Custom DNS

From DreamHost

Need to change your DNS information on DreamHost to point your domain (or sub domain) elsewhere? Want to just move the web hosting service from your domain away and keep everything else the same? If so, you've found the right article. This is by no means a comprehensive article for DNS modification but instead addresses the most common modifications made at DreamHost.

You must have and keep an active web hosting plan with DreamHost to be able to use the DNS hosting service.

Contents 1 Changes to your hosting on DreamHost 2 Custom A Record 3 Custom CNAME Record 4 Custom Nameservers 5 Notes

Changes to your hosting on DreamHost

To make the necessary DNS changes to host your domain with elsewhere, you'll need to first remove the web hosting service from your domain. Just do this:

1. Visit the Domains > Manage Domains page of the control panel.
2. Click the [ Delete ] button located next to the domain under the 'Web Hosting' column.
   • Caution: do not press the [ Delete ] button under the 'Actions' column; make sure to press the one under the 'Web Hosting' column only!
   • Note: this will not delete your hosted files. You can later click 'edit' to go back to "Fully-Hosted", but you must remember to re-create the settings to match the previous configuration.

If you're wanting to do this for a sub domain you can either follow the same directions above, making sure to select the options next to the sub domain itself, or you can remove it entirely by clicking the [ Delete ] button located next to it under the Actions column on that same control panel page above. If you choose the latter, you'll then need to follow the directions below to set up your custom A record.

Keep in mind that this only affects your web hosting service and will leave other things like email intact.

You'll then need to make the actual changes to your domain's DNS as described below. Failure to remove your web hosting service will result in you setting up a round robin DNS that will almost definitely cause unexpected results.

Custom A Record

It's definitely possible to set this up, but it's not obvious at first.

1. Click the DNS link located under your domain here.
2. Leave the Name: field blank. (Unless you're trying to point a sub domain, like www or mail, etc...)
3. Change the Type: to A.
4. Enter in the IP address of where you'd like to point the domain in the Value: field. Eg. 127.0.0.1.
5. Click the Add Record Now! button to add the record.

You'll be good to go after DNS updates across the Internet (see DNS propagation and DNS servers are updated).

Custom CNAME Record

Please keep in mind that the root A record (eg. yourdomain.com) can NOT be a CNAME record and must instead be something like an A record. See above for instructions on changing the root A record.

1. Click the DNS link located under your domain here.
2. Enter www or another desired sub domain in the Name: field.
3. Change the Type: to CNAME.
4. Enter in the domain of where you'd like to point the domain in the Value: field. Eg. newserver.newhost.com.
5. Click the Add Record Now! button to add the record.

You'll be good to go after DNS updates across the Internet (see DNS propagation and DNS servers are updated).

Custom Nameservers

To set up custom nameservers with DreamHost, the domain must be registered through DreamHost. If it is not, these custom nameservers need to be set up with whichever company was used to register the domain. This is called your registrar. Contact them for further help with setting them up. If you have registered your domain with DreamHost, read on.

1. Click the Whois Info button located next to your domain registration (or check it off and click the Modify whois for selected... button if you have multiple registrations) here.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and look for the Set DNS info to host your domain elsewhere section.
3. Enter in the custom nameservers you'd like to set up, like:
   1. ns1.yourdomain.com
   2. ns2.yourdomain.com
   3. ns3.yourdomain.com
      1. Replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain name.
4. Click the Set these nameservers! button to save that change.
   1. The page will then refresh. You will be presented with an error at the top of the page. Scroll down to the bottom again.
5. Enter in the IP addresses for the custom nameservers in the Verify IP field.
   1. If you'd like to point the custom nameservers to DreamHost, use these IP addresses:
      1. ns1.dreamhost.com has address 66.33.206.206
      2. ns2.dreamhost.com has address 208.96.10.221
      3. ns3.dreamhost.com has address 66.33.216.216
6. Click the Set these nameservers! button for the last time to save the changes.

Notes

1. As with all changes to DNS, don't expect things to happen immediately. It may take a few hours for things to start working on your end. You may want to Flush DNS to see if this speeds things up for you, but there's no guarantees.
2. DreamHost support offers no support for custom DNS changes like this. If you've followed these instructions properly and find that things aren't working as expected it's very likely that you set it up incorrectly per your other host's instructions. You might want to check out the Talk Page for this article or the Discussion Boards for help if you need it.