DNS settings for custom domains
The DNS records your domain needs, and how to check that they are set correctly.
After you add your own domain to a Premium website or to an e-mail service, the DNS of the domain has to point to our servers. There are two ways to do it.
Option A: change the name servers
Use this option if you want everything on the domain — DNS, website, subdomains and e-mail — to run from our servers. It is the setup we recommend, because all required records are then created and kept up to date for you.
Set these name servers for the domain at your domain registrar:
ns1.machineasp.net
ns2.machineasp.net
ns3.machineasp.net
The change can take up to 24 hours. After that you manage the DNS records of the domain in the Control Panel under DNS.
Example: Namecheap
If the domain is registered with Namecheap, the name servers are changed like this:
Open the domain list
Sign in to your Namecheap account and go to Domain List.
Open the DNS settings of the domain
Select the domain, click Actions and choose DNS / Host Records.
Confirm the change
Tick I understand that this change may impact my existing services and they may stop working.
Set custom DNS servers
Click CUSTOM DNS and enter
ns1.machineasp.net,ns2.machineasp.netandns3.machineasp.net.Wait for the DNS propagation
The change usually takes between a few minutes and two hours to spread across the internet, in some cases up to 24 hours.
Other registrars offer the same setting under a similar name.
Option B: add individual DNS records
Use this option if part of the domain (for example e-mail) runs with another provider, or if you want to keep your current DNS provider such as Cloudflare.
The exact records for your domain are shown in the Control Panel when you add the domain: the last step of the Add domain wizard (Websites → your website → Domains → Add domain) lists them with a Copy button. Copy the values to your DNS provider.
Records for a website
| Name | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|
yourdomain.com |
A | The IP address shown in the Control Panel |
www.yourdomain.com |
CNAME | siteXXXX.siteasp.net (the server name of your website) |
This change can take up to 3 hours.
Warning
Keep only one A record for the domain — the one pointing to our server. A leftover A record from a previous hosting sends part of your visitors to the old server and prevents the HTTPS certificate from being issued or renewed.
Records for e-mail
For e-mail hosted with us the domain needs an MX record pointing to your mail server (mailXXX.mailasp.net) and additional records for SPF and automatic configuration of e-mail clients. See DNS records for e-mail.
| Name | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|
yourdomain.com |
MX | mailXXX.mailasp.net with priority 10 |
yourdomain.com |
TXT | v=spf1 a mx include:spf.mailasp.net ~all |
autodiscover.yourdomain.com |
CNAME | mailXXX.mailasp.net |
_autodiscover._tcp.yourdomain.com |
SRV | 10 10 443 mailXXX.mailasp.net |
Replace mailXXX with the name of your mail server shown in the Control Panel. This change can take up to 3 hours.
Check the result
- In the Control Panel open Websites → your website → Domains. The DNS column shows Points here when the domain resolves to our server, and Not pointing here or No A record when it does not.
- Open the website on your domain. If it shows the right content, DNS is correct.
- Use an online tool such as check-host.net to see how the domain resolves from different places in the world.