Pointing a domain to your Zeald website

What do you mean by pointing a domain name?

You can choose to keep your domain name hosted with an external provider (eg FreeParking, Godaddy etc), and you can point your domain name at NZ Zeald's webservers while keeping control of the domain name, email etc with the external provider.

This also means you will not have to change any email settings on your Email Client on your computer.

To do this you will need to either use the web interface provided by your external provider, or contact and instruct that host to make the following changes to your "DNS settings". If your external host does not carry out these changes on your behalf and you find yourself trying to do it, it may be easier and safer for you to transfer your domain name to Zeald.
  1. If you are ready to go live you will firstly need to go to the Preferences >Website Address tab in your website and enter in your domain name. Ensure you put both the domain name in twice. Once with the "www" and once without the www. This will ensure that your domain goes to your website as otherwise the domain will be redirected to a page that says "Domain not found". If you don't have a live website with another provider and you are not ready to go live with your new Zeald website yet, then you can still point your domain name in preparation - just don't add the domain name to the Website Address tab until you are ready to launch.
  2. Login to your current host's web interface and try to find the page where you edit DNS settings. Sometimes this page will be called "Edit DNS" - other times the words "Edit Zone file" or "Nameserver management" may be used. Every DNS host has a different interface and often the edit DNS page can be hard to find. If you can't find this page or don't have access to your registrars login, you can contact your registrar directly and they should be able to help you out.
  3. Setup a CNAME record for your websites address, which should be a subdomain of the form "www.example.com". Setup this subdomain as a "CNAME" record to point to the unique CNAME provided in the "Go Live Instructions for your new Zeald website" email.
    
 (if you can't setup a "CNAME record" and need to enter an IP address and setup an "A record" and use 103.145.192.123
). 

    4. 

  4. 
Create an "A" record for your naked domain (eg "example.com")  Point the domain at the following IP address 
    103.145.192.123

    

    5. 



	

		

	

	



 
 NS changes often take a long time to apply: for many registrars, at least 48 hours. If your new domain isn't taking you to your website and you think you made the above changes correctly and, wait another day or two to make sure all the DNS servers have been updated. If it still isn't working, contact your registrar to make sure you entered the DNS settings correctly.

 

Please note - while looking at your DNS records, it may be a good idea to add an SPF or edit your current SPF Record. 



SPF (Sender Policy Framework) allows you to define what email servers are allowed to send email on your behalf.  If you are using SPF, you will need to ensure that the Zeald email servers are allowed to send email on your behalf.  Otherwise you may find your website's notification and marketing emails ending out classified as spam.



Please find all details of what you will need to add to your SPF in this document.



 

Common mistakes to avoid

Unfortunately the web interface of most registrars is extremely confusing: often people make mistakes when making the above changes.   Two things you want to watch out for are:


    
	
  1. Please do not touch any settings for name servers - if you mishandle this area it can cause complex problems with your website and emails, and you may experience significant downtime..! 
    2. 
	
  2. Don't just setup a "web redirect" (so that users  go to  "www.example.com" and they are bounced to "zes.zeald.com" - this won't work and will just show a Zeald "Website not found"' error page)
    3. 


 


Domain names and Website hosted outside of New Zealand



Your website may be hosted on a server outside of New Zealand as you will be targeting either Australian, US or UK market. If your website is hosted on the following server please point your domain name to the following IP addresses:

 


    
	
  • 
	
    Australia
    
	
    • 


If you want your website to be hosted in Australia (if you are an Australian based business or expect most of your business to be from Australia) the IP address to point your domain to is  119.9.8.41 (and zes-aur.zeald.com for www subdomain, or if you need to enter an IP address use 119.9.8.41).

 


    
	
  • 
	
    United Kingdom
    
	
    • 


If you want your website to be hosted in the UK (if you are a UK based business or expect most of your business to be from the UK) the IP address to point your domain to is 37.188.111.248 (and zesuk-3.zeald.com for www subdomain, or if you need to enter an IP address use 37.188.111.248).

 


    
	
  • 
	
    United States
    
	
    • 


If you want your website to be hosted in the USA (if you are a US based business or expect most of your business to be from the USA) the IP address to point your domain to is 192.237.143.50 (and zesusr.zeald.com for www subdomain, or if you need to enter an IP address use 192.237.143.50).
 



	

		

	

	



 
 
 



	

		





	

	




	 


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