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How Do I Change My DNS or Name Servers?

 

For people to find your website, you will need to configure DNS and set name servers. You can either use HostGator's name servers or use third-party name servers. Either way, you would need to configure them, so your domain works with your HostGator web hosting account.

PLEASE NOTE: When changing name servers (also known as nameservers or name-servers) at the registrar, there will be 24-48 hours of DNS propagation time, where your website and email may not be available.

Setting up name servers is an essential feature of domain management. For this, we created our consolidated guide of domain-related articles that you can use. Please see the article Domain Overview.

For our go-to articles when it comes to managing your domains, please check out the Domain How-To's articles.

 

Option 1: Use HostGator name servers (Recommended)

The recommended route for most customers is to use HostGator's name servers since they are automatically configured to work with HostGator web hosting accounts.

Step 1: Locate your HostGator name servers

The first step would be to determine which name servers you should use for your HostGator hosting account. This varies by server and hosting type. Here are ways to check your hosting account's name servers. Please take note of these name servers.

  • In your Welcome Email

    Regardless of the hosting plan you purchased from HostGator; a Welcome email was sent to your primary email address on file. These name servers can be used on all sites that are hosted in your hosting plan. Please see the screenshot below. 

    Welcome email (screenshot)

  • In your cPanel

    You can locate your name servers by looking at the right-hand side of your cPanel homepage. The sample image below shows the name servers for a shared hosting plan.

    HostGator cPanel General Informtion section

  • In your Customer Portal

    To find your name servers in your Customer Portal:

    1. Log in to your Customer Portal.
    2. Select Hosting from the left-hand menu.
    3. Locate your hosting package, then click the Manage link.
    4. Under the selected hosting package page, click the Settings tab.
    5. The name servers are found just below the IP Address.

      Customer Portal - Name servers

For more information on how to find out your name servers, please read the article: What are my name servers?

 

Step 2: Change your name servers

The domain was purchased from HostGator

This video shows how to change a domain's name servers registered to eNom and/or Launchpad.

 

Click Here To See the Steps Outlined in the Video Above
  1. Go to the Customer Portal.
  2. You will be asked for your billing email address and password to access any domains attached to that billing account.
    • If you are unsure of your password, click the Forgot your password link below the log in fields.
  3. Once logged in, click on Domains on the left-hand menu.

    Customer Portal Domains Section

  4. Locate the domain you wish to update the name servers.
  5. Click the More button to display the Domain Overview section, where you can see more options.

    Domains Overview

  6. Click on the Change link under the Name Servers.
  7. Enter the HostGator name servers you got from Step #1.

For more information on changing name servers for domains registered with HostGator, please refer to this article: Change name servers for domains registered with HostGator

The domain was NOT purchased from HostGator

If you did NOT purchase your domain from us, we are unable to change the name servers because we don't control the domain. Please contact the company where you bought the domain and ask how to make the name server updates on their systems.

Some registrars may call these nameservers or name-servers when you are looking for information on how to make this change (Most domain registrars have their own tool, so you can do this yourself.)

To point your domain to HostGator, you need to replace your current registrar's name servers with HostGator name servers you got from Step #1.

 

How to change name servers at popular registrars

To make things easier, we have compiled instructions from popular registrars. 

These instructions are up-to-date as of the day we posted them. However, some registrars frequently change their website and may use different terms (such as referring to your name servers as nameservers), so expect variations from the instructions provided.

Note: We cannot provide direct support in modifying the DNS records at your registrar. Please contact your associated domain registrar for further assistance if you would like to update your A, MX, CNAME, or other DNS records.

Option 2: Use name servers elsewhere (Advanced)

For some advanced users, it may be desirable to use different name servers (registrar instructions provided in Step #2). This requires more maintenance since it is not automatically updated like HostGator name servers are. If you wish to point your domain to HostGator while using third-party name servers, you will need to manage your domains' DNS records and point them to HostGator. For more details on how to do this, read the following article:

Please note, if only the name servers were changed and no customization is done on a domain's DNS records at the host where the name servers are pointed, then all DNS records will automatically point to that name server's hosting provider. For example, a domain using Google's name servers without customizing the DNS records at Google will automatically point (host) that domain to Google.