Setting Your Panel Address and Nameservers

Setting Your Panel Address and Nameservers

Your customers log in to your control panel address, not ours. Until you set one, they have nowhere to log in. The panel warns you about this in a yellow box that says Your customers cannot log in yet whenever you add a customer.

This guide covers the three addresses in Settings → Platform, plus setting up your own nameservers.

Step 1: create the DNS records first

Choose the addresses you'll use, such as panel.yourbrand.co.za for the control panel and db.yourbrand.co.za for phpMyAdmin. They can be any subdomain you control.

• If the domain uses our nameservers, you don't need to add anything else.
• If the domain's DNS is somewhere else (your registrar, Cloudflare and so on), add an A record for each address, pointing at the control panel server's IP address. If you don't have that IP, ask us.

Step 2: set the platform domains

1. Click Settings in the left-hand menu, then click the Platform card.
2. Under Platform domains, fill in:
   • Control panel domain: where your customers log in
   • phpMyAdmin domain: where they manage databases. Without it, customers can't reach phpMyAdmin.
   • Staging domain: the ending used for staging copies of websites. This domain's nameservers must point to our hosting servers.
3. Each address has its own Save button. Click Save under each one you fill in.

Step 3 (optional): add your own nameservers

Your own nameservers, like ns1.yourbrand.co.za, keep our name out of your customers' domain settings. If you're happy using ours, skip this step.

1. On the same Platform page, scroll to Nameservers.
2. Type the first nameserver in Hostname, such as ns1.yourbrand.co.za, and click Add.
3. Repeat for ns2 (and ns3 if you like).

These nameservers are added to new and existing customer domains as NS records. They're also what the panel shows a customer whose domain isn't pointing at us yet.

Step 4: finish the nameserver setup

1. Create A records. In the zone for your own domain (for ns1.yourbrand.co.za, that's yourbrand.co.za), create an A record for each nameserver. Use the IP addresses listed under Create A records to complete set up on the Platform page. Ideally, give each nameserver a different IP.
2. Add glue records if needed. If yourbrand.co.za will itself use these new nameservers, you also need glue records at your domain registrar. These tell the registry the nameservers' IP addresses.

Webmail and language

• Webmail: by default, customers read email at mail. plus their own domain. Under Advanced, you can set one shared webmail address for everyone instead.
• Language: sets the default language for the panel.

Check it works

1. Open a private browser window and go to your control panel address. You should see the login page with your branding.
2. Add a test customer. The yellow warning should be gone.

Troubleshooting

• The address doesn't load. DNS changes can take a few hours to spread. Check the A record points at the right IP.
• There's a certificate warning in the browser. Give it a little while after DNS starts working. If it doesn't clear, contact us.
• Customers can't open phpMyAdmin. The phpMyAdmin domain is missing or not pointing at us yet.