How to Point Your Domain to MDDHosting Print

This article covers how to point your domain to MDDHosting and what to expect while the change takes effect.

Step 1: What nameservers should I use?

To point your domain to MDDHosting, set the following nameservers at your domain registrar (wherever you purchased or manage your domain):

ns1.mddservices.com
ns2.mddservices.com
ns3.mddservices.com

These work for all shared and reseller hosting accounts.  For white-label reseller nameservers see the account information email or reach out to support.

Step 2: How to change your nameservers

Nameservers are set at your domain registrar — wherever you registered or currently manage your domain (e.g. GoDaddy, Namecheap, Squarespace Domains, Network Solutions, etc.). This is not done inside cPanel or your MDDHosting account.

General steps (exact wording varies by registrar):

1. Log in to your registrar's control panel
2. Find your domain and look for "DNS", "Nameservers", or "Name Server Management"
3. Switch to custom nameservers
4. Enter ns1.mddservices.com, ns2.mddservices.com, and ns3.mddservices.com
5. Save the changes

Note: Some registrars show a "Domain Lock" or "Transfer Lock" setting near the nameserver fields. Unlocking for a nameserver change is normal and does not affect your domain's security.

Domain registered with MDDHosting? Log in to your Client Area, click on your domain, then click Nameservers. Select "Use custom nameservers" and enter the values above.

Step 3: How long does propagation take?

After you change your nameservers, DNS propagation begins — this is the process of the change spreading across DNS servers worldwide. During this time, some visitors may see your old site and others may see your new site depending on their location and ISP.

Typical timeframes:

• Most visitors: 1–4 hours
• Full global propagation: up to 48 hours (rarely takes this long in practice)

Updating individual DNS records instead of nameservers? Changes to individual records (A, CNAME, MX, TXT) work differently — they propagate based on each record's TTL and typically take effect within 15 minutes to a few hours.

You can check propagation progress using a free tool like whatsmydns.net — enter your domain and select "NS" to see whether your new nameservers are visible from different locations around the world.

How to preview your site before changing DNS

Many customers want to verify their site is working on MDDHosting before switching their domain over. You can do this by temporarily editing your computer's hosts file to force your machine to resolve your domain to MDDHosting's server — without affecting anyone else.

You'll need your MDDHosting server's IP address first. You can find it in cPanel under Server Information, or ask our support team and we'll provide it.

If you'd rather not do this yourself, our support team is happy to help. We can take screenshots of your site, navigate around, test specific pages or forms, and report back — just open a ticket and let us know what you'd like checked.

Windows 10 and Windows 11

The steps are the same for both versions.

1. Click Start, search for Notepad, right-click it, and choose Run as administrator (if you skip this, you'll get an "Access is denied" error when saving)
2. In Notepad, go to File → Open and navigate to: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\
3. Change the file type dropdown from "Text Documents" to All Files, then open the file named hosts
4. Scroll to the bottom and add a new line: YOUR.SERVER.IP yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com (This is a placeholder — replace YOUR.SERVER.IP with your actual server IP, and yourdomain.com with your domain. Do not type the placeholder literally.)
5. Save the file
6. Open Command Prompt and run: ipconfig /flushdns
7. Open a browser and navigate to your domain — your computer will now go directly to MDDHosting

When you're done testing, remove the line you added from the hosts file and save it. Your browser will go back to resolving DNS normally.

macOS

These steps work on macOS 10.6 and later, including Ventura, Sonoma, and Sequoia.

1. Open Terminal (Applications → Utilities → Terminal)
2. Run the following command: sudo nano /etc/hosts
3. Enter your Mac password when prompted
4. Use the arrow keys to scroll to the bottom and add a new line: YOUR.SERVER.IP yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com (Replace YOUR.SERVER.IP with your actual server IP, and yourdomain.com with your domain.)
5. Press Control+O to save, then Control+X to exit
6. Flush your DNS cache by running: sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
7. Open a browser and navigate to your domain

When you're done testing, repeat steps 1–2, remove the line you added, and save. Run the flush command again to clear the cache.

My domain isn't loading after the change — what do I check?

If your domain isn't resolving after a few hours, work through these steps:

1. Confirm the nameservers actually changed Go to whatsmydns.net, enter your domain, and select "NS". If it still shows your old registrar's nameservers, the change hasn't saved or propagated yet. Double-check your registrar's control panel.

2. Clear your browser and DNS cache Your computer may be holding onto old DNS information. Try opening an incognito/private browser window first. If you see a security or certificate error, try a completely different browser — some browsers cache security policies that survive incognito mode. If that doesn't resolve it, flush your DNS cache using the instructions in the section above for your operating system.

3. Confirm the domain is added to your cPanel account Your domain must be added to your cPanel account before it will resolve to your site. In newer versions of cPanel, go to Domains. In older versions, this may be listed as Addon Domains or Aliases. If you pointed the nameservers but never added the domain in cPanel, it won't load. See Adding a Domain in cPanel for instructions.

4. Wait it out If whatsmydns.net shows the correct nameservers in most locations but a few are still stale, propagation is simply still in progress. It will resolve on its own.

If you've checked all of the above and it still isn't working after 24 hours, open a support ticket and we'll take a look.

Using Cloudflare with MDDHosting

If you want to use Cloudflare, point your domain's nameservers to Cloudflare (they provide these during their setup process) rather than to MDDHosting. From there, you manage all DNS records inside Cloudflare's dashboard.

To keep your site loading from MDDHosting while using Cloudflare:

1. In Cloudflare's DNS dashboard, create an A record pointing your domain (and www) to your MDDHosting server IP
2. Your server IP is available in cPanel under Server Information, or ask support
3. Set the proxy toggle to orange cloud (proxied) if you want Cloudflare's CDN and security features, or gray cloud (DNS only) if you only want Cloudflare for DNS management

Your email and any other DNS records are also managed from Cloudflare's dashboard in this setup. For SSL, Cloudflare handles the certificate that visitors see, but you'll also want an SSL certificate installed on your MDDHosting account — our support team can help with this.

What happens to my email when I change nameservers?

When you switch nameservers to MDDHosting, your MX records (which control email delivery) switch over as well. If your email is hosted with MDDHosting, this is exactly what you want and no further action is needed.

However, if you were using an external email provider (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Zoho, etc.), your old custom MX records will not automatically carry over when you change nameservers. You'll need to re-add your email provider's MX records inside cPanel's Zone Editor after the nameserver change.

Important: To avoid any gap in email delivery, add your external MX records in cPanel's Zone Editor before or immediately after changing your nameservers. Waiting hours to do this can result in bounced or lost email.

Your email provider's documentation will list the correct MX values to use. To update them: log in to cPanel → Zone Editor → Manage next to your domain. Remove the default MX record (it typically points to your domain or mail.yourdomain.com) and add the ones your provider specifies.

Not sure what to do, or worried about disrupting your email? Reach out to our support team before making the switch. We can review your current setup, let you know exactly what records need to be carried over, and help ensure your email keeps working without interruption.

Still need help?

Our support team is available 24/7. When you open a ticket about a domain not resolving, it helps to include:

• Your domain name
• Where your domain is registered
• A screenshot from whatsmydns.net showing your domain's current NS records
• What you've already tried