Two ways to point a domain at your hosting — the hosting name servers or an A record — plus how to add the domain in cPanel, how long to wait, and what “domain not linked to hosting” means.
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For a website to open at your domain name, two things are needed: the domain must point to the hosting server, and the server must know which site to show for that domain.
Method 1: your hosting’s name servers
This is the simplest and most reliable method. Set your domain’s name servers to those of our hosting:
ns10.hosting-telecom.uk
ns11.hosting-telecom.ukChange the name servers in your registrar’s control panel, in the domain’s DNS or name server settings. Everything else — the records for your website, email and SSL — is created automatically.
Method 2: an A record
If your domain’s DNS needs to stay elsewhere — for example, because other services are set up there — change only the A record: point it to the IP address of the hosting server given in your welcome email. Do the same for www. In that case you will also need to maintain the email records (MX, SPF, DKIM) there yourself: MX records.
Adding the domain to your hosting
The domain you gave when you ordered the hosting has already been added. Add any second or further domains in cPanel, in the Domains section: Domains and subdomains in cPanel. How many domains you can add depends on your plan.
If your site is on a cloud server, there is no hosting control panel: point the A record to the server’s IP address and define the site in the web server configuration — A website on your own server.
How long to wait
New name servers start working within a few hours, sometimes taking up to 24–48 hours. An A record change is quicker: from a few minutes to a couple of hours, depending on the time to live (TTL) of the old record. During this time some visitors will already see the new server and others the old one. To check what the internet sees:
dig +short example.co.uk NS
dig +short example.co.uk A“Domain not linked to hosting”
The server shows this placeholder page when the domain already points to its server but hasn’t been added in the control panel, so the server doesn’t know which site to open. Add the domain in cPanel as described above. If your old hosting opens instead of your site, the DNS hasn’t updated yet or the domain still has its old name servers.
Once the domain is linked, don’t forget HTTPS — certificates on our hosting are issued automatically: SSL certificates in cPanel.
Didn’t find the answer? Ask our support team — we’ll help.