Setting up your first domain, step by step 1 min read

A domain name on its own does nothing. It becomes useful when the name servers point at a provider that knows your server’s address.

Set the name servers first

Do this before anything else, because it is the change that takes longest to spread. Somewhere between a few minutes and a day, depending on what the previous setting told the world to remember.

Then the records

• A — the address of your server
• CNAME — one name that follows another
• MX — where your mail goes

Get the A record right and the site loads. The rest can wait until it does.