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Setting the name servers for a domain to point to hosting.com

Already own a domain purchased from a different registrar or host? Learn how to change the domain's name server settings to point to hosting.com.

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This article provides information about how to set up a domain's name server settings to work with hosting.com's servers.

When to set your domain's name servers

If you already own a domain that you purchased from a different registrar or hosting company, you can change the name server (DNS) settings for the domain so they point to hosting.com's servers. (Billing and domain administration remain with the domain's current registrar.)

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Note

If you registered your domain directly with hosting.com, the name server settings are already configured. No further action is required on your part.

Setting your domain's name servers

When you change a domain's name server settings, you must specify at a minimum a primary name server and a secondary name server. This ensures that there is at least one alternate server available to provide DNS information about your site if one of the servers is unavailable.

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Warning

Please note that this method does not apply to unmanaged VPS hosting, as DNS does not come preinstalled on these servers.

The correct name servers for your domain depend on the type of account you have, and which hosting.com server hosts your account. You can view the name server information for your account on the Hosting Panel at https://my.hosting.com. Nameservers and their IP addresses are listed in the Product Details of each product.

For example, shared hosting accounts use ns1.a2hosting.com, ns2.a2hosting.com, ns3.a2hosting.com, and ns4.a2hosting.com as their name servers.

Almost all domain registrars provide a control panel where you can manage a domain's name server settings. If you are unable to make these changes, contact the domain's registrar and ask them how to change your domain's name server or DNS settings.

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Note

When you change a domain's name server settings or register a new domain, it generally takes 24 hours until the changes take full effect. This delay, known as DNS propagation delay, occurs with all hosts and is beyond our control. Therefore, until your domain fully resolves you cannot do the following:

  • Visit your web site by going to the URL http://www.example.com, where example.com represents your domain name. In the meantime, however, you can view your web site using shared URLs or a custom hosts file. For information about how to do this, please see this article.

  • Access your e-mail accounts. POP3, IMAP, SMTP, and webmail will not work until DNS propagation is complete.

Changing the name servers for a domain

To change the name servers for a domain, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to the Hosting Panel at https://my.hosting.com.

  2. Click the Domains card:

  3. Click the domain you want to configure.

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    Tip

    You can filter the list of domains to only display active, canceled, or all domains. To do this, click the Active, Cancelled, or All tab.

  4. Click Update Nameservers:

    To manage DNS settings using the hosting.com Hosting Panel, you must use the default name servers.

  5. To use custom name servers, click Use custom nameservers, and then type the name server names in the text boxes.

  6. Click Change Nameservers.

    DNS changes can take up to 24 hours to fully propagate. For information about how to access your web site before DNS propagation is complete, please see this article.

More Information

For more information about DNS, please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System.

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Updated about 6 hours ago