How to point your domain to the server

For your site to open at your domain's address, the domain's DNS records must point to the server's IP address. You copy the address from the app.blackbox.md panel, on the “My Servers” page (app.blackbox.md/my-servers), and you create the records at the provider that manages the domain's DNS. If that provider is Cloudflare or GoDaddy, you can create them right from the panel's “DNS” page (app.blackbox.md/dns, sidebar → “Infrastructure” → “DNS”).

Available to: any customer with their own domain and a BLACKBOX server. The panel's “DNS” page is available to the blackbox.md account owner and works only for domains whose DNS is at Cloudflare or GoDaddy.

The blackbox.md website is available in Romanian and Russian; this article quotes the Romanian labels with their English meaning.

Which records to create

www.DOMAIN is a separate name from DOMAIN: without a record for www, the address with www does not open. For www, choose one of the two options, not both: a name that has a CNAME record cannot have any other records. For the domain without a prefix, use A, not CNAME: most DNS providers do not allow a CNAME at the domain root.

Important The “IP” field in the panel holds the server's IPv4 address; the panel does not show an IPv6 address. Create AAAA records only if you have set up IPv6 on the server and checked that it works. A wrong AAAA record, or one left over from your old hosting, sends visitors who use IPv6 to a different address and can block the issuing of the Let's Encrypt certificate.

Step 1. Copy the server's IP address

1. Open the app.blackbox.md panel from your blackbox.md account. See Opening the app.blackbox.md panel from your account.
2. In the sidebar, under “Infrastructure”, click “My Servers”.
3. On the server card, find the “IP” field.
4. Click the copy button next to the address (its tooltip reads “Copy this server's IP address”). The button shows “Copied”, and the address is now on your clipboard.

The same address appears in the email “Serverul dvs. este gata — BBX-…” (Your server is ready — BBX-…), on the “Adresă IP” (IP address) line. More about the card: The “My Servers” page: the server card.

Step 2. Find out who manages the domain's DNS

You change the records where the domain's name servers (NS) point. The DNS provider can be a different company from the one where you registered the domain: for example, a domain bought from a local registrar may have its DNS at Cloudflare. Find the NS servers with one of these commands.

Linux or macOS:

dig +short NS DOMAIN

Windows:

nslookup -type=NS DOMAIN

If the domain was registered through BLACKBOX (on request, through support) and you don't know where its DNS is managed, write to us: How to contact BLACKBOX support.

Warning Do not change the NS servers just to point your site to the server. At the new DNS provider, only the records created there work: first copy all the existing records (especially MX and TXT for email), or the domain's email and other services will stop working.

Step 3. Create the records

From the panel's “DNS” page (Cloudflare or GoDaddy)

First connect your Cloudflare or GoDaddy account: Connecting Cloudflare or GoDaddy on the DNS page. Then:

1. In the sidebar, under “Infrastructure”, click “DNS”.

2. If you have more than one connection, click the row of the one you want. In “Zone”, choose the domain; the first zone is selected automatically.

3. In the “Records” table, check what already exists for DOMAIN and www.DOMAIN (names are shown in full):

   • an A record pointing to your old hosting: click the pencil (“Edit”), replace the value with SERVER_IP and click “Save”; do not add another record for this name;
   • an AAAA record left over from your old hosting: delete it with the trash can (“Delete”) and confirm in the browser window.

   Do not add a second A record for the same name: visitors would land sometimes on one server, sometimes on the other.

4. For a name that does not have an A record yet, click “Add record”. An edit row appears in the table.

5. Leave the type “A” (it is selected by default).

6. In the field with the hint “e.g. www or @”, enter @.

7. In the next field, with the hint “Record value”, paste SERVER_IP.

8. Choose the TTL: on Cloudflare, “Auto” or a value in seconds; on GoDaddy, 600, 1800, 3600 or 86400.

9. On Cloudflare, leave the “Proxied” checkbox unchecked until the site works over HTTPS directly on the server (see below).

10. Click “Save”. The record appears in the table.

11. Repeat steps 4–10 with the name www: type “A” with the value SERVER_IP, or type “CNAME” with the value DOMAIN. If www already has a CNAME pointing to DOMAIN, you don't need to change anything.

