We have set up a domain and integrated it with hosting account. Now the time has come that we check if everything has gone by our plans.

Step 1

Type in the domain name name you registered in the address bar of your browser. Press enter and wait for your page to load. It shouldn’t too long as the site has nothing to show, or in other words its empty.  You will probably see a page with the directory listing of your home folder, i.e., public_html or htdocs.

Troubleshoot

I see a page which says ‘You account has been created’ or something similar instead the directory listing.

This is nothing unusual. Hosts usually create an index page by default. You don’t need and will have to delete it later.

My site doesn’t load at all. My damn browser shows a server timeout.

There can be a lot reasons to this. Lets discuss the common ones.

1. Make sure your domain properly configed. Just check whether the nameservers you entered are correct or not.
2. It may take up to 24 or 48 or 72 hours, depending on your host, for you domain to propagate.  You domain might not have propagated. You might have to wait for few more hours.
3. Your cache memory still has the old values for your domain. Clear the cache and you’ll have your site working.

Step-2

Now the time has come to create our first personalized homepage (for testing).

Log on to your hosting account’s panel and find for something like ‘File manager’ and go to root folder (public_html on Linux servers or htdocs on windows servers). In this file you need to create a new file by the name of ‘index.html’. If a file named ‘index.html’ or ‘index.php’ or any index file already exists, you have to delete it first before creating the new one.

Once created open the file so that we add some stuff to it. I’ll say just type in a warm welcome for yourself, something like “Welcome to your site.” !!

Go open your website in an another window and you’ll see your message. So that means you are done with with testing.

Now we are through with the testing which means we can soon go live to a wider audience.

So, finally we have reached a stage where we are going to learn on how the camouflage, known as the domain name, works for a site. Integrating a domain with an hosting account is one of the most essential part when it comes to building a web site. In this chapter we ‘ll try to understand on how we can connect a domain to a hosting account following a few few easy steps.

What is to be camouflaged?

As mentioned in the previous chapters, the original stuff is stored at an IP address such as 192.0.0.1. But hiding these sets of numbers using domain names makes it more user friendly. You certainly wouldn’t like to use 74.125.127.100 instead of google.com. Yes! If you type 74.125.127.100 in your browser’s address bar, you’ll surely be directed to google’s site. Google.com points to 74.125.127.100 which eventually points to the google’s site.

Let’s integrate

This is no mathematical integration, its just the connection between the domain and the hosting we are talking about. Let’s do it:

What do you need?

These are the stuff that you should have by now if you are following this tutorial, right from Chapter 1. This is nothing new, you should have encountered them at least once by now:

1. Domain name: If you got one, its good or else get a co.cc. Refer to previous chapter for more info.

2. A hosting account: Refer the related chapter for more info.

Now a little information, you should have been provided in your welcome mail from you host, includes your login info, name servers, etc. It might include a shared ip address and some other info which might come handy in chapters coming up.

We just need to know the nameservers for now.

What is a name server?

Just wonder one server per website. Well that should be ok if you got a money tree or if your site is profitable enough to support such a server. So the point is that most of the servers usually host more than one domains.

And this is where name servers come into play. A number of domains can point to a single name server assigned to a particular hosting server.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In computing, a name server (also spelled nameserver) consists of a program or computer server that implements a name-service protocol. It maps a human-recognizable identifier to a system-internal, often numeric, identification or addressing component.

For example, on the Internet, a special case of name servers, so called Domain Name System (DNS) servers, are used to translate a hostname or a domain name (for example, ‘en.wikipedia.org’) to its corresponding binary identifier (the IP address 145.97.39.155), or vice versa.

How to use name servers?

Now if you have a domain, you must reach to your domain control panel provided by your domain registrar. The procedure can be different with different panels but only think you need to find is something like “Edit Name Servers”. Instructions for some popular domain registrar’s is given below.

Steps(for name.com i.e., if you bought you domain using name.com):

1. Log into your Name.com account.
2. Click on the ‘Account’ icon at the top of your page.
3. At your ‘Account’ page, click on the domain name you wish to modify.
4. Be sure that your domain is unlocked; to unlock, click on the padlock icon.
5. On the ‘Manage Domain Name’ screen, click ‘Edit Name Servers’ in the ‘Control Panel’ on the right of the screen.
6. ‘Remove’ the old name servers, and ‘Add’ the new.

https://www.name.com/faq/change-name-servers

Steps(for godaddy.com):

1. Login to your GoDaddy account.
2. Click My Account
3. Click Manage Domains
4. Click the domain name.
5. There is a Host Summary option in the lower left of the page. Find it and click Add.
6. Enter the information from the welcome email
7. Click the Nameservers icon that’s on top.
8. Change the nameservers to the new ones.
9. You’re done

Steps(for 1and1.com):

1. Login to your control panel.
2. select [Domains | your domain | DNS | Edit DNS settings]
3. Enter Name servers
4. click OK

Steps(for the free co.cc):

1. Login in to your co.cc account.
2. Domain Settings > Manage domain > Select your domain.
3. Click “setup” button > Manage DNS.
4. Input NAME SERVER of your hosting registrar.

