How to Connect Your Domain to Your Hosting (For Beginners)

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What you need

✅ A domain name — e.g. mycoolsite.com
✅ A hosting account — where your website lives

Your goal is to make your domain and hosting talk to each other.

🌐 Step 1: Find your hosting nameservers

Nameservers are like your host’s “address.” You must tell your domain where to find your host.

Here’s how to find them depending on your hosting company 👇

🖥️ Option 1: Inside your hosting control panel (most common)

  1. Login to your hosting account (like Hostinger, Bluehost, Namecheap, GoDaddy, etc.).

  2. Open your Dashboard or Control Panel (cPanel).

  3. Look for a section called:

    • “DNS Details”

    • “Nameservers”

    • “Domain Management”

    • “Account Information”

    • or sometimes “Hosting Details.”

You’ll see something like this:

Nameserver 1: ns1.yourhost.com
Nameserver 2: ns2.yourhost.com

📨 Option 2: Check your “Welcome Email”

When you bought hosting, your provider usually sent you an email titled something like:

“Your Hosting Account Details” or “Welcome to [Hosting Company]”

Inside that email, look for:

Nameserver 1: ns1.examplehost.com
Nameserver 2: ns2.examplehost.com
Server IP: 203.0.113.45

🧩 Option 3: Ask Support

If you can’t find them, open your host’s live chat or support ticket and say:

“Hi, I just need my hosting nameservers so I can point my domain.”

They’ll send you the correct ones.

⚙️ Step 2: Add the nameservers to your domain

Now that you have them:

  1. Go to the website where you bought your domain.

  2. Login → Open your domain settings.

  3. Look for “DNS” or “Nameservers.”

  4. Choose Use custom nameservers.

  5. Paste what your host gave you, for example:

    ns1.yourhost.com
ns2.yourhost.com

  6. Save the changes.

🕒 Step 3: Wait for DNS to update

This part takes patience!
It usually updates in 1–4 hours, but sometimes up to 48 hours.

During this time, your site might show a blank page or the host’s default page — that’s okay.

✅ Step 4: Check if it’s working

You can test with a simple command or tool:

ping mycoolsite.com

If it shows your host’s IP address, that means it’s connected!

Or go to an online checker:
👉 dnschecker.org
Type your domain, select NS or A, and see if it shows your hosting company’s nameservers.

🔐 Bonus: Turn on SSL (HTTPS)

Once your domain points correctly, go to your hosting control panel → SSL or Security → click “Activate Free SSL” or “Let’s Encrypt SSL.”
This makes your website secure (shows the 🔒 lock icon).

💡 Example Summary

If your hosting gave you:

ns1.hostingco.com
ns2.hostingco.com

You’ll go to your domain dashboard and set:

Nameserver 1 → ns1.hostingco.com
Nameserver 2 → ns2.hostingco.com

Save and wait.

🧾 Quick Visual Summary (Text Diagram)

[Visitor] 
   ↓ types www.mycoolsite.com
[Domain Registrar]
   ↓ points to
[Nameservers from your Host]
   ↓ leads to
[Hosting Server]
   ↓ shows
[Your Website!]





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