Change NameServers

 

What Are Name Servers? Your website is hosted on a ‘server’ that your hosting provider owns. Simply put, a server is a hard drive that is accessible to anyone with internet access. This hard drive is where the files for your website are stored. When someone types your domain name into a web browser, the browser needs to know on which of the (millions?) of web servers in the world YOUR website is being hosted on. When you purchase your hosting account, your web host will send you an email that tells you the name of their server, or Name Servers.

Once you have registered your domain name and purchased your hosting account, you will need to sign into the account that you created to purchase your domain name, (not your hosting account). If you went with my recommendation, you used GoDaddy to register your domain name. Changing the Name Servers simply tells the world where your website is hosted so that your website files can be found, and your website will be displayed when someone types in www.yoursite.com in a web browser.

Your hosting provider will send you an email telling you the names of their name servers. Typically they will look something like this:

dns1.yourhost.com
dns2.yourhost.com

Here is a video that shows you exactly how to change nameservers if you purchased your domain name through GoDaddy.

Enlarge YouTube VideoYou can make the video larger so that you can see it better by clicking on the Full Screen button in the bottom right hand corner of the video below. To exit the full screen mode, hit your escape button on your keyboard.