Connect a domain to your website without breaking your email

Work out who does what

Most of the confusion comes from three jobs that sound like one. They can all sit with one company, or with three.

• The registrar is where you bought the name. You renew it there.
• The DNS host keeps the address book for the name. Often it's the registrar, until you change it.
• The web host is the server where your site's files live.

Log in where you bought the name and find the screen called DNS, Zone or Nameservers. It's usually under a Manage button beside the domain. Look at the Nameservers line first. If it names another company, your records live there, so log in there to change them.

Choose nameservers or a single record

Either way works. The right one depends on what the name already does.

Not sure, and people already get email at this name? Choose the A record. It touches the least, though your mail still needs the check below.

Copy what's there first

Before you change anything, take a screenshot of every record on the DNS screen. That's your way back: if something goes wrong, you can type the old values in again.

Keep your email alive

Website and email are separate lines in the address book. Changing the A record usually leaves email alone. Check your MX record first. If it points at your plain name, or at a name like mail that follows it, your mail is tied to the old server. Before you change anything, give mail its own A record with the old address, replacing any CNAME on it, and make sure the MX points at it. Keep the old host until your mail is settled. The nameserver route is where mail gets lost.

• MX records say where your mail is delivered. If you're moving nameservers, recreate them at the new host before you switch, and if your mail is tied to the old server, set up mail there the same way, with the old address.
• TXT records hold proof that your mail is really yours. The one starting v=spf1 lists who may send as you, and a name must have only one, so merge entries instead of adding a second.
• Send a test message from an outside address, and reply to it, once the change has settled.

Moving your mail too? Mailboxes at your own domain come with our web hosting. Just don't do both on one day. Change one thing, check it, then change the next.

Make the change

First add the domain in your hosting control panel, so the server knows to expect it.

Your web host gives you the values to use: either a server address, which looks like four numbers with dots, or a pair of nameserver names. Look in your hosting account, or ask us if you can't find them.

If you're changing the nameservers, go to your new host's DNS screen first and add every record from your screenshot that you still need: MX, TXT and any others. Only when they're there, open the Nameservers screen at your registrar, choose custom, paste in the names your host gave you and save.

If you're changing records, do these in order:

1. Find the A record named @, which means the plain name with nothing in front. Put your server's address in its value box. If there isn't one, add it.
2. Delete any leftover A record for @ pointing at a parking page. Two different answers send visitors to either place.
3. Look for an AAAA record on @ or www, the newer kind of address. If one is left over from the old setup, some visitors will keep going there, so remove it unless your host told you to use it.
4. Set up www so both versions of your name work. If a www record already exists, edit it or delete it first. Then use a CNAME record, which means "same place as", named www with your plain name as its value.

You can't normally put a CNAME on the plain name. A name with a CNAME can't hold other records, and the plain name always has some. If a screen refuses it, that's why.

Wait, then check what the world sees

Your change saves at once, but it isn't seen everywhere at once. Internet providers keep copies of answers, and each record carries a TTL, a number of seconds saying how long a copy may be kept. Until an old copy runs out, some people get the old answer. This is normal, and pressing Save again won't help.

1. Open dns.google in your browser, type your name and press Resolve. The first answer is type A, and you should see your server's address. Check www too. Then change RR Type to MX to confirm your mail records are showing.
2. Turn Wi-Fi off on your phone and open your site. That asks a different provider, so you get a second opinion.
3. If Google's answer is out of date, its Flush Cache page refreshes Google's copy only. Everyone else still waits for the TTL.

Turn on the padlock

A security warning right after the switch is common. A certificate proves your site is yours, and the usual check only works once the name reaches your server, so it comes last. Free Let's Encrypt certificates are issued and renewed for you on our web plans.

If it still won't come through, look for a CAA record on the DNS screen. That record says which certificate companies may serve your name, and an old one can block a new certificate.

Once the padlock shows, pick one main address, with www or without, and redirect the other to it.

Put your player on the name

A stream doesn't have an A record you can aim at. The simple way is to make a page on your website and paste in your player's embed code. Live video and radio plans both come with an embeddable player, so your name opens a page with your show on it.

If you want something other than a web page, ask us what suits your plan.

Fix what usually goes wrong