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!