As I mentioned before, most domain name registrars also offer hosting services, and most hosting services offer domain name registration services. After all, these are two closely related services.
So why then do some people register their domain name with one company, such as namecheap, but host it with another, such as LeaseHost? The answer is simple, and I alluded to it earlier: the best webhost might not necessarily be the best domain name registrar, and the best domain name registrar might not offer the best web hosting package.
For example, at the time of this writing, my research has turned up that NameCheap.com is the best domain name registrar on the internet, but its hosting packages are not exactly “second to none.” What’s the best hosting company on the internet according to my research? LeaseHost. Hands down. But doesn’t LeaseHost offer a domain name registration service also? Of course, but it is nothing compared to Namecheap!
It is for this reason that many web developers might want to go register a domain name with one service and host it with another.
In my case, I’m registering my domain names with Namecheap and hosting them with LeaseHost.
To make this work, I have to do is go into my Namecheap account and change the Domain Name Servers (DNS) to those of LeaseHost.
All domain names that are hosted anywhere must carry at least two Domain Name Servers. What’s a Domain Name Server? It’s simply a combination of letters and numbers that represent a web hosting company. For example, the Domain Name Servers for LeaseHost are:
- ns1.leasehost.com
- ns2.leasehost.com
Once I “point” the Nameservers over to LeaseHost, I can start hosting my website with Leasehost. I do this by changing the Domain Name Servers through my Domain Name Management Control Panel in Namecheap.
Sounds confusing? Not really. Let’s go ahead and change the Domain Name Servers for one domain which I will be building a website on.
First thing I do is fire up a browser and type in www.namecheap.com.
Next, I log in using my username and password.
Next, I look for the domain name whose name servers I wish to change, and click on “Manage.”
In this case, it’s billytours.com. So I click on “Manage.” Then I look for the nameservers settings.
I select “Custom DNS” from the drop down box.
Then, I type in the nameservers of Leasehost.
- ns1.leasehost.com
- ns2.leasehost.com
Once I’m done typing in the Domain Name Servers correctly, I just click that handy green “tick mark” on the right.
This saves the Domain Name Servers and a message box pops up that tells me that it may take up to 48 hours for the domain name servers change to take effect.
In my experience however, it usually takes effect in a few minutes, if not instantly.
Great, now that I’ve changed my Domain Name Servers to my favorite hosting company, I can go over to my hosting company, and start building a website on that domain.
