Set up your website

This guide will walk you through how to set up DNS records to point to your hosted website and/or application.

When pointing your .box domain to a website or application you are hosting, you will need to update either the A, AAAA, CNAME, or ALIAS record to point it to that location. The type of record(s) you will need will depend on your hosting provider.

General Instructions

1. Access your hosting provider and set up hosting against .box domain. This will provide you with the DNS record details you will need to set up in your .box domain.

   • See Vercel Example

   • See Shopify Example

2. Go to my.box and Connect your wallet.

3. Click on My Domains and select the domain you want to use. You can select it by clicking on the domain name in the Domain column, or from the ellipsis menu on the right-hand side and clicking Manage.

   
4. From here you can modify the records you need by editing/deleting the default ALIAS and CNAME that were created with your domain, and/or adding new records as instructed by your hosting provider.

   • Adding Records

     1. Click on the Add new record button on the right-hand side

     2. Fill in the values for Host, Type, Value, and TTL These values should be provided to you by your hosting provider

   • Editing Records

     1. Click on the Edit Icon (pencil) on the right-hand side of the record you want to edit

     2. Update the values for Host, Type, Value, and TTL These values should be provided to you by your hosting provider

   • Deleting Records

     1. Click on the Edit Icon (pencil) on the right-hand side of the record you want to edit

     2. Click on Delete Record, and confirm the deletion

   

   Adding & Editing Records
5. Once records have been modified, click on the Apply Updates button.

   
6. You will be asked to open your wallet and proceed with the transaction.

After a few moments, your .box domain should now be displaying the website or application you have created. NOTE: DNS changes do take some time to propagate around the world, and some browsers and systems may have cached the DNS records. This is usually resolved in a couple of minutes but can take up to 24 hours to refresh.

Vercel Example

You can use Vercel to host a website or an application.

1. Go to the Vercel website (https://vercel.com/) and log in; register for an account if you do not yet have one.

2. Create a new project, or import your existing project.

3. Set up your .box domain on Vercel. You can do this by Clicking on Domains in the top menu, and then clicking on the Add button on the page. Select the project you want to host and enter your .box domain in the appropriate fields

   

4. You will now be on the Project Settings page. Look for the domain you added and make note of the A Record they have provided. This will be the A Record you will need to add to your domain on my.box.

   

   Note the A Record here
5. Follow the General Instructions above (Step 4) to add the A Record to your domain. Once completed Vercel project will be live on your .box domain!

Shopify Example

1. Go to the Shopify website (https://www.shopify.com/) and login; register for an account if you do not yet have one

2. Once your store is ready, navigate to Settings -> Domains, and click Connect existing domain

   

   Domains Sub-Menu
3. Enter your .box domain and click Next

   

   Entering domain
4. Return to the my.box page, and continue with setting your DNS records as outlined in the General Instructions We recommend referring to the detailed Shopify documentation on this topic, but the records you will need to set are as follows:

   1. Host: @ Type: A Value: 23.227.38.65

   2. Host: WWW Type: CNAME Value: shops.myshopify.com

5. When complete, return to your Shopify store and click the "Verify connection" button.

   

   Verify connection

Common Questions

What are the common types of records used?

• Typically A records and CNAME records are used and will be shared by your hosting provider to use

  • An A record is in the form of an ipv4 address (E.g., 1.2.3.4)

  • A CNAME record is in the form of a URL (E.g., some.webserver.com)

• For very specific services, AAAA (ipv6) records may be used

My hosting provider gave me a CNAME record to use at the apex (@). What do I do?

• In this case, use an ALIAS record; this is treated as a special CNAME record that can be used at the apex (@)

• An ALIAS record can only be added if one does not already exist; i.e., the existing record needs to be deleted before it will appear in the Record Type dropdown list

There is a " . " added to the end of my value after saving my changes

This is expected, and will not impact your DNS record value

Can I or should I keep the old records?

• We recommend you delete any records with the same host value, unless otherwise needed by your hosting provider

  • Typically, only MX and TXT records will make use of DNS records with the same Host value, which are seldom required when pointing your .box domain to your hosted website or application

• Having conflicting records will cause users to only partially resolve to the hosted website or application, as they are receiving conflicting information on where to retrieve the information from