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Pointing a domain at your hosting

Updated: 29 October 202621 views

There are two ways to connect a domain to a service here. Pick one; doing both at once is where most of the confusion comes from.

Option 1: point the nameservers (simplest)

Set the domain's nameservers to the ones shown on your hosting service's page. From then on the DNS is managed with the hosting account, the records for the website and for mail on the account are already in place, and there is nothing else to configure.

Use this when the domain's DNS is not doing anything clever elsewhere. If the domain is registered with us, change the nameservers under Domains; if it is registered somewhere else, change them in that registrar's panel.

Option 2: edit the records (keeps DNS where it is)

Leave the nameservers where they are and point individual records at the service. You need the IP address from the service page. Typically:

  • A record for @ (the bare domain) → the IP address of the service.
  • A record for www → the same IP address, or a CNAME to the bare domain.
  • MX records → leave them alone if mail stays with your current provider; change them only if mail is moving too.

Use this when mail lives with another provider, when a third party manages the DNS, or when only part of the domain is moving (a subdomain, for example).

Order of work when a live site is moving

  1. Lower the TTL on the records you are about to change, a day in advance if you can, so the switch propagates quickly.
  2. Copy the site and its database to the new account and test it there before anything is pointed at it.
  3. Make the DNS change.
  4. Leave the old hosting running for a few days. Visitors with a cached answer will still be reaching it.

Afterwards

  • Allow up to 24 to 48 hours for the change to be visible everywhere, although most of the world sees it much sooner.
  • A free SSL certificate can only be issued once the domain resolves to the account, so check the site over HTTPS the day after rather than the hour after.
  • If the site shows the wrong content, it is almost always a cached DNS answer on your own machine. Check from another network before assuming the change failed.