How to Change Your Domain's Nameservers (Without Breaking Your Website or Email)

Your domain’s nameservers decide which company holds its DNS — and therefore where your website and email are found. Changing them is how you point a domain at a new host in one move. It is straightforward, but doing it in the wrong order is the most common way businesses accidentally take their email offline.

Nameservers vs DNS Records

Think of nameservers as which address book the internet uses for your domain, and DNS records as the entries inside it. Changing nameservers switches to a completely different address book. Anything not copied into the new one stops working.

So you have two options when moving:

• Change nameservers to your new host — they then manage all your DNS.
• Keep your nameservers and just update individual records (usually the A record) to point at the new server. See DNS records explained.

Before You Change Anything

1. Write down your current records. Especially MX (email), TXT (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, verification) and any subdomains. Our DNS checker shows what is live right now.
2. Make sure the new provider has your zone set up with all those records before you switch. If your website and email are moving to EDZNET hosting, we create the zone for you when your account is set up.
3. Know your new nameserver names. They will look like ns1.provider.com and ns2.provider.com — your host lists them in your welcome email or control panel.
4. Pick a quiet time, and avoid changing anything else at the same moment.

How to Change Nameservers

You change nameservers where your domain is registered (your registrar), not necessarily where it is hosted.

If your domain is registered with EDZNET

1. Log in to your client area.
2. Go to Domains → My Domains and choose the domain.
3. Open Nameservers, select use custom nameservers, and enter the new ones (at least two).
4. Save. The registry is updated within minutes; the rest is propagation.

Not comfortable doing it yourself? Ask our team and we’ll make the change and check everything afterwards.

If it is registered elsewhere

Every registrar has a similar Nameservers or DNS settings page. Look for “custom nameservers”, replace the existing entries, and save.

.co.za, .co.uk and .com — Anything Different?

The process is the same, but each registry runs its own systems. Some registries check that the new nameservers are already set up to answer for your domain before accepting the change — another reason to have the new zone ready first. If a change is rejected, that is usually the cause.

How Long Does a Nameserver Change Take?

The registry records the change quickly, but resolvers around the world may hold the old nameserver details for as long as the registry’s own TTL — commonly a day or two. In practice most visitors move over within a few hours, and almost everyone within 24–48 hours. It is normal for some people to see the old host and some the new during this window, which is exactly why both should be serving correct records.

The TTL here is set by the registry, so you can’t shorten it — read more in what TTL is.

How to Check It Has Worked

1. Run an NS lookup in our DNS propagation checker — the providers should list your new nameservers.
2. Check your A and MX records too, to make sure the new zone is answering correctly.
3. Send yourself a test email and load the website on mobile data.
4. Still seeing the old site on one device? Flush your DNS cache.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will my website go down while nameservers change?

Not if both the old and new providers hold correct records during the switch. Visitors simply move from one to the other as their caches refresh.

Will I lose email?

Only if the new provider is missing your MX records. Copy them across before switching and email keeps flowing.

Do I need to change nameservers to move hosting?

No. You can keep your current DNS provider and just update the A record. Changing nameservers is simpler when the new host will manage everything.

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