If “Failed to save the record.” appears, check the name and the value: the name cannot be left empty, and an A record accepts only a valid IPv4 address. The rules for each type and all the messages: Managing DNS records from the panel.

On GoDaddy, the type and the name are locked when you edit a record. To turn a www CNAME into an A record, delete the record and create a new one.

At another DNS provider

In the control panel of your registrar or DNS provider, open the DNS zone editor (its name varies from provider to provider) and create the same records as in the table above. For the domain root, most providers use @ or an empty field; some require the full name, DOMAIN.

TTL and propagation

TTL (time to live) is the number of seconds that DNS servers around the world keep an answer in their cache before they ask for it again. A common value is 3600 (one hour).

Tip If you are moving an existing site, lower the TTL of the A and CNAME records to 300 a day or two before the move. The IP address change then reaches visitors in about 5 minutes. After the move, you can set the TTL back to 3600. In the panel, the lowest value for GoDaddy is 600. The full plan: Moving a site to a BLACKBOX server.

How to check

On Linux or macOS (dig is included in macOS; on Linux it is part of the dnsutils or bind-utils package):

dig +short DOMAIN A
dig +short www.DOMAIN

Both commands must show SERVER_IP (with the Cloudflare proxy turned off). If www is a CNAME, the second command first shows DOMAIN., then SERVER_IP.

To bypass your internet provider's cache, ask a public resolver, or ask one of the domain's NS servers directly (one of the names you found in step 2):

dig +short DOMAIN A @1.1.1.1
dig +short DOMAIN A @NS_SERVER

If the NS server already answers with SERVER_IP, the record is saved correctly: you only need to wait for the old TTL to expire.

On Windows (PowerShell or Command Prompt):

nslookup DOMAIN
nslookup www.DOMAIN 1.1.1.1
ipconfig /flushdns

The last command clears your computer's DNS cache. On macOS, you clear the cache like this:

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache
sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

You can also use an online DNS checker (search for “DNS propagation checker”): it shows the answer that resolvers in several countries receive.

The Cloudflare proxy (the “orange cloud”)

On Cloudflare, an A, AAAA or CNAME record can be “Proxied” (orange cloud) or “DNS only” (gray cloud). On the panel's “DNS” page, this is the “Proxied” checkbox in the edit row; in the table, the “Proxied” column shows “Proxied” or “—”.

When the proxy is on:

• visitors and the dig command see Cloudflare's addresses, not SERVER_IP; this is normal;
• only web traffic (HTTP and HTTPS) goes through Cloudflare; for SSH, use the server's IP address, not the domain;
• once the server has a valid certificate for the domain, choose the “Full (strict)” encryption mode in your Cloudflare account, under “SSL/TLS”. The “Flexible” mode causes redirect loops if the server redirects HTTP to HTTPS. The panel's “DNS” page does not change the SSL mode; you set it in your Cloudflare account. Details: Cloudflare documentation on SSL modes.

Recommended order: keep the proxy off until the site works over HTTPS directly on the server, then turn it on.

Next step

When dig shows SERVER_IP, set up the web server and the HTTPS certificate: Web server with HTTPS: nginx or Apache and Let's Encrypt. If the domain points to the server but the site does not open, go through the list in The site does not open.

Frequently asked questions

Can I put the address shown by the IP tool on blackbox.md in my DNS records? No. The “Adresa ta IP” (Your IP address) tool shows the address of the device you are browsing from. In DNS, use the address from the “IP” field on the server card.

I changed the record, but the old site still opens. Your resolver keeps the old value until the old TTL expires. Ask the domain's NS server directly (the command in “How to check”): if it answers with SERVER_IP, wait, clear your DNS cache and open the site in a private browser window.

Do I need to change the MX records? No, if your email stays with your current provider. For the site, change only the A, AAAA and CNAME records of DOMAIN and www; the MX and TXT records stay unchanged.

How do I point a subdomain, for example app.DOMAIN? Create an A record with the name app and the value SERVER_IP. Several domains and subdomains can run on the same server; each one needs its own configuration in the web server.

I can't connect over SSH using the domain. If the Cloudflare proxy is on, connect to SERVER_IP. See Connecting to your server over SSH (Windows, macOS, Linux).