How to Point an Existing Domain to New Hosting: A Step-by-Step Nepal Guide

A confusion that trips up a lot of first-time Nepali website owners: buying a domain and buying hosting are two completely separate purchases, often from two different companies, and neither one automatically knows about the other. You have to explicitly connect them by pointing the domain at the hosting server. It sounds technical, but it's a short, mechanical process once you know the two ways to do it.

Two Ways to Connect a Domain to Hosting

There are two standard methods, and most hosts will tell you which one they want. Changing nameservers hands over full DNS management to your new host, who then manages the A record, MX record, and everything else on your behalf — simplest option, and what most Nepali hosting providers recommend for a straightforward setup. Changing just the A record keeps DNS management at your registrar while only pointing the website itself to the new server's IP address, useful if you want to keep managing email or other records separately from where the website is hosted.

Step 1: Get the New Host's Details

Your new hosting provider will give you either two nameserver addresses (something like ns1.webhostname.com and ns2.webhostname.com) or a server IP address, depending on which method you're using. This information usually arrives by email right after you sign up — WebsNP sends it immediately on account activation.

Step 2: Log Into Your Domain's Management Panel

This is your registrar's panel, not your hosting panel — the two are often confused by first-timers, but they're different logins for different products. Find the nameserver settings (to change nameservers) or DNS/A record settings (to change just the A record) and enter the new details from Step 1.

Step 3: Lower the TTL Beforehand If You Can

If your registrar's panel lets you adjust TTL (time to live) ahead of the change, lower it to something short like 300 seconds a day in advance. This makes the eventual switch propagate faster, typically within 15 minutes to a few hours instead of potentially up to 24-48 hours on default settings.

Step 4: Wait for Propagation, Then Verify

Once you've saved the change, check propagation using a free tool like whatsmydns.net, which shows the update as it reaches different locations. Once it shows the new server consistently, load your domain directly and confirm the site displays correctly, SSL is active, and — critically — that email is still working if it's hosted separately.

Special Note for .com.np Domains Through Mercantile

A .com.np domain, registered through Mercantile Communications rather than a standard international registrar, doesn't always offer the same self-service DNS panel experience that .com registrars provide. Depending on how your .com.np was set up, you may need to contact Mercantile directly, or go through whoever originally registered it on your behalf, to update nameservers. Build extra time into your migration plan for this step specifically, and confirm who has administrative access to make the change before you're relying on it under time pressure.

Step 5: Don't Cancel the Old Hosting Immediately

Even after everything looks correct on the new server, keep the old hosting account active for at least a week as a safety net. DNS propagation isn't instant everywhere, and a small number of visitors may still be reaching the old server briefly during the transition. Cancelling too early, before you're certain the cutover fully completed, is one of the most common and entirely avoidable mistakes in this process.

If any part of this feels like too much to manage alone, especially the .com.np-through-Mercantile step, WebsNP's team will handle the entire domain-to-hosting connection for you as part of setting up your account, and our Nepali support team is on WhatsApp if something doesn't look right during propagation.