by your hosting provider. For billing queries, disputes, or payment arrangements, contact your provider’s billing team directly. PanelDNS is not involved in the financial relationship between you and your provider and cannot adjust, void, or refund invoices on your behalf.

​
18. Profile Settings and Security

Click Settings in the sidebar to manage your account. The Settings page is made up of these cards: Language, Change password, Two-factor authentication (when available), Passkeys and Notification preferences.

​
Dark mode

The portal uses the light theme by default. Click the sun / moon icon in the top-right corner of the topbar to switch to the dark theme, and click it again to switch back. Your choice is remembered in this browser and persists across sessions.

​
Language

In the Language card, choose the language for your portal and emails. Leave it on Account default to use whatever language your provider has set, or pick your own — your choice applies only to you and takes effect immediately. Your invitation and password-reset emails use your chosen language too.

​
Changing Your Name or Email Address

The Settings page has no controls for editing your name or email address. If either needs to change, ask your provider to update it. Note that your email address is also the address you use to log in.

​
Changing Your Password

In the Change password card, enter your Current password, then your New password and Confirm new password, and click Update password. Choose a password that is at least 12 characters and not used on any other service.

​
Two-Factor Authentication (Authenticator App)

Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds a second layer of security to your account. After entering your password, you will also need to enter a 6-digit code from your authenticator app. Even if someone else learns your password, they cannot log in without also having access to your device. Compatible apps: Google Authenticator, Authy, 1Password, Bitwarden, Microsoft Authenticator, and any TOTP-compatible app. To enable 2FA:
  1. Go to Settings in the portal sidebar.
  2. In the Two-factor authentication card, click Set up 2FA.
  3. Open your authenticator app and scan the QR code shown on screen.
    • If you cannot scan the QR code, click Can’t scan? to reveal the manual entry key. Type this key into your authenticator app as a new account.
  4. Your authenticator app will start showing a 6-digit code that changes every 30 seconds.
  5. Enter the current 6-digit code in the Confirm setup field and click Confirm & enable.
  6. 2FA is now active. Your Settings page will show an Enabled badge next to Two-factor authentication.
Save your recovery codes: Immediately after enabling 2FA, the Settings page shows eight recovery codes once. Each code works a single time to sign in if you ever lose access to your authenticator app. Save them somewhere safe (a password manager is ideal) — they are not shown again. If you run low, you can regenerate a fresh set later, which invalidates the old ones. Logging in with 2FA enabled: After your password is accepted, the portal asks for your 6-digit authentication code. Open your authenticator app, find the entry for this portal, and enter the code shown. Codes are valid for 30 seconds — if the code expires before you submit, just enter the next one. If you don’t have your authenticator app to hand, click Use a recovery code instead and enter one of your saved recovery codes. Each recovery code can only be used once. To disable 2FA:
  1. Go to Settings → Manage 2FA.
  2. Enter your current password and a valid 6-digit code from your authenticator app.
  3. Click Disable 2FA and confirm. (Disabling clears your recovery codes too.)
Tip: If you lose access to both your authenticator app and your recovery codes, contact your provider’s support team. They can reset your 2FA and send you a new login link.

​
Registering a Passkey

Passkeys are significantly more secure than passwords and much easier to use day-to-day. Once registered, you can log in with a fingerprint or Face ID instead of typing a password. To add a passkey:
  1. Click Settings in the sidebar and find the Passkeys card.
  2. Click Add passkey.
  3. You are asked to name the passkey (e.g. “MacBook Pro” or “iPhone 15”) so you can identify it later.
  4. Your browser or device then prompts you to authenticate (Face ID, fingerprint, or PIN) — follow the prompt.
You can register passkeys on multiple devices. Each passkey is listed separately in the Passkeys card, with when it was last used, so you can remove individual ones if a device is lost or sold.

​
Removing a Passkey

In the Passkeys card, click Remove next to the passkey you want to delete. You will be asked to confirm, and you can still sign in with your password afterwards.

​
Linking SSO

If your organisation uses SSO (Single Sign-On) via Google Workspace, Microsoft Entra (Azure AD), Okta, or another OIDC provider, your provider may enable the SSO login button on the portal. There is nothing to set up or link in your profile. Click Sign in with SSO on the portal login page and complete your organisation’s normal login — including any MFA your org requires. The portal matches your SSO login to your account by email address, so use the same email address your provider registered you with.
The SSO option only appears if your provider has configured an OIDC identity provider for the portal. If you do not see it, contact your provider.

