Delegate the domain to working nameservers

Why it matters

The registry for your domain's ending has no nameservers on record for it, so the domain does not resolve for anyone. This usually follows an expired, held or newly registered domain with no nameservers set.

Staged change. Do this in stages and check each one before the next, so a mistake does not break your site or your mail.

The fix

1. Check the registration first. An expired domain or one on hold is taken out of the DNS by the registry, so renew it or clear the hold before anything else (see the registration findings).
2. Make sure the zone for the domain exists at your DNS provider and already holds all your records. Delegating to a provider with an empty zone takes the site and email down.
3. At your registrar, set the nameservers to the names your DNS provider gave you. Use at least two.
4. Wait for the registry to publish the change. It can take from minutes to a day or two.
5. Confirm with the commands below that the delegation exists and that the servers answer for the domain.

dig +trace NS example.com
dig NS example.com +short

The examples use example.com. Replace it with your own domain.

Read the documentation ↗(opens in a new tab)

Related

• Reported by the Nameservers and delegation check
• Add a second nameserver
• Spread nameservers across more than one network
• Fix nameservers that do not answer for the domain
• Make unreachable nameservers answer, or remove them
• Give each nameserver name an IP address
• Point nameserver names at public IP addresses
• Point nameserver names at A or AAAA records, not CNAMEs
• Make the registrar's nameservers match the zone's NS records
• Make all nameservers publish the same NS records
• Add glue records for nameservers inside your own domain
• Update glue records to match the nameserver's real address
• Check that nameservers are in sync