How to configure DNS for hosting a domain with 000webhost.com when purchased from whois.com?

Question

I purchased a domain from whois.com (juleex.com) and I'm trying to host it on 000webhost.com because I'm just learning and don't need tons of anything. I changed the name servers to:

• ns01.000webhost.com
• ns02.000webhost.com

From:

• ns1.whois.com
• ns2.whois.com
• ns3.whois.com
• ns4.whois.com

However now when I scroll to the DNS management section of the myaccount part of whois.com it says "your DNS management service is not configured correctly. To use this service, you must first configure your domain name to use our name servers." With what I changed it to in red and what was there in green with a button that reads "fix server names automatically".

I'm so confused, I thought that's how you point a domain to the hosting services.

Solution

You can use any DNS server on which you have permission to add a zone or resource record, which appears to be whois.com (your registrar, which almost always provides DNS services as a basic part of domain registration) and your hosting provider. When you changed the nameserver records on whois.com, you made ns*.000webhost.com authoritative for the zone. You still need to add the zone (tell ns*.000webhost.com it is now authoritative) and an address (A/AAAA) record for the zone through the hosting provider's control panel.

You could also switch back to whois.com and then add/edit resource records for one or more hosts. Note that in DNS terminology, "host" or "hostname" refers to a resource resolved by a name server to a name or IP address providing a service, such as HTTP for a website.

Either way, you will need resource records such as the root of the zone juleex.com, represented by a blank hostname, and the usual www hostname. These will point to the IP address (an Address, or A record for IPv4, AAAA for IPv6) or hostname (a Canonical name, or CNAME record) that 000webhost specifies as the server hosting your content.

See also http://www.000webhost.com/faq.php?ID=39.

Comments

[Admin]

You've done correctly... except now you can't use WhoIs for DNS Management. You must use WebHost. The only thing you use WhoIs for now is to pay your yearly bill to keep your site registered. A bit of advice, cancel all services with WhoIs except Name Registration, and apply the Credit they give you for terminating back to the Registration. This will add nearly 3 years

[Admin]

OP can still use whois.com for DNS if it's changed back - this is a basic registrar service included with domain registration and shouldn't add cost. It's a matter of choice/convenience; if the OP has more domains registered with whois.com than hosted with 000webhost - e.g. they are spread among different hosting providers, it may be easier to use whois.com. Obviously the opposite also holds true.