Pointing your domain to a custom service means updating your domain name to use a different company’s nameservers instead of the default ones provided by Netz0.
Nameservers act like guides that tell the internet where to find your website, email, or other online services tied to your domain. By switching to custom nameservers, you’re directing your domain to work with another provider’s servers while keeping your domain registered with Netz0. This is handy if you want to use a different hosting service or email provider but still manage your domain through Netz0.
Warning: If you use custom nameservers, traffic to the Netz0 network will stop, and it will flow to the new provider. This means that any services in our side will stop working like the DNS Editor, email or URL forwarding and others.
How It Works
When pointing a domain to a custom DNS server, you’re telling the internet to follow a new set of directions (the custom nameservers) to connect your domain to the right place. It’s like updating the address on a letter so it goes to a new destination. Your domain stays with Netz0, but the new provider’s servers handle things like your website or email.
Here’s how to set it up in your Netz0 account:
- Go to the Products section in the main menu and click My Domains to see all your domains.
- Find the domain you want to update and click the Manage button next to it.
- Look for the DNS Management tab and click it to access the settings.
- Under Change Nameservers, check the box labeled CUSTOM NAMESERVERS.
- Enter the nameserver addresses provided by your new service.
- Click the Update Nameserver button to save your changes.
Info: The order of the nameservers is not really important but make you enter all them.
After saving, it might take a few hours (or up to a day) for the internet to update and recognize the new settings. This delay is normal as the internet needs time to refresh its “address book.” If you’re curious about why this happens, read our article on Why Domain Changes Take Time.
When to use this option:
Using custom nameservers is helpful in several situations:
- Hosting Your Website Elsewhere: You might want to keep your domain with Netz0 but host your website with another provider that offers special features, like special servers or e-commerce tools.
- Custom Email Providers: If you want to use a service like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 for your domain’s email, you’ll need to point to their custom nameservers.
- Specialized Platforms: Some website builders or content management systems require you to use their nameservers to connect your domain to their platform.
- Custom DNS: You are using your own DNS server or purchased a party service to handle your DNS zones for your domain.
However, custom nameservers might not be the best choice if:
You’re hosting your website, email or want to use other built-in services from Netz0. In this case, stick with Netz0’s default nameservers to keep things simple. Check out our article: “Point Your Domain to Netz0”.
Examples
Here are two real-world examples of how a small business might use this feature, featuring our friendly mascots, Saturn the Robot and Null the Marten.
Example 1: Saturn’s Website Hosting Upgrade
Saturn Bolt, our logical robot friend from Circuit City, runs a small tech blog at saturnsblog.com, registered with Netz0. He decides to move his website to Amazon Web Services (AWS) because he needs advanced server configurations, like custom database setups, that aren’t available with his current hosting. AWS provides him with two nameservers: ns-2048.awsdns-64.com and ns-2049.awsdns-65.net.
Saturn logs into his Netz0 account and follows these steps.
After a few hours, his blog is running on AWS with the custom configurations he needed, but his domain remains registered with Netz0. Saturn’s blog now handles complex data queries smoothly, delighting his tech-savvy readers!
Example 2: Null’s Custom Email Setup
Null Scratch, the mischievous marten from Pinewood Burrows, owns scurrycrafts.com, a small online shop for tech gadgets, also registered with Netz0. Null wants to use a professional email service like Google Workspace for emails like sales@scurrycrafts.com. Google provides him with custom nameservers: ns1.google.com, ns2.google.com, ns3.google.com and ns4.google.com.
Null scurries into his Netz0 account to enter this customer nameservers.
Within a day, Null’s email is fully set up with Google Workspace, and he’s sending professional emails to his customers. His domain stays with Netz0, but his emails are now powered by Google’s servers.