Overview
This article provides a general overview of nameservers and how they control where your website's DNS records are managed.
FAQs
What are nameservers?
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Nameservers are the primary DNS records attached to a domain registration. The company they point to is where ALL of your domain's DNS records are managed.
Most often, this is a hosting company like DreamHost that hosts your website on a web server so it appears online.
Where do I manage my domain's DNS records?
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You only need to be aware of two primary classifications of DNS records when hosting a website.
- Nameservers
- Domain records (A, CNAME, MX, etc.)
If you set your domain to use DreamHost's nameservers, your domain will automatically use the DNS records configured in your DreamHost panel.
However, if your nameservers are pointed to a different company, you would need to log into their panel to manage your DNS settings.
Before you point nameservers to a different company, make sure that all of the DNS records you want your domain to continue using are already set up with the new hosting company. This way, once the DNS resolves for the new external nameservers, the services will function right away.
What are DreamHost's nameservers?
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All domains managed by DreamHost use the following nameservers:
- ns1.dreamhost.com 162.159.26.14
- ns2.dreamhost.com 162.159.26.81
- ns3.dreamhost.com 162.159.27.84
If you're updating your nameservers at your registrar, you should only have to add the nameserver URL, not the IP. The IPs are listed above just in case your registrar asks for them.
- If your domain is registered with DreamHost: These are configured automatically.
- If your domain is registered at a different company: You will need to log into the company where you purchased the domain registration (the Registrar). This is where you'll update your nameservers to point to DreamHost.
Why should I point my nameservers to DreamHost?
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It's recommended that you point all of your DNS records to a single company. Hosting them all at DreamHost makes it much easier to manage all of your domain's services from within the DreamHost panel.
Do subdomains have nameservers?
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No. Nameservers are only assigned to your primary domain (example.com). Subdomains are DNS records under your primary domain name, so they do not have nameservers of their own.
How do I check where my nameservers are pointed?
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View this article for instructions on how to check where your nameservers are pointed.
Nameserver DNS propagation
Nameserver changes can take anywhere from 4-72 hours to fully update online. This is known as DNS propagation.
WHOIS updates
When setting the new nameservers with the registrar, the WHOIS modification can take up to an hour to process. However, the DNS will still require time to update online.