​
Notification Preferences

Navigate to: Portal → Settings → Notification preferences → Manage notifications You are emailed when the zones assigned to you change. Use this page to choose which kinds of change you hear about. Toggle each event on or off:
Click Save preferences to keep your choices — the page saves exactly what is ticked. Turning off a notification means you will not receive an email when that event occurs, but the event still happens and is recorded in the zone history. If you have never saved a choice for an event, it counts as on.
How these emails work:
  • Only changes made by someone else. You are emailed about changes made by your provider, by the API, or by the platform. Changes you make yourself in the portal are never emailed back to you.
  • Combined into one email. Several changes to the same zone and event within 10 minutes are combined into a single email. For example, a bulk import of records sends you one “DNS records added” email, not one per record.
  • Your language, your provider’s brand. The emails are in the language you chose in the Language card and carry your provider’s branding.
  • Easy to follow up. Each email links to the zone it is about and to this preferences page.

​
19. Common Tasks — Quick Reference

​
20. Getting Help

If your provider has configured a support email address, a Contact support link appears on the Zones page, in the Zone quota card if your plan has a zone limit. If you have no zones yet, the message on that page links to your provider’s support address instead. Clicking the link opens your email client addressed to your provider’s support team. If you do not see the link, your provider may not have configured a support email. In that case, contact them directly through whatever channel they have given you (their website, helpdesk portal, or email address).

​
Your First Point of Contact Is Your Provider

The portal you are using is managed and branded by your hosting company or agency. PanelDNS is the underlying platform, but your provider is responsible for your account, your zones, and your support. For any of the following, contact your provider’s support team:
  • Adding or removing zones from your account
  • Unlocking protected records
  • Billing and invoice queries
  • Account access issues (if you cannot log in and the forgot password flow does not work)
  • Suspended zones

​
Self-Help Resources in the Portal

  • Contact support (on the Zones page) — opens an email to your provider’s support team, if configured
  • Propagation Checker (⚡ icon next to any record) — check whether a change has spread globally
  • Email Wizard — guided email DNS setup without needing technical knowledge
  • SPF Builder — generate a valid SPF record from presets for common mail services

​
General DNS Guidance

  • DNS changes are not instant. Allow up to 48 hours for changes to fully propagate, though most changes are visible within a few minutes to a few hours.
  • Your TTL (Time to Live) setting affects how quickly changes spread. A lower TTL (e.g. 300 seconds / 5 minutes) means faster propagation; a higher TTL (e.g. 86400 seconds / 24 hours) means slower.
  • Never delete a working record without first adding and testing the replacement. This is especially important for MX records (email) and A records (website).

​
21. Account Closure & Data Rights

​
Closing your sub-client account

Sub-client accounts are managed by your hosting provider (the reseller). If you want your account closed, contact your provider’s support team. They can:
  • Remove your account from their portal (this deletes your DNS zones too — see below).
  • Move your DNS zones to another account first, if you want to keep them.
When your account is deleted by the provider, your personal data (name, email, password) is anonymised inside a database transaction. Your consent records are retained for legal audit purposes but are no longer linked to identifiable information. Your DNS zones are deleted along with the account: they are removed from PanelDNS and then, after a short grace period, from the DNS servers by a background job. If you want to keep a zone, ask your provider to move it to another account before your account is closed.

​
Requesting your data (GDPR / data rights)

If you want a copy of your data, want to correct inaccurate information, or want to object to how your data is processed, contact your provider directly. They are the data controller for your sub-client account and must respond to data subject requests under applicable data protection law. If you believe your data rights are not being respected by your provider, you can raise a complaint with the supervisory authority in your country. In the UK this is the ICO; in the EU this is the relevant national DPA.

​
Marketing emails

Your provider may send marketing emails about their services. To opt out, click the Unsubscribe link in any marketing email footer. This link is unique to your account and works without logging in — one click is all it takes. Opting out only affects marketing emails. Transactional emails (zone alerts, billing notices, security notices) are always sent.

