18. 6 VERY Good Reasons to Manage Your DNS with WPMU DEV
- Upgraded software… with no downtime – As your hosting provider, we will be able to upgrade the software running your sites with minimal or no downtime, because we will be managing your records.
- Upgraded hardware… with no downtime – The same is true for hardware; we will literally be able to upgrade your infrastructure and immediately switch you over without downtime.
- Better performance – As your hosting and DNS provider, we can ensure that the technology stack that runs your site is optimized for performance. We estimate that we could save you thousands of milliseconds in page load time.
- All in one place – You’ll be able to easily manage your DNS records alongside your hosting and everything WordPress… and your billing, client management and customer portal if you so choose, saving you a huge amount of time.
- Secure your online identity with DNSSEC! (Coming soon) – Boost your domain’s security with DNSSEC-enabled DNS management. Safeguard your online presence from threats with our feature that verifies DNS authenticity, protecting your visitors from redirection to malicious sites. Secure your domain with us and ensure your online communication’s trust and integrity.
- Expert live support, for everything – If you have any problems or want to know how to get something done, our legendary expert live support team is there to help solve your issues and help you out across your entire stack.
How do I manage my DNS with WPMU DEV?
If your domains are registered through somebody else (like GoDaddy or Namecheap):
- In The Hub, go to Domains > Connected Domains
- Connect your domain and follow the prompts.
Easy! See Manage DNS with Us below for details.
If your domains are registered with us:
- In the Hub, go to Domains > Registered Domains
- Click on the ellipsis icon and select Update Nameservers.
- Switch to the Default option to use WPMU DEV nameservers.
- Then on the Domain > Overview screen of your domain, click Connect to a hosted site to automatically add the DNS records for the selected site.
And that’s all!
If you have any questions, check out the additional details in the corresponding chapters below, or ask our friendly support experts and they will help you through things on live chat.
18.1 Manage DNS with Us
Copy chapter anchor to clipboardMoving DNS management to us instead of your current registrar is a relatively simple process. But if you’ve never worked with DNS before, it can seem a bit daunting.
This step-by-step guide is intended to simplify that process for you.
- Connect your domain to the Hub
- Change nameservers at your current registrar
- Verify that WPMU DEV nameservers have propagated
Step 1 – Connect your domain to the Hub
The first thing to do is to connect your domain to the Hub so it can fetch the existing DNS records.
If you have not yet connected any domains from another registrar, click on the Connect existing domain button.
If you already have one or more domains from other registrars connected to your Hub, click on the Connect Existing Domain button at the top of the list of connected domains.
Either of the above options will open the Add New Domain screen. Enter the domain name you wish to connect to your Hub, including the extension (the .com part).
The Hub DNS Manager will scan for common DNS records, import them automatically and list them for verification. Note that if you have just purchased your domain and no records yet exist, the list will be empty.
Use the trash can icon to remove any records you wish to exclude from being imported.
Check that the records from your domain registrar match the records listed here. If any records are missing, you can add them manually; see Add or Edit DNS Records for details.
Step 2 – Change nameservers at your current registrar
Once your domain has been connected to the Hub and it has fetched the DNS records, the next thing to do is change the nameservers at your current registrar so they point to WPMU DEV.
Click on the domain you just added to the Domains manager and you’ll see the WPMU DEV nameservers listed at the top of the screen.
Log in to your domain registrar and locate the Nameserver settings. This will be different for each registrar (i.e., GoDaddy, Namecheap, eNom, etc.). We’ve provided a list of common registrars here, including links to each registrar’s guide on editing nameservers.
If you have trouble locating the Nameserver settings, contact your provider. If you are still experiencing issues, hop onto live chat and we’ll be happy to help.
Once you’ve located the nameserver settings at your current registrar, replace them with the WPMU DEV nameservers. You can use the copy option to copy and paste them. Nameserver changes commonly take 24-48 hours to propagate, so you may need to wait before the changes are live.
Note that some registrars may require identifying your new nameservers by IP address. If needed, the IP addresses for WPMU DEV nameservers are as follows:
- ns1.wpdns.host – 173.199.96.96
- ns2.wpdns.host – 173.199.96.97
- ns3.wpdns.host – 173.199.96.96
Step 3 – Verify that WPMU DEV nameservers have propagated
Once you’ve changed the nameservers at your current registrar, click the Check nameservers button for your domain in your Hub to confirm it’s pointing correctly.
You’ll see a green confirmation message that your nameservers are propagating correctly, and can then edit or add DNS records if needed.
18.2 Have Multiple Domains on Your Site?
Copy chapter anchor to clipboardIf you move the DNS management of all your domains to WPMU DEV as we recommend, you have nothing to worry about. The DNS records of domains managed here will be updated automatically during any infrastructure upgrade that we may perform.
However, the DNS records of any additional domains that are not managed in your Hub would need to be checked and manually updated at your current registrar to point them to the site’s new IP addresses.
This applies both to multisite installations where you may have domain-mapped subsites, and single sites where you may have added domains that you use for other purposes, like email for example.
If any such domains have been added to any of your hosted sites, you’ll need to update the A & AAAA records to the new ones, or use the CNAME method if available at your registrar. See our Registrar Guides for help with that if needed.
Additional Multisite Records
In addition to the A & AAAA records of added domains, a multisite would have the following records that would not need to be updated, but we do recommend that you double-check to ensure they are present if required:
- _acme_challenge – This record is only used if a multisite is using a wildcard SSL certificate. An acme record would remain unchanged after an infrastructure upgrade and would not need to be updated.
- Wildcard DNS record – If your multisite is subdomain-based, like subsite.domain.tld, there would also be a wildcard DNS record, which would look like this:
* is an alias of yoursite.tempurl.host
18.3 Get Support
Copy chapter anchor to clipboardIf you still have questions or need assistance after reading this document, please don’t hesitate to contact our support superheroes using the available options under the Support tab in your Hub or via the Support tab in your WPMU DEV Dashboard.
