How to change your nameservers.
Nameservers are the signpost that tells the internet where your website lives. Changing them is how your existing web address starts showing your new site instead of the old one.
Takes about five minutes. It is the last step before a new site goes live, and it is the only one that has to happen inside your own account.
You are not giving us your password
This is the one job on the whole list where a mistake is visible to everyone, because a wrong setting can take your site off the internet for a few hours. If you have any doubt at all, stop and give us access instead and we will do it for you. There is no charge and nobody thinks less of you.
The steps
- Sign in wherever you bought the web address. If you are not sure who that is, find out first.
- Find your web address in the list and click "Manage" next to it.
- Look for a section called "Nameservers". It is sometimes filed under "DNS" or "DNS Settings".
- Change the setting away from the default. On Namecheap that means picking "Custom DNS" from the dropdown. On GoDaddy it is "I'll use my own nameservers".
- Delete whatever is in the boxes and paste in the two lines we sent you, one per box. They look like ns1.something.com.
- Save it. On Namecheap you save with a small green checkmark, which is easy to miss.
Then tell us
Just tell us it is done. The change can take up to 24 hours to reach everybody, though it is usually much quicker, and we will be watching for it on our end.
Stuck at any point?
Reply to any email from us, or write to info@fernvie.com. We will get on a screen share and do it together. It takes about five minutes and there is no charge for it.