Connect your domain to web hosting: nameservers and DNS

Your website is only reachable once your domain points to your web hosting. You arrange that with your domain's nameservers. They decide where your domain's DNS records live, and those records send visitors to your website and email to your mailbox.

Below you find what to do in each situation: you order domain and hosting together, your domain was already with us, or your domain is registered elsewhere.

How the connection works

A domain with web hosting at EliteStarHosting always uses these two nameservers:

ns1.elitestarhosting.com
ns2.elitestarhosting.com

Once your domain uses them, its DNS lives in DirectAdmin, the control panel of your web hosting. DirectAdmin sets up the records you need there: for your website, for email and for new subdomains. Your website automatically runs through our HTTP filtering, which stops attacks before they reach your site. You never have to copy IP addresses by hand.

A domain without web hosting works differently. It runs on our own DNS and you manage its records in the client area under DNS Management. If you only use a domain for a game server, you leave its nameservers as they are.

1. Domain and web hosting ordered together

When you order a domain together with a web hosting plan, its nameservers are set to ns1 and ns2.elitestarhosting.com right away. Your hosting is active within minutes and your domain is already in DirectAdmin. There is nothing to connect.

Want more domains on your plan? That is possible from Starter: Lite has 1 domain, Starter 2, Advanced 3, Ultra 5 and Elite 10. Add an extra domain in DirectAdmin under Account Manager > Domains, then set that domain's nameservers to ns1 and ns2.elitestarhosting.com as well.

2. Your domain was already with us and you order web hosting

1. Order the web hosting plan for your existing domain.
2. Open your domain in the client area and go to Nameservers.
3. Choose custom nameservers, fill in ns1.elitestarhosting.com and ns2.elitestarhosting.com and save.

From then on you manage this domain's DNS in DirectAdmin, no longer in the client area. Records you set earlier under DNS Management in the client area no longer count after the switch. Did you have an SRV record for your Minecraft server, for example? Create it again in DirectAdmin first, as described in Ports and allocations, and only then change the nameservers.

3. Your domain is registered elsewhere

You have two options. The first is the simplest.

Option A: change the nameservers at your registrar

First, prepare your DNS in DirectAdmin:

• Do you have records at your current DNS provider that you want to keep, such as a verification record or a subdomain for your game server? Add them in DirectAdmin first (see below).
• Is your email hosted elsewhere, for example at Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace? Add your email provider's MX records in DirectAdmin first (see below). Otherwise your email stops arriving after the switch.
• Moving an existing website too? Request the free migration first and only change the nameservers once your site is ready with us. Your old website keeps running while we copy everything.

Then change the nameservers:

1. Log in at the company where your domain is registered.
2. Open your domain and look for the nameserver setting. It is usually called Nameservers, Name servers or DNS settings.
3. Choose custom nameservers and fill in ns1.elitestarhosting.com and ns2.elitestarhosting.com. Remove any other nameservers that are still listed.
4. Save. Does your registrar ask for IP addresses next to the nameservers? You don't need them here, so leave those fields empty.

Want to transfer the domain itself to us as well? You can do that under Domains. We keep your current nameservers during the transfer. Afterwards you connect the domain as in step 2.

Option B: keep your DNS elsewhere

Prefer to keep managing DNS at your registrar or at Cloudflare, for example because the zone already holds many records? Then you point the records at your hosting yourself:

• Set the A record of your domain (@) and of www to 87.76.153.137. That is the address of our HTTP filtering, which all web traffic to your site passes through. Don't use any other address, not even the server address you see in DirectAdmin. That bypasses the filtering.
• A subdomain that runs on your hosting gets the same address. Create it in DirectAdmin as well, under Subdomain Management.
• Using Cloudflare with the orange cloud? That is fine. Set 87.76.153.137 as the origin.
• Want your email with us? Copy the A record for mail, the MX record and the TXT record with SPF from DNS Management in DirectAdmin, where you find the exact values. If you enabled DKIM, copy the TXT record x._domainkey as well. At Cloudflare, always set mail records to DNS only (grey cloud).

The free SSL certificate can only be issued once your domain and www point to us. Still no valid certificate after that? Check Account Manager > SSL/TLS Certificates or contact us.

Managing DNS in DirectAdmin

Log in to DirectAdmin at web1.elitestarhosting.com:2222 and go to Account Manager > DNS Management.

You see the records we already created: A records for your domain, www, mail, smtp, pop and ftp, an MX record, a TXT record with SPF and the NS records. Sometimes there are also _acme-challenge records for your SSL certificate. Leave all of these alone unless you know exactly why you are changing them.

Add a record with Add Record: choose the type, fill in the name and the value and save. These are the four types you need most:

• A: a name that points to an IP address, for example vps to the IP address of your VPS. You don't need this for a subdomain on your web hosting itself. Create it under Subdomain Management and the record is added for you.
• CNAME: a name that points to another name, for example shop to the address of your webshop platform. Put a dot after a name outside your own domain, such as shops.example.com.. Without that dot, your own domain is appended to it.
• MX: which server receives your email, with a priority. The lowest number goes first.
• TXT: text records such as SPF, DKIM or the verification for Google Search Console. Don't create the DKIM record by hand: click Enable DKIM on the E-mail Accounts page.

Want players to reach your game server on your own name, such as play.yourdomain.com? Take the CNAME and SRV records from the Record Generator in the game panel and add them here. Ports and allocations explains how.

In DNS Management you can also set the TTL: how long other servers remember a record. Planning a change? Lower the TTL a day in advance, for example to 300 seconds, and raise it again afterwards.

Email: get your MX records right

• Email with us: the MX record and the SPF record are already correct. Create your mailboxes under E-mail Manager > E-mail Accounts and click Enable DKIM there.
• Email elsewhere: remove the MX record 10 mail and add your email provider's MX records. Also change the TXT record starting with v=spf1 as your provider instructs, and add any verification records. The A record for mail can stay. In addition, untick Use this server to handle my e-mails under E-mail Manager > MX Records, or mail that your website sends to your own domain never reaches your provider.

Do this before you change the nameservers, so you don't miss any email.

How long does it take, and how do you check?

A nameserver change usually takes effect everywhere within a few hours, but it can take up to 48 hours. A single change in DirectAdmin is usually faster. How fast depends on the record's TTL.

This is how you check:

1. Open a command prompt and type nslookup yourdomain.com. If you get 87.76.153.137 back, your website runs through us. If you use the Cloudflare proxy, you see Cloudflare addresses here.
2. Type nslookup -type=mx yourdomain.com. You see mail.yourdomain.com if your email is with us, or your own email provider's servers.
3. Want to see what the rest of the world already sees? Use whatsmydns.net.

Still seeing the old site yourself while the check looks right? Then your computer or browser still remembers the old address. Type ipconfig /flushdns in the command prompt (Windows) or try a private window.

Common mistakes

• Changing records in DirectAdmin and expecting them to work while your domain still uses other nameservers. Only the records at your domain's nameservers count.
• Pointing the A record at any address other than 87.76.153.137.
• Forgetting the MX records when your email runs elsewhere.
• Leaving mail records on the orange cloud at Cloudflare. Your mail app then can't connect.

Stuck? Open a ticket through support or ask on Discord. Never send passwords along.

Read also: Set up a free SSL certificate and HTTPS in DirectAdmin and Create and set up a business email address.