HF PanelDocsv1.0.0

Point a domain bought elsewhere

Make a domain registered at any company open your website and receive email on HF Panel, with nameservers or with records.

Your domain can be registered anywhere. To make it work on HF Panel, the internet has to be told that its website and email live on this server. You do that once, at the company where you registered the domain (the registrar) or where its DNS is run. This tutorial shows both ways and how to check the result.

You need:

  • the domain added to your hosting account (see Domains)
  • a login at your registrar, or at the company that runs the domain's DNS

1. See what the domain needs

  1. Open Control Panel › Domains › DNS setup.
  2. Click the domain in the picker at the top.

The card says who runs the domain's DNS now and lists the records the domain needs, each marked ✔ (visible in public DNS) or ✘ (not visible yet).

If it already says All set — example.com uses our nameservers, you are done: go to step 4.

2. Choose a way

Way Choose it when
Use our nameservers the domain is only used for this website and its email. Every record is then made and kept up to date for you.
Keep your DNS where it is the domain's DNS also holds records for other services you want to keep, or your company manages DNS elsewhere

The nameserver way is only offered when the server runs DNS.

3a. Use our nameservers

  1. Sign in at your registrar and find the domain's nameserver settings.
  2. Replace the current nameservers with the ones shown on DNS setup, for example ns1.yourdomain.com and ns2.yourdomain.com. Remove any others.
  3. Save.

The change takes from a few minutes up to 24 hours. From then on you edit records in the DNS zone editor.

3b. Or keep your DNS where it is

  1. Sign in where the domain's DNS is run and open its DNS records.
  2. Add every record marked ✘ on DNS setup: the Type, Name, Priority (for MX) and Content exactly as shown. @ means the domain itself; some providers want it left empty.
  3. Save.

Tip: many providers can import a zone file. Click Zone file on DNS setup to download the records as example.com.zone.txt.

Important: if the domain's email is handled by another provider, leave its existing MX and SPF records alone and add only the website records (A and www).

4. Check the result

  1. Back on DNS setup, click Check again.
  2. Wait until the card head shows All n visible. New records usually show up within 10–30 minutes.

5. Let SSL follow

Free SSL is added by itself within a few minutes of the domain pointing here. Open Domains › SSL/TLS to see it. If the domain still shows None after an hour, see Get free SSL on every domain.

6. Check email

Open Email › Deliverability and click the domain. MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC should all show ✓. See Fix email going to spam if one doesn't.