​
22. Zone Suspension — What It Means and What to Do

​
Why a zone might be suspended automatically

PanelDNS checks every domain against external threat-intelligence databases. If your domain scores above a risk threshold — for example, because it appears on a phishing or malware blocklist — the platform may automatically suspend the zone. This protects all other customers sharing the same nameserver infrastructure. When this happens, the suspension notice is emailed to your provider (the account owner) and to the platform administrator — not to you. It explains:
  • What happened (the risk category and the score vs. the threshold).
  • That no personal data was processed — only the domain name was checked.
  • The right under GDPR Article 22 to contest the automated decision and request human review.
  • A direct link to the appeal form, which your provider can use.

​
What you will see in the portal

A suspended zone shows a red Suspended badge in your zones list and on the zone’s own page. The zone’s page also shows a red notice, This zone is suspended, that explains why. It gives one of three reasons: The notice also tells you that, while the zone is suspended, records cannot be added, edited or deleted, and the domain may point to a holding page instead of your records. If you try to change a record anyway, the portal refuses with a message that the zone is suspended. Your records stay listed as they were. There is no appeal button in the portal — if you want a decision reviewed, ask your provider (see below).
If the Zone suspended notification is switched on in your Notification Preferences, you also receive a short email when a zone assigned to you is suspended. That is separate from the formal suspension notice described at the top of this section, which goes to your provider.

​
What to do

If you believe the suspension is a mistake, contact your provider’s support team. Your provider can appeal on your behalf and ask for human review.
1

Tell your provider

Tell your provider the zone is suspended and that you believe it is a mistake.
2

Give them context

Give them the context they need for the appeal: the domain’s business purpose, when it was registered, any prior owner history you are aware of, and any supporting documentation they can reference (see the table below).
3

Your provider appeals

Your provider submits the appeal from their dashboard. A human reviewer at the platform then responds within a service-level deadline — typically 72 hours.
If upheld: the zone is reinstated immediately. If appropriate, the domain is added to a permanent allow-list to prevent future false positives. If rejected: the zone remains suspended. If you believe the outcome is incorrect, discuss the next steps with your provider’s support team.

​
Common reasons for false positives

​
Your GDPR Article 22 rights

GDPR Article 22 gives you the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing that significantly affects you. An automated zone suspension meets this threshold. You can ask for human review of the decision through your provider, who can submit the appeal described above. A human reviewer evaluates every appeal — no automated system makes the final uphold/reject decision.
Occasionally you may be asked to accept updated terms. This happens when your hosting provider publishes a new version of its Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and you have only accepted an older version — or you have never accepted any, for example because your account was created through single sign-on or by your provider’s systems rather than through an invitation email. What you will see: a banner on every page of the portal reading “Your provider has updated its Terms of Service and Privacy Policy”, with a Review and accept link.
1

Open the acceptance page

Click Review and accept in the banner.
2

Read the documents

Read the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy using the links on the page.
3

Confirm

Tick the checkbox to confirm you agree, then click Accept and continue.
Your acceptance is recorded in the same way as when you were first invited — the terms version, the time, your IP address and your browser — and the banner goes away. Can I keep working in the meantime? Normally yes. By default the portal stays fully usable while the banner is showing; it stays until you accept.
Some platforms are set up differently: the platform operator can choose to block the portal until the terms are accepted. In that case every page takes you to the acceptance page until you accept. You can always sign out instead if you need time to review the documents first.
If your provider has not set a terms version, you are not asked to accept anything. If your provider signs in to your account to help you, they are never asked to accept and cannot accept on your behalf — only you can. If you have questions about what changed, contact your hosting provider directly.

​
23. DNS Event Notifications

There are two separate kinds of notification about your zones. Emails to you. The portal emails you about changes to the zones assigned to you — a zone created, deleted or suspended, a record created or deleted, or a DNSSEC status change. You choose which of these you receive in Settings → Notification preferences, and you are only emailed about changes made by someone other than you. See Notification Preferences for the details. Alerts to your provider’s team. Your DNS provider may also have configured automatic alerts — to Slack, Microsoft Teams or a webhook, for example — that notify their team when important events occur on your zones, such as health check failures, record changes, or failover monitor trips. These alerts go to your provider, not to you, and help them proactively support your account. You do not need to set them up yourself. If you want alerts delivered somewhere else (for example, to a Slack channel), contact your provider and ask what notification options they offer to their customers.
This handbook covers PanelDNS sub-client portal features. Feature availability depends on your provider’s plan and configuration — not all features described here may be active on your account.