Overview
The following explains how to determine where your website is hosted.
FAQs
Where is my website hosted?-
Your website is hosted at the company where your domain's DNS is pointing. This is a combination of two things.
- The Registrar: The company where your domain is registered
- The Hosting Company: The company that displays your website on the Internet
See this article to learn more about these terms.
How can I check where my domain is registered?
-
You can confirm the company where your domain is registered by running a WHOIS query. This can be done using online sites or via SSH.
How can I check where my domain's DNS is hosted?
-
See this article to learn more about how to view where your current DNS records are hosted.
Various methods to point your DNS
There are two DNS options that control where your site is hosted (nameservers or A records). The following sections describe different ways you can point these depending on the needs of your website.
Changing nameservers
All of your site's DNS records are controlled at the company where the nameservers are pointing. This means that when you change your nameservers, ALL of your site's DNS records (website, email, mysql, etc.) point to a new company.
To change the nameservers, you must log in to the company where you purchased your domain registration (the Registrar). The following table describes where a site is hosted based on various nameserver adjustments:
| Registrar | Where are the nameservers pointing? | Where are the A records pointing? | Hosting company | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DreamHost | DreamHost ns1.dreamhost.com ns2.dreamhost.com ns3.dreamhost.com |
No change made | DreamHost | Since the nameservers are pointing to DreamHost, and the A records have not been adjusted, the site is hosted at DreamHost. |
| Another company | DreamHost ns1.dreamhost.com ns2.dreamhost.com ns3.dreamhost.com |
No change made | DreamHost | Since the nameservers are pointing to DreamHost, and the A records have not been adjusted, the site is hosted at DreamHost. |
| Another company | Another company | No change made | Another company | Since the nameservers are NOT pointing to DreamHost, and the A records have not been adjusted, the site is NOT hosted at DreamHost. |
| DreamHost | Another company | No change made | Another company | Since the nameservers are NOT pointing to DreamHost, and the A records have not been adjusted, the site is NOT hosted at DreamHost. |
Changing A records
A records are the IP addresses for various website services. Two of these A records correspond to the non-www and www URLs of your site.
- example.com
- www.example.com
If you only point your website A records to a different company, only your website is hosted at the new company. All of your other DNS records (email, mysql, ftp, ssh) continue to be hosted where your nameservers are pointing.
The following table shows a few ways this can be implemented:
| Registrar | Where are the nameservers pointing? | Where are the A records pointing? | Hosting company | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DreamHost | DreamHost ns1.dreamhost.com ns2.dreamhost.com ns3.dreamhost.com |
Another company | Another company |
The nameservers are pointing to DreamHost, but the A records are pointing to another company, therefore the site is hosted at that other company. All other DNS records continue to be hosted at DreamHost since that's where the nameservers are pointing. |
| Another company | DreamHost ns1.dreamhost.com ns2.dreamhost.com ns3.dreamhost.com |
Another company | Another company |
The nameservers are pointing to DreamHost, but the A records are pointing to another company, therefore the site is hosted at that other company. All other DNS records continue to be hosted at DreamHost since that's where the nameservers are pointing. |
| Another company | Another company | DreamHost | DreamHost |
Since the A records are pointing to DreamHost, the site is hosted at DreamHost. However, all other DNS records continue to be hosted at the other company since that's where the nameservers are pointing. |
| DreamHost | Another company | DreamHost | DreamHost |
Since the A records are pointing to DreamHost, the site is hosted at DreamHost. However, all other DNS records continue to be hosted at the other company since that's where the nameservers are pointing. |