Other registrars: the words to look for in any panel

There are hundreds of registrars and no two panels look alike. Underneath the design, though, it is always the same machine, and the machine always has the same parts. Learn the parts and you can find them in any panel, even one in a language you cannot read.

Before you touch anything: your e-mail moves too. Changing nameservers does not just change where the site points. It moves the whole zone, and mail is part of the zone. If your mailboxes live where the domain lives, or with any other service, they stop receiving a minute later. If the e-mail is to stay where it is, do not touch the nameservers: edit the zone instead and change only the record for the website. The difference between the two is right below.

What is always the same, everywhere

1 Every domain has nameservers. Two to four names stored at the registry for the extension, saying who answers for the domain. They do not live in the panel: the panel is only the window you type them through.
2 Changing nameservers moves the whole zone. Site, e-mail, subdomains, verifications. All of it. There is no such thing as changing nameservers "for the website only".
3 The zone holds records. A and AAAA for addresses, CNAME for aliases, MX for mail, TXT for verifications and signatures. They are explained in DNS records explained.
4 Only the zone held by the delegation counts. If the nameservers are ours, the zone that matters is the cPanel one, and whatever is written at the registrar is waste paper.
5 Everything has a TTL. Each answer is kept along the way for a time the answer itself declares. That is why a correct change can take a while to show.

The dictionary: the word you see and the part it is

Word in the panel Which part it is
Nameservers, Name Servers, DNS Servers The delegation. Move this and you move everything.
Custom DNS, External DNS, Use your own, Other servers The switch that opens the fields. Without it there is nowhere to type.
DNS, Manage DNS, Zone editor, Edit zone The zone: the record list.
Host records, DNS entries The zone again, under another name.
A record, Address, Points to The record that ties a name to an IP address.
CNAME, Alias A name that points at another name.
MX, Mail exchanger Where the e-mail goes. Touch this and mail changes house.
TXT, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, Verification Text that proves things: that the domain is yours, that your mail is legitimate. See TXT verification records.
Forwarding, Redirect, URL forward This is not DNS. It is a browser bounce. It is not a way to point a real website.
Parking, Coming soon Their page on top of your domain. Switch it off.
Registrar lock, Transfer lock Locks transfers. It locks neither nameservers nor records.
EPP code, Auth code Only used to transfer the domain, never to point it. See how to transfer a domain to us.
Glue records, Nameserver host Only when the nameservers are named after the domain itself. With ours, unused.
TTL, Time to live How long the answer is kept along the way.
DNSSEC A signature over the zone. We do not sign zones, so if you have it switched on at the registrar you have to switch it off first, before pointing at our nameservers. See the box below.
DNSSEC is the silent trap, and here the rule is plain: our nameservers do not sign zones. We checked: there is no DNSSEC on our DNS servers. So if your domain has DNSSEC switched on at the registrar and you point it at us, the key published at the registry no longer matches any signature, and the domain disappears for everyone who validates DNSSEC, while working perfectly for you. It is the hardest fault to believe, because from the inside you cannot see it. If you do not know whether it is on, ask us before you change anything.
The right order is two moves, not one. First switch DNSSEC off at the registrar. Then wait for the key removal to propagate, the same way you wait for any other change. Only then change the nameservers. Doing both at once produces exactly the problem you are trying to avoid. And do not switch it back on afterwards: while the zone is with us there is nothing to sign.

The three most expensive misreadings

The mistake What happens
Confusing a transfer lock with a DNS lock An afternoon lost trying to unlock something that was not blocking anything.
Using forwarding instead of pointing The site "opens", but the address changes in the bar, the certificate errors, e-mail on the domain does not exist, and search engines lose you.
Editing the zone after already changing the nameservers Writing on a page nobody opens. Once the delegation moves, the zone that counts is the new one.

The test that answers all of this in seconds

Before you hunt for the button, ask from outside who is in charge: dig NS yourcompany.com, or nslookup -type=ns yourcompany.com on Windows. Whatever name comes back, that is the house where the zone is edited. This one command settles "where do I make the change" at any registrar in the world.

The public WHOIS lookup also shows the nameservers and, very often, the name of the company the domain is registered with. That is how you find out who to ask for access when nobody in the company remembers where the domain was bought. See how to check the WHOIS.

Our nameservers, for when you reach the right field: dns1.mozout.com dns2.mozout.com dns3.mozout.com dns4.mozout.com

If you would rather put a third party in charge of the zone instead of the registrar, that route exists too and it is written up: putting a domain on Cloudflare and moving the whole zone without losing records.

Tell us the domain and where it lives. We will look from outside and tell you the word to look for in the panel in front of you.

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SEE ALSO

Domain transfer

WHOIS lookup

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