Now you are finally through on how to integrate your domain and hosting.

Note:

1. Name servers may take upto 48 hours to take effect so you have be patient.

2. Changing nameservers usually deprives you of few features that your registrar has to offer. No need to worry because there are ways to get back working again for you. We’ll talk about such features, their use and how to work them out in the following chapters.

Originally posted on 2008-11-06

Sorry for such a long title.

What you see written up there is pretty much true but unpopular. Most of the times webmasters tend to just change the nameservers which take days to propagate,and this becomes pain in their butts. Now written below is a faster way to do it.

The answer is A records. Yes, they usually take only few minutes or sometimes hours to take effect worldwide.

What are A records?(from Wikipedia)

They return a 32-bit IPv4 address, most commonly used to map hostnames to an IP address of the host.

How to implement them?

First of all, check whether your host provides you with Dns facilities. If they don’t, you should try editdns.net.

Steps:

1. Note the shared ip address of your hosting account. If you use cpanel then the ip address written on the fronpage. If you don’t use cpanel, then just do a dns lookup of your host’s nameserver and get its IP address. You can use network-tools.com for this.

2. Add the following three A records to your domain:

(a) yourdomain.com – ip address you noted in the above step

(b) www.yourdomain.com – same ip address (without this record www.youdomain.com won’t work)

(c) *.yourdomain.com – same ip address (without this you won’t be able to create sub-domains using your hosting account. “*” means a wildcard entry)

You are all done and your domain will be working in a few minutes or very rarely hours.

Advantages of using A records:-

1. Faster propagation of domain.

2. You have control of other records like MX, CNAME, etc. instead transferring your controls to your host.

3. Gives you ability to use services like google apps, live domains, etc. to the full extend.

Disadvantages:

1. You won’t be able to use email accounts at your host till configure your MX records or you always have option to use google apps whcich is free.

2. Just one as far as I remember

Note: You need to use AAA records if the ip address s IPv6.

Enjoy!

Originally posted on 19 jan 2009

Still using the ugly looking mail service from your hosting provider?
Its time for change!! Google’s waiting for ya!

Wondering what is Google Apps?? Here’s an overview:

An initiative by Google which provides free/paid mail service (@yourname.com) to individuals/ business/ organizations. And that’s not all. You make use of google talk, calender, docs, etc. using your address @yourdomain.com. “That’s cool”, I know!

Requirements:

* You need a domain. ( you know that!) even a co.cc would do!
* You need access to dns setting!! Most domain registrars provide you with that! If not read the “Note” at the end!

The “How to” :
* Reset your domain’s nameservers! Point your nameservers to your dns service provider’s nameservers (for those with no dns service provided by the the registrar).
* Check for the shared ip address in hosting’s control panel (or in short you need ip of you hosting providers’ nameservers!).
Instruction’s for cpanel:
1. Login into your cpanel account
2. In the left panel with all the stats, second is given the shred ip.
If you are unable to find the ip in your hosting’s panel, try these steps:
1. Go to http://network-tools.com/nslook/
2. Enter the first nameserver, generally ns1.somedomain.com, as the domain.
3. Select A records as the query type.
4. Click go.
5. Note the ip from results.
* Go to your domain’s dns control panel.
* Create the following records:
A record- yourdomain.com – ip noted above
A record- www.yourdomain.com – ip noted above
A record- *.yourdomain.com – ip noted above (* means wild card)
* Go to http://www.google.com/a/cpanel/domain/new and signup for google apps.
* Back to Dns control panel. Create few more records:

MailServer Hostname: – Priority- Type

ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. – 10 – MX
ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.- 20 – MX
ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.- 30 – MX
ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM. -40 – MX
ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.- 50 – MX
ASPMX4.GOOGLEMAIL.COM. – 60 – MX
ASPMX5.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.- 70- MX

* Go to your google apps Control panel : http://google.com/a/cpanel/*yourdomain.com*/
* Click on “verify your ownership”.
Follow the steps and click on “I’ve completed the steps”.
* Back to Dashboard and Activate everything. Just click activate and the “I’ve completed th steps”. You are already done with all the steps.

So, now you are ready to use your gmail using @yourdomain.com address. “That’s awesome!” I know.

Note: * When you dns provider provides you with no dns service:
1. Go to http://editdns.net and register.
2. Add your domain.
3. Back to you dns panel: Change your nameservers to
ns1.us.editdns.net
ns2.us.editdns.net
ns3.us.editdns.net
4. Use editdns as your dns panel and follow steps mentioned above.

So are you planning to use it. Sure you are!! I know you wouldn’t mind leaving a comment!