Tutorial: Preparing Your Domain For Your Hosting

May 12
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Hello, and welcome to our first tutorial, which is how to prepare your domain name for use with Bluefficient Hosting. In our examples, we will be utilizing a domain name purchased at GoDaddy.Com. You can, of course, gt your domain anywhere you would like. We use GoDaddy for all of our domain needs as their service are top notch and support is always a phone call away. Even if you are using a different domain registrar, the general steps will be the same, only the interface will look different.

1. Find Your Domain on Your Registrar’s Site

Here, you will find the new domain name purchased for this tutorial, mydomainname.us. Once you have found your domain, you will need to change its DNS settings. Click on the DNS link indicated above.

2. Next, We Need to Change the Nameservers

After clicking DNS, it should bring you to this screen (or one similar). You will now choose “Nameservers” as we will need to change them to point your domain toward your hosting server.

3. Now You Are In The Nameserver Area

On this screen you will see the current values for your nameservers. Because they are currently pointed at a parked domain page, we’ll need to change these values to point the internet to look for your website on your hosting account. Click the “Change Nameservers” button above.

4. Let’s Talk About Propagation

Propagation is just a fancy term for how many servers around the world know where to find your site. In a new tab, go to dnschecker.org. Once you are there, enter your domain name, change the dropbox to NS (Nameserver) and click the search button.

5. Look At The Results

So when we scan many different DNS servers around the world, it’s currently showing the default nameservers that were provided by GoDaddy. If a result has a red X instead of a value, it’s okay. The system just wasn’t able to communicate with that particular DNS server at this time.

6. Back To The GoDaddy Screen

Once you click the “Change Nameservers” button, it will bring up this box. Choose “I’ll use my own nameservers”, and then enter the values “ns1.bluefficient.com” and “ns2.bluefficient.com”. This tells the internet that when someone asks for your domain, they should go to this nameserver to find the site. Click “Save” when you are done.

7. Confirm Your Choice

GoDaddy will then ask if you’re certain you want to change your information. Go ahead and click “Continue”, then we’ll hop back over to the DNSChecker page.

8. Watching the Propagation in Near Realtime

At the top of the screen, click the search button again. It may take a little time, but eventually you will begin to see where your new nameserver information is spreading across the internet. Here, we see that Mexico and South Korea have picked up on our changes. Now, it normally doesn’t take the entire 48 hours we’re told that propagation can take, but depending on internet traffic, it could take a while. Keep this screen up on your computer and check back on it from time to time as you enjoy a snack, beverage, and the satisfaction of knowing your site will be live soon.

9. Propagation Success!

Eventually, all of the DNS servers should have your updated information and show up on a search like this. Now, you can open a window and type in mydomainname.us, or in your case you’ll enter your domain name you registered and see what comes up!

Your New Homepage, Ready To Be Changed

So there it is in all its glory! You can now start uploading your site, or creating it from scratch, adding WordPress automatically using our auto-installer, or so many other things. Now, if you get something else besides this screen, feel free to go to our support area and enter a ticket describing the issue and one of our tech support team will respond as soon as possible to help you troubleshoot the issue and get you rolling on the internet highway as quickly as possible!

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