How do I manage a website left behind by an old employee? (Beginner questions)

Question

So I'm a web designer with experience in HTML, CSS and Java. I've used FTP to manage my site a couple of times for my company.

Overall I have experience in using Joomla and WordPress CMSs, but that's just the problem: I have barely any experience in even understanding DNSs, server stuff, domain management. I could really use some help on this.

Firstly, our IT Manager left so now I'm in charge as the sole web designer of the company. The website URL is www.????.org.uk and that's where the live website is.

Issue here is that sometimes I type in the same URL WITHOUT the www, which results in ANOTHER website (actually a beta I worked on a while ago that I'm sure the IT Manager set up for me).

We have a 123reg account and a HeartInternet Reseller hosting account. I understand that you buy domains, and you can forward them to a hosting platform to manage them and 'serve' them on servers to make them live. So in this case I'm betting it's owned and bought using 123Reg, and hosted on HeartInternet.

Here's the second issue I don't understand. We have a bunch of domains bought, most redirecting to www.????.org.uk, but we ALSO have the URL WITHOUT the www.

Remember what I said earlier? All things point to www version, but we own a domain WITHOUT the www and I can't find the domain listed anywhere with the www, so how in the world can I manage the www site (which is the live site)?

Please do teach me a little if you can about this and point me to the right direction. Thank you!

Answer 1

From what I saw several times before:

By default the www is use-less and points to the default ip:port registered at ????.org.uk. For a reason (that I don't understand) some people create a new DNS entry with a sub-domain called "www" pinging to a different ip and/or port. This results in www.????.org.uk acting like someSubDomain.????.org.uk.

Have you checked if this could be your case? If it is, I suggest you change the "www" subdomain to "dev" or "beta". This will make www.????.org.uk and ????.org.uk redirect to the same "website" and beta.????.org.uk to the beta version of your company's site.

Be aware that a DNS change could require up to 24h to be spread and updated on the ISP's servers.