Tutorials, Webmaster

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You’ve finally had it with your old web hosting company, and you’re ready to make the move to a new one. You get all signed up, and then they tell you that there’s just one thing you must do: visit your registrar and change the DNS servers. What??

In English, that translates: “Go to the website where you bought your domain name, log in with your username and password, and point your domain to the new host.”

If it’s been a while since you registered your domain name, and if they haven’t been good at keeping in touch, then you might not even remember who you registered with. And what’s a DNS server anyway? Let’s start at the beginning.

Please note these are generic steps to take for all registrars. For specific instructions for your registrar, contact them.

1. If you don’t remember who your registrar is, run a “whois” check on your domain name.
2. Note the name of the registrar, and the email address you used when you signed up. (Do you still have access to that email address? That is the only place they will send your username or password information.)
3. When you find the name of the registrar, visit their website.
4. Use their “Lost Password” function (and maybe even “Lost Username” :)) to find your login information. NOTE: The key here is whether you still have access to the same email address you signed up with. If not, you will need to contact the registrar’s customer service department by phone, and find out what their procedure is for letting you back into your account.
5. Once you have all that taken care of, and you are ABLE to log into your account, please do so.
6. Now you will change your nameservers: look for a link in your admin area which reads something like “Change Nameservers” or “Manage DNS”.
7. Your registrar needs you to provide two (2) nameservers. This information was provided by your hosting company in that Welcome Email that sent you on this quest in the first place. Go read it! The format of these nameservers will be like this:

ns1.chocolate2code.com

ns2.chocolate2code.com

The “ns1″ and “ns2″ are pretty standard, but there are variants. And of course, you’d replace “chocolate2code.com” with the domain name of your new host server, as per your Welcome Email. Note: the nameserver domain is not necessarily the same as the domain name of the registrar. Don’t guess…verify the nameservers in the email you received.

Phew! Now you’re done! What happens next?

Now you sit back and wait. It takes 24 to 72 hours for this change you just made to propagate across the whole entire internet. Every ISP out there in the big world has a different idea of how often they should check for DNS updates. Some check every few hours, others check every few days. Be patient. If you start testing your new site in less than that time, you will get it sometimes, and other times you’ll still see the old site.

If after 3 full days you are unable to see your new website consistently every time you try, then contact your new hosting company and let them know. Oh…and don’t forget to empty your browser’s cache before testing! That’s the first thing the hosting company will tell you to do when you call them. It’s nice (and will gain you some respect from them) if you can say, “I already tried that,” and mean it.