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Recently I registered for a domain name and bought it. I had failed to check their hosting plans first :(. They charge a lot for hosting a website. I am thinking of hosting it under some free web hosting provider. How do I host my website with another web hosting provider which is not the provider I registered the domain with?

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migrated from stackoverflow.com Jun 12 '11 at 6:44

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You just need to change the DNS settings for your name through the company you registered it with. This process is slightly different for each registrar but it's not difficult to do. You could also transfer the name to whoever you decide to do hosting with if they provide that service.

Hopefully the picture below gives you at least an idea of what to look for. Change DNS host records

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I checked for name server options, but it says "Any changes in our default name servers / dns settings may interrupt services associated with your domain." – Sriram Jun 12 '11 at 5:21
@sriram You probably want to keep using the DNS server with the company you registered the name with. What you want to do is change/add a host record so that it points to the IP of where your website is actually hosted. – Pete Jun 12 '11 at 5:24
found this while googleing ask-leo.com/… , but its a bit confusing on the DNS, records and types. – Sriram Jun 12 '11 at 5:50
@sriram That link isn't exactly what you want. Most of that content involves redirects that have nothing to do with setting up your DNS. Who did you purchase the name through? – Pete Jun 12 '11 at 5:54
I purchased at hostindia.net – Sriram Jun 12 '11 at 5:55
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As Pete said, just change the nameserver records to the new host. I bought a domain name with 1&1, but found $25/yr hosting at A Small Orange, so I changed my nameservers from ns1.1and1.com, etc to ns1.asmallorange.com, etc. It works differently for every domain, but the basic steps are the same. They do say that changes may interrupt their services, but you don't want their services. You want to map your domain name to a new host and use their services instead. If it doesn't work out, you can always revert to the original nameserver settings and original host.

You could also use CNAME settings to map your domain to another host, but I don't know as much about that. However you do it, it might take 48 hours, but be patient and your new host should be recognized and your website up and running.

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