How to Point a Domain to Your Hosting

What does pointing mean?

You may have bought a domain at one company and your hosting at another. They do not know about each other yet. Pointing links them. It is like writing your new home address on a letter box so mail finds you.

DNS is like a phone book for the internet. It turns a website name into a number that computers understand. Pointing changes the entry in that book.

Two ways to point a domain

• Change the nameservers. A nameserver is the computer that holds your domain's DNS. You hand over all control to the hosting company. This is the easiest way.
• Change the A record. An A record links a name to an IP address. You keep DNS where it is and only change the address. Use this if you want to keep email or other services elsewhere.

Method 1: Change nameservers

1. Find the nameservers in your Hostvento welcome email.
2. Log in to the account where the domain is registered. If it is at Hostvento, use your client area and go to Domains.
3. Open the domain and find Nameservers.
4. Choose to use custom nameservers.
5. Type the new nameservers in the boxes.
6. Click Save.

Method 2: Change the A record

1. Find your hosting IP address in the welcome email.
2. Open the DNS page where the domain's DNS is managed.
3. Find the A record for @. This stands for your main domain.
4. Change its value to your hosting IP.
5. Do the same for the www record, or make it a CNAME to your main domain.
6. Click Save.

Wait and test

New settings can take a few hours, and up to 48 hours, to reach everyone. Test with:

nslookup yourdomain.com

It prints the IP your domain points to.

Careful: changing nameservers moves all DNS records. If you have email elsewhere, copy those records to the new DNS first.

Quick recap

• Pointing links a domain to a host.
• Use nameservers for full control, or an A record for one change.
• Wait up to 48 hours.
• Copy email records before moving nameservers.