This tutorial is on ‘How to point name servers to Bluehost from Namecheap’. You need to point your domain to Bluehost name servers at Namecheap Domain panel if you purchase a hosting plan for web hosting at Bluehost and have a domain registered at Namecheap. Here, webhosting service and domain registration are at two different entities and you need to connect your website to the registered domain.
However, it is not required if you register a domain and purchase a web hosting service at the same company. Before updating name servers for your domain, you need to create a website and install wordpress.
Page of Contents:
- Why to Point Name Servers to Bluehost from Namecheap?
- How to Point Namecheap Domain to Bluehost?
- Login to Namecheap Dashboard and Locate “Domain List”
- Locate the Domain and Click on “Manage” at the right side
- Locate “Name Servers” and Select “Custom DNS”
- Configure Custom DNS
Why to Point Name Servers to Bluehost from Namecheap?
You need to point name servers to Bluehost from Namecheap, as these two platforms are separate—-the former is associated with hosting and the latter is domain. Before hosting your site, your domain is given basic Namecheap DNS in order to make it active and reachable through domain search in the whois database. But as you start creating a site, your web hosting provider gives your site new IP Address that needs to be assigned to your domain. too. Because, IP address is a numerical label, harder to remember, and to make it simpler, it is translated to human readable text—domain. When a visitor visits your site or interacts with it, he actually reaches it with IP addressing. Now, you have made a site with your domain and it is associated with the pre-existing IP address provided by basic Namecheap DNS. Now, in order to access your site in the world wide web, you have to connect your Namecheap domain to Bluehost name servers provided by Bluehost DNS manager.
The Bluehost Name Servers are as follows:
ns1.bluehost
ns2.bluehost
How to Point Namecheap Domain to Bluehost?
Now, we are going to our main point on ‘how to point Namecheap domain to Bluehost. It is easy and you can do yourself. There is nothing to be technical. So, no need to be tech-savvy. But before going to point name servers to Bluehost from Namecheap, you must have had a registered domain at the latter for which you have created a site and furthermore, you must have received an email containing name server details from the former.
I assumed that till now everything is right. So, proceed to point Namecheap domain to Bluehost.
Login to Namecheap Dashboard and Locate “Domain List”
As you have registered your domain at Namecheap, login to your Namecheap Dashboard. Scroll down along the left sidebar till you locate “Domain List”. There are many submenus there and click on ‘Domain list’. In this list, you can see all the domains that you have registered before.
You can see various information regarding domains from this list such as domain privacy, domain status( whether the domain is active or not), expiration etc. Also, you can renew your domain if required.
Locate the Domain and Click on “Manage” at the right side
Now, select the domain that you want to point to Bluehost name servers. To point this domain, first of all, locate “Manage, button attached to your domain. Look at screenshot for more clarification. If you have multiple domains, you can see all of these under this menu. Be careful and select the right domain that you want to point to Bluehost name servers.
Click on ‘Manage’ located at the right side of the horizontal bar containing various information on domain. Clicking on ‘Manage’ takes you to another page that you can see below at the screen capture.
Locate “Name Servers” and Select “Custom DNS”
Now, you can see your domain on that page that contains various options to manage it. Locate “Name Servers” to manage it properly. So, scroll down along the left sidebar till you reach the location labelled’ NAMESERVERS’
Go to the right side from the label “NAMESERVERS” and click on the triangular button to expand the submenus. Once the submenus expanded, click on the field labelled ” Custom DNS” that you can see inside the rectangular box. Now, in order to point domain to Bluehost from Namecheap, you have to go to the domain DNS configuration page.
Configure “Custom DNS”
So, click on ‘Custom DNS” and meanwhile it takes you to the required location. Look at the following screen capture, there are two fields labelled:
- “Nameserver 1” and
- “Nameserver 2”
Write the name servers provided by Bluehost in the fields to point name servers to Bluehost from Namecheap. Do you know what are the Bluehost Nameservers? The hosting crue will send you an email containing name server details.
The Bluehost name servers are as follows:
ns1.bluehost
ns2.bluehost
So, write “ns1.bluehost” in the field labelled ‘nameserver1’
and, similarly, write “ns2.bluehost” in the field labelled ‘nameserver 2’. Once name server fields are filled out properly, don’t forget to click on the ” green check mark sign” as you see above in the screenshot so as to save changes.
So far, you have done everything properly in order to cause desired changes in name servers to point domain properly from Namecheap to Bluehost. Once the changes are saved, the name server configuration looks like above. To be properly effective, DNS propagation at Bluehost takes about 4 to 24 or 48 hours based on geographical location.
Whatever hosting service you choose, you have to point name servers or domain from one host to another one if both of them are not at the same service provider. That said, pointing name servers is same for all host and domain registrars, but before doing this, you have to look at the hosting dashboard.
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