Connect your domain

Your domain stays registered where you bought it. To send visitors to FiniteHost, you add two DNS records at your registrar: an A record for the bare domain and a CNAME record for www. This guide shows where to find the values and how to enter them at BigRock, GoDaddy, Hostinger and Cloudflare.

Before you start#

• Add the website in the panel first. The records only appear after that.
• Sign in to your registrar (the company where you bought the domain) or to whichever service manages your domain's DNS today.
• Keep the panel open on Domains & DNS in another tab, so you can copy each value with its copy button.

The records you need#

Open Domains & DNS and pick the domain in the menu at the top right. The panel shows the exact records for that domain. For the demo domain acme.in they look like this:

Always copy your own values from the panel. The A value is the IP address of the server your plan runs on, and the CNAME value is your site's own CDN host (each site gets a different one).

If your plan includes mailboxes, the same table also lists MX, SPF (TXT), DMARC (TXT) and DKIM (TXT) records. They are only needed if you use FiniteHost email on this domain. See Email accounts for what each one does.

How DNS records are entered (all registrars)#

Every registrar has a DNS page with an Add record button and these fields. Names differ slightly between companies:

• Type: A or CNAME.
• Host / Name: @ means the bare domain (acme.in). For the second record type just www, not www.acme.in (most registrars add the domain for you).
• Value / Points to / Target: the value from the panel.
• TTL: leave the default, or choose 1 hour. Lower TTLs make later changes spread faster.

Before you add the new records, delete the old ones that conflict:

• any other A record for @ (for example a "parking" page or an old host);
• any AAAA record for @ or www (these are IPv6 addresses; an old one sends some visitors elsewhere and blocks the certificate);
• any existing A or CNAME record for www;
• a "domain forwarding" or "parking" setting, if your registrar has one switched on.

Do not delete MX or TXT records you still use for email elsewhere, unless you are moving your email to FiniteHost.

BigRock#

1. Open the domain. Sign in to BigRock, go to the list of your domains and open acme.in.
2. Open DNS management. Choose Manage DNS (sometimes under the domain's DNS or "DNS Management" tab).
3. Remove the old A record. Under the A records tab, delete any existing record for the bare domain.
4. Add the A record. Add an A record with host left blank or @ (BigRock shows the domain name) and the IP address from the panel as the value.
5. Add the CNAME. Under the CNAME records tab, add host www with the CDN host from the panel as the value.
6. Save. BigRock applies the change after you confirm each record.

GoDaddy#

1. Open DNS. Sign in, go to My Products, find acme.in and choose DNS (or Manage DNS).
2. Edit the A record. GoDaddy usually already has an A record named @ pointing to "Parked". Edit it: set the value to the IP address from the panel.
3. Edit the www record. GoDaddy usually has a CNAME named www pointing to @. Edit it: set the value to the CDN host from the panel.
4. Check forwarding. If Forwarding is switched on for the domain, remove it.
5. Save. Save each record.

Hostinger#

1. Open the DNS zone. Sign in to hPanel, go to Domains, choose acme.in, then DNS / Nameservers.
2. Delete conflicting records. Remove the existing A records for @ and the A or CNAME record for www that point to Hostinger's own servers, and any AAAA records.
3. Add the A record. Type A, Name @, Points to the IP address from the panel.
4. Add the CNAME. Type CNAME, Name www, Target the CDN host from the panel.
5. Save. Press Add Record for each.

Cloudflare#

1. Open DNS. Sign in, choose acme.in, then DNS → Records.
2. Add or edit the A record. Type A, Name @, IPv4 address from the panel.
3. Add or edit the CNAME. Type CNAME, Name www, Target the CDN host from the panel.
4. Turn the proxy off. Click the orange cloud on both records so it turns grey and reads DNS only.
5. Save. Save both records.

Wait for DNS and HTTPS#

1. Wait a few minutes. Most changes are visible within 15 minutes. Some networks keep old answers for up to an hour (or longer if the old TTL was long).
2. Watch the HTTPS status. Open SSL / HTTPS or Websites. While the records are not visible yet, the site shows Waiting for DNS.
3. See it switch on. Once acme.in points to the server, the certificate is issued automatically, usually within a few minutes, and the status changes to HTTPS on.
4. Open your site. Visit https://acme.in and https://www.acme.in.

You can check the records yourself with the commands in Check DNS.

Troubleshooting#

• Still "Waiting for DNS" after an hour: look for an old A or AAAA record, a Cloudflare orange cloud, or domain forwarding. See HTTPS not issued.
• The site opens an old page or the registrar's parking page: an old A record is still there, or your computer has the old answer cached. Try a phone on mobile data.
• Registrar refuses a CNAME on @: that is normal. The bare domain uses the A record; only www is a CNAME.
• You changed nameservers by mistake to ns1.finitehost.com: change them back to your registrar's default nameservers, then add the records.

What's next#

• HTTPS certificates: how the free certificate works.
• CDN and caching: what the www CNAME does for speed.
• Upload your website.