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Identify your domain host

Your domain host is the Internet hosting service that stores the records you'll need to change to customize your forum address to use your own domain name (ie: forums.yourdomain.com). These records are usually available through the hosting service that stores them. You make these changes by accessing your domain host, not in your Website Toolbox Admin console.

If you're not sure who your domain host is, there are a few ways to find out.

Try finding your domain host by looking up its name servers. Here are a few free tools that can help you out.

Search WhoIsHostingThis.com

1. Go to http://www.whoishostingthis.com/
2. Enter your domain name in the search box.
3. Click the Search button.

Search the whois database (pronounced who-is)

1. Go to Google.com.
2. Search for whois free to find a company that performs free queries of the whois database.
3. Select a company from the search results. Two popular sites are Network-Tools.com and Kloth.net (not associated with Google).
4. Type your domain name in the field and submit your query.

   Results list your domain's registrar and at least two name servers. Here are partial results for the sample domain theurbanexperience.org:

   • Domain Name: theurbanexperience.org
   • Registrar: Everydns.net
   • Name Server:ns4.everydns.net
   • Name Server:ns1.everydns.net

Alternately perform a name server (NS) lookup

1. Go to Google.com.
2. Search for NS lookup to find a company that performs name server queries.
3. Select a company from the search results. Kloth.net (not associated with Google) is a popular site.
4. Type your domain name in the field.
5. Select NS records or Any records for your search query.
6. Submit your query.

   Results list the name servers for your domain, as in:

   theurbanexperience.org nameserver = ns4.everydns.net
   theurbanexperience.org nameserver = ns1.everydns.net
   theurbanexperience.org nameserver = ns2.everydns.net
   theurbanexperience.org nameserver = ns3.everydns.net

Interpret the results

In many cases, the Registrar (reported in the whois results) is also your domain host. Sometimes, however, another "go-between" company is hosting your domain's DNS servers. To make sure either way, check out the name servers. Sometimes the servers themselves reveal the name of your host. The name servers in the results above, for example, show that EveryDNS is the domain host for theurbanexperience.org.

If your name servers don't name a specific company but are more obscure (as in asadns1.name-services.com), you can often find the name of your host by performing a search at Google.com for the server name. Search results will likely mention the company who owns that server.

If you still need help, please contact us.