Newly registered domains are not yet connected to anything
Newly registered domains are not connected to anything yet, either email or website. Even if you have already set up a hosting account, the domain won't work with them until they are connected with nameservers or DNS records.
Hosting or service providers are separate companies from us, so the account logins and payments will be separate and additional from your iwantmyname account and any domain registrations you have.
You will connect your domain name to the hosting or service in your iwantmyname dashboard, and also add the domain name in the hosting or service account to get your website or email working.
To connect a domain name to a service or platform, most of the time you will use what are called DNS records. This is usually quick and fairly easy, and we provide one-click installs for many popular services in our Marketplace.
Pointing your domain name to a platform or service with DNS records
For many people, when they register a domain name they want to set up a fairly simple website, blog, online store, or portfolio. In those cases, you can usually just point your domain to your chosen platform or service, like Squarespace, Big Cartel, Tumblr, ReadyMag, etc.
These services provide web hosting, as well as all the tools, templates, etc. you need to build your website. They usually offer various packages or subscriptions with enhanced tools, features, and support, depending on your needs.
We have lots and lots of options in our Marketplace, and they all have easy one-click installs. If you have questions about the setup or need help making a selection, we're happy to help.
If you want to use a service that's not listed in our Marketplace, just let us know. We may ask you to forward the DNS records if we cannot access them in the service's documentation.
Once you have added the records to point your domain to the service, you will also need to login to your account with that hosting service and add your domain in your account settings. We can point you to instructions to do that in many cases if you need additional help.
Once both of those things are completed, as long as your site/store/portfolio is published or set to be publicly viewable, it should be online within a few hours.
Setting up custom email addresses
Creating email addresses with your domain, e.g. info@mydomain.com, does require an email hosting account, but you can set it up with one of the easy one-click installs. We focus on domains and DNS, so we don't provide email hosting ourselves. We have those installs for many email hosting partners, offering varying features, pricing, etc.
Feel free to get in touch if you have questions about what would be the best option for you. Once you have your email hosting account set up and your domain pointing to it, you can create whichever email addresses you like, set up filtering, forward the address to your favourite email client, etc.
Pointing your domain name to a web hosting provider
If you want to use your own software or code to build your website, like installed WordPress, JavaScript, SSL certificates, etc., you will need a separate web hosting account. We focus on domains and DNS and don't provide that directly, so like with email hosting, we have recommended partners offering web hosting.
You can use any other web hosting service you like, of course. You just need to change your domain's nameservers to your web host's in your dashboard by clicking update nameservers. We have a drop-down list with lots of popular web hosting providers' settings to automatically add the nameservers. When you have added the nameservers you need, save the new settings and you're done.
If your hosting provider isn't in the list, you just need to get the nameserver information from your host and add it. We can help with that, too.
If you are using external hosting nameservers, you have to delete all of our nameservers. If your host only provides two nameservers, you still have to delete all four iwantmyname nameservers. (It's ok if they only provide two.)
If you use external hosting you have to add/change DNS records in your hosting account
Please also note that if you are using external hosting nameservers, that deactivates our DNS management, so our DNS dashboard won't work. If you previously added DNS records there, they will need to be copied over to your hosting account to work. (That's what the big red warning in your dashboard means.)
We have a more extensive article on different ways and requirements to point a new domain if you have more questions or are interested in learning more. And we're happy to help with any questions, too. Just let us know.