User Guide

Userguide V5

Managing Domains > Bought Elsewhere > Step 2

Telling The Domain Vendor about HotDoodle

There are two requirements for all domains not purchased through HotDoodle:

1. Inform Hotdoodle about the new domain - enables HotDoodle to route traffic for this domain to your site
2. Inform the domain about HotDoodle - requires domain owner to visit respective vendor site.

This section covers step 2.

Overview

There are two ways to make a domain use your site

The Easy Way: Tell the domain to use our nameservers. We will take care of the rest.
The Hard Way: Use the name server of the company that sold you the domain and update the Cname, Aname, and MX records by hand.

We strongly encourage the easy way. Besides simplicity, one key advantage is that if we ever need to move to a different internet address we will make the changes automatically.

Doing it the Easy Way: Use HotDoodle Nameservers

Setting the HotDoodle Name Servers

You have to figure out the screens of the vendor that sold you the domain until you get to where you can set the nameservers.
Set them to

n1.hotdoodle.com
n2.hotdoodle.com

That's it. Now you just wait.

Doing It the Hard Way: Adjusting DNS Records by Hand

Finding Your Site's IP Address

At the bottom of the Config Domains screen is a message such as the following:
This site is hosted on 198.66.xxx.xxx
The address you find there is the address you will use in the next step.

Setting the Records

You have to figure out the screens of the vendor that sold you the domain until you get to where you can set the DNS records.

Note that you need to enter your site's IP address found by the above procedure
The Aname record @ should point to the IP address
The Cname records should point to @
The MX records should be mail.[yourdomainname].com

It is normal to be confused about DNS, nameservers, ANAME, CNAME, and MX records -- that is why we automate everything if the domain is bought from us. When you go with somebody else you have to deal with this confusion.

Save and Wait

It takes time for the change to take effect in the internet. We have seen times range from 20 minutes to 1 day although the internet standard allows up to 4 days for such a change.

Illustrated Instructions

It can be very tough to figure out the screens of the vendor that sold you the domain, so we have made illustrated examples of the screens of some of the major domain sellers. Click the link on the right ==>
for the company from where your domain was purchased.

If you do not see your vender, please see if one of the examples is close enough.

GoDaddy

Yahoo

Network Sol.

NetFirms

DirectNic

Doteasy

Webnames

1:1 Inet