How to point a .com or .bo domain to your hosting (DNS without jargon)

If you already own a domain and want your website and email to run on your QuimeraCloud hosting, all you have to do is tell the internet where your site now lives. That happens in the DNS, and in practice it is one or two values you change in a panel. Here is what each piece is, the two possible routes, where to make the change, what is different with a .bo, and how to check that it worked.

Before you start

• This guide is for a domain you already have. If you do not have one yet, our domains page lets you register a .com or .net for US$20 the first year (annual renewal: US$25), or a .org for US$16 the first year (annual renewal: US$20); a new domain is registered automatically once payment is confirmed.
• QuimeraCloud does not sell .bo domains, but a .bo you already own can be connected (see the section below). What it costs to keep a .bo each year is in how much it costs to keep a website in Bolivia each year.
• Your site is served from a single server in Seattle (United States), whatever your domain ends in. A .bo pointed at QuimeraCloud still shows a site hosted there.

What each term means, in one sentence

Think of the domain as an address and of the DNS as the phone book that says which server that address leads to. The definitions below come from RFC 1035, the standard behind the system.

Term	In one sentence	When you touch it
Nameservers (NS records)	The servers that have the final say on your domain’s data.	To move the whole DNS to a provider, such as QuimeraCloud’s ns1 and ns2.
A record	Ties a name (yourdomain.com) to a server’s IPv4 address.	So your website opens on your hosting.
MX record	Says which server receives your domain’s email.	So email lands where you want it.
CNAME record	An alias: one name that points to another name.	For example, so www leads to the same site as the main domain.
TTL	How long a piece of data may be kept in memory before it is looked up again.	You rarely edit it, but it explains why changes are not instant.

The key idea: A, MX and CNAME records live on your domain’s active nameservers. If you change the nameservers, the records at the old place stop counting.

The two routes

Route 1: change the nameservers to QuimeraCloud’s ns1 and ns2

You hand the domain’s DNS over to QuimeraCloud. The nameservers for connecting an existing domain are:

ns1.quimeracloud.com
ns2.quimeracloud.com

It is the shortest route if your domain is new or has no email at another provider. Steps:

1. Have your QuimeraCloud hosting plan active.
2. Write down (or screenshot) your domain’s current records, especially the MX records if your email is elsewhere, because you will have to recreate them in the new DNS (if you do not know how, message us on WhatsApp before changing anything).
3. Log in to your registrar’s panel and find the custom nameservers option (the table below shows where).
4. Enter ns1.quimeracloud.com and ns2.quimeracloud.com, then save.
5. Wait, then check the result.

Route 2: keep your nameservers and change only records

This works when your DNS already lives somewhere else (your registrar, Cloudflare or another service) and you do not want to move it, for example because your email runs on MX records there. You change the domain’s A record, and the one for www if it has its own, to the server’s IPv4 address. You leave the MX records as they are. Careful: if your MX points to the same name as the site (for example, yourdomain.com), changing that A record also moves your email, so check where your MX points before touching anything. If you are also changing hosts, see the guide move WordPress without losing email, which follows an order designed to protect your email.

Two honest details. First, all QuimeraCloud accounts share the server’s IPv4 address, so the A record points to that address; we do not include it in this guide, so confirm it with the team on WhatsApp before editing anything. Second, you will be keeping your DNS in two places.

	Route 1: nameservers	Route 2: records only
What you change	The nameservers at your registrar	The A record (and the www one) in your current DNS
Where the DNS ends up	At QuimeraCloud	Where it already was
Your current email	You must recreate the MX records if you use another provider	Untouched, unless your MX points to the same name as the site
Fits you if	The domain is new or has no outside email	Email already works or your DNS is on another service
With a .bo	Yes, done at NIC Bolivia	Only if you first delegate to an outside DNS, such as Cloudflare

Where to change nameservers, by registrar

Your registrar is the company where you bought the domain. These are the steps their own help guides publish:

Registrar	Where
Namecheap	Domain List, the Manage button next to your domain, the Nameservers section, the Custom DNS option (Namecheap guide).
GoDaddy	Domain settings, DNS, Nameservers, and the option to use your own nameservers (GoDaddy guide).
NIC Bolivia (.bo)	Menu Dominios, Administrar, Administración de DNS (details below).
Other	Look for “Nameservers”, “Name servers” or “DNS” in the domain settings.

Menus change over time: if yours looks different, follow your registrar’s official help.

The .bo case: it is managed at NIC Bolivia

.bo domains are administered by NIC Bolivia, run by ADSIB, the authority responsible for their registration and management (nic.bo). What follows applies if you manage your .bo directly in its portal; if you bought it through an intermediary, their panel may differ, so follow their help instead.

One important thing: according to NIC Bolivia’s help center, it does not manage MX, TXT or CNAME records. Its job is to keep the domain’s registration and delegate it to the DNS servers you name; the other records are stored by the DNS server you delegated to (see the explanation). In practice, with a .bo:

• Route 1 works as is: you delegate to QuimeraCloud’s ns1 and ns2.
• Route 2 needs a first step: delegate to an outside DNS service (NIC Bolivia publishes a guide to using Cloudflare for free) and edit the A record there.

These are the steps NIC Bolivia documents in its help center to register or update the DNS (the portal is in Spanish, so the menu names are kept as they appear):

1. Go to nic.bo/login.php and log in. The system sends a security code to your registered email; paste it in and click “Confirmar código” (confirm code).
2. Open the menu Dominios (domains), then Administrar (manage), and choose “Administración de DNS” (DNS administration).
3. Enter “Administración de DNS” again and choose “Introducir Nuevo DNS” (add new DNS). “Editar DNS” (edit) and “Eliminar DNS” (delete) are also there.
4. Enter the DNS server details: ns1.quimeracloud.com, then repeat for ns2.quimeracloud.com. Click “Aceptar” (accept) on each. According to NIC Bolivia’s help, when the DNS server does not end in .bo, as with these two, the IP address field is optional.
5. Click “Registrar Cambios” (save changes).

According to NIC Bolivia, 20 minutes after you register the changes its servers delegate your .bo to the ones you named. We do not describe the form’s other fields because that help page does not detail them; if it asks for anything else, message us.

How long it takes

It is not instant, and there is no single figure:

• NIC Bolivia (.bo): says 20 minutes to start delegating after you save.
• Namecheap: it may take up to 24 hours, and more in rare cases.
• GoDaddy: most updates take effect within an hour, but it can take up to 48 hours.

The reason is TTL: each internet provider keeps the data for a while before asking again. If you are changing only an A record and can plan ahead, lower its TTL before the change. Meanwhile some people will see the old site and others the new one, so do not shut the old one down until you have confirmed everything works.

How to check it

On Windows you can use nslookup, a tool that comes built in (Microsoft documentation). Open the command prompt and type this, swapping yourdomain.com for yours:

nslookup -type=NS yourdomain.com
nslookup -type=A yourdomain.com
nslookup -type=MX yourdomain.com

With route 1, the NS query should show ns1.quimeracloud.com and ns2.quimeracloud.com; the A query, the server’s IPv4 address; and the MX query, your mail server. Your computer and your internet provider may still show the old data because of caching. To ask a different DNS server, add it at the end, for example nslookup -type=NS yourdomain.com 1.1.1.1. If you still see the old data, wait and repeat; only after 48 hours is it worth checking your registrar’s panel.

If something does not fit

If you are unsure which IP or values to use, message us on WhatsApp at +591 773 14890: a person on the Quimera team answers. If you do not have hosting yet, see the plans.