Saturday, March 23, 2013

Pointing Domain With Ip Address

Using a web host's dns will disable some of the free stuff  Name Cheap includes with its domain registration such as email forwarding. A way around this is to point the domain to your site using an ip address instead of the webhost's dns. There is a  drawback to using this method because sometimes the ip address changes and needs to be updated or the domain won't work.

But this is my preferred method of pointing a domain because I like the email forwarding and other features that come with Name Cheap, and it only take a couple of minutes to update the ip should it change. (I only had to update it once so far).

Here is how to set up a domain at Name Cheap using an ip address with a website hosted for free at  50webs.com.

2. In your 50webs control panel click  Site Management.  You should see a number referred to as "Default route", this is the ip address:




3. Copy the ip address and go to  your Name Cheap account, click “Your Domains/Products” in the upper right sidebar on your account page:



3. Next click on your web address:


4.Click All Host Records in the left sidebar:


5. Enter the ip address you got from your 50webs account into the @ and www  text boxes, and select A (Address) from the drop  down menu:


The @ and www text boxes are to ensure that the domain works both with or without the www in the domain's url. Click the Save button near the bottom of the page and you are done. It will take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours for your domain to begin working.

To set up a domain with dns see the post Pointing Domain To Free Web Host.



Pointing Domain To Free Web Host

One of the cool things about the internet is that there's a lot of stuff you can get for free, including web hosting for your website.Here is how to set up a domain registered at Name Cheap to work with the free web host 50webs.com.

Go to 50webs.com and sign up for a free web hosting account. The sign up page will ask you to fill in your details, where it says Add a Domain Name to host select Use my existing domain and enter your domain url into the text box:



Once you have your web hosting account  login to your Name Cheap account to configure the dns settings. Oh relax it's going to be easy.

1. In your Name Cheap account click Your Domains/Products  in the upper right sidebar:


2. Next click on your web address:


3. Click Transfer DNS to webhost in the left side bar:



Please note that "transfer DNS to webhost" is NOT the same as transferring a domain, your domain will still be registered at Name Cheap.

4.Enter dns1.50webs.com and dns2.50webs.com into the text boxes and be sure "Specify custom DNS servers" is selected:


 Click the Save button and you are done! Told you it was easy. It will take anywhere from a few minutes to 48 hours  for your domain to begin working with your site. So get to it, start uploading your site files while you wait and be sure the file name of the home webpage of your site is index.html otherwise your domain won't work.

Note
When using the dns of a web host some of the services  Name Cheap provides such as email forwarding and url forwarding will not be available. If  you would like to continue to have all the services of Name Cheap you can point your domain to your website using an ip address instead of  dns. Read how in  the post "Pointing Domain With Ip Address.