For your website and email to work with PaduHost, your domain needs to point to our servers. There are two ways to do this. Changing your nameservers is the recommended option for most customers.

Registered your domain with PaduHost at the same time as your hosting? It already points to us, so you can skip this article.

Option 1: Change your nameservers (recommended)

With this option, PaduHost manages your domain's DNS, so your website, email and free SSL certificate work without any extra set-up. You can still add or change DNS records yourself in DirectAdmin.

1. Find the PaduHost nameservers in your welcome email.
2. Log in to the company where you registered your domain (your domain registrar).
3. Find the nameserver settings for your domain. They may be called Nameservers, DNS servers or Custom DNS.
4. Remove the existing nameservers and enter the PaduHost nameservers exactly as they appear in your welcome email.
5. Save your changes.

Most nameserver changes take effect within a few hours, but they can take up to 48 hours to reach everyone. See How long DNS changes take to work.

Option 2: Keep your current DNS and add A records

Choose this option if you want to keep your DNS with another provider, such as Cloudflare, or if other services already rely on your domain's DNS.

1. Find your server's IP address in your welcome email.
2. Log in to your DNS provider and open the DNS records for your domain.
3. Create or edit the two records shown in the table below.
4. Delete any other A or AAAA records for your domain on its own (@) or www that point somewhere else.
5. If you use PaduHost for email, copy the email records (MX, SPF and DKIM) from DNS Management in DirectAdmin to your DNS provider as well.

Using Cloudflare? If your records are proxied (orange cloud), set Cloudflare's SSL/TLS mode to Full (strict). Avoid Flexible, which can cause redirect loops.

Checking that it's working

Visit your domain in a browser. If you see your website, or our placeholder page if you haven't uploaded anything yet, your domain is pointing to PaduHost. You can also check your nameservers or A records at whatsmydns.net.