Quick Start Guide

You can get up and running fast on Comwired's hosted DNS service. The few simple steps that follow will walk you through the process of setting up your new account.

1. Register for a free account
2. Login to My Account
3. Add domains
4. Configure your domains
5. Point your domains to Comwired

Step 1. Register for a free account

Every user receives a free 30 day full trial of our managed DNS system. Register for your free account by clicking the "Get your free account!" link at the top of the page. Complete the required profile and address information and click "Submit."

Step 2. Login to My Account

Upon registration you will automatically be logged into the My Account panel. The first thing you will see is the "Overview" page, which gives you the ability to search and browse domains in your account as well as access reports, settings, and usage and billing history.

Remember that you can always login by clicking the login button at the top of the page.

Step 3. Add domains

Now that you are logged in you can add domains to your account. To do so, either click "Add domain" at the top right or on the left side of the Overview page.

In the "Enter domain name" box, type the domain you would like to add.

To save you setup time, we can automatically import your existing DNS settings. Keep the "Import existing DNS settings" checkbox selected to auto-populate, or uncheck to start from scratch.

You can preview your current DNS settings before adding your domain simply by clicking the Preview button. Click Continue when you are ready to add the domain to Comwired.

Once your domains have been added successfully they will appear on your Domains page.

Step 4. Configure your domains

Create Host

To add a new host, navigate to the details page for the domain you would like to configure and click the "Custom host" button at the bottom the page. Standard host names such as root, www, and mail will already be listed for your domain, which you may edit by clicking on the name of the host you wish to view or modify. Optionally you can select "URL forward" to send traffic to a URL instead of an IP address, or "Round robin" to distribute load between multiple IP addresses or servers.

In the create host form, assign a name, type (if available) and default address for the host. Click "Add Host and Continue" to create the new host.

Create Records

Once your host has been created successfully it will appear in the list of available host names. Now you can choose what happens when a visitor from a specified country accesses your site. Click the host name and another set of options appear in the left column.

The default record you set up will appear as a global wildcard, meaning any traffic that is not specified further will be routed to that address.

To assign an answer or destination for a location, click "Select location." You will be prompted to select one of the following options:

Use country group - Use a preset group of countries
Select the country group and click "Confirm selection." The countries within the group are previewed.

Choose region myself - Drill down to a specific region
You can control traffic for an entire country, state/province, or city. Drill down to the level you want to control and click "Confirm selection."

The country group or region you specified will appear. Now select the record type (A, CNAME, etc.) and provide the answer or destination and click Add Record to save. Repeat for as many locales you wish to specify for each host.

For example, you could create "test.comwired.com" and assign an A record to this host name. Once the A record is assigned you can choose which countries are tied to this address along with the IP address of the destination. Other records that can be assigned are CNAME, TXT, and MX records.

Wildcards

To capture traffic for any subdomain that is not specified, use the Wildcard host entry. Enter the IP address destination in the form and click Continue.

Step 5. Point your domains to Comwired

The final step is to log in to your domain name registrar and update your nameservers to the following:

• ns1.elv8.net
• ns2.elv8.net

Shortly after this has been done, traffic to your domains will start being split according to the rules you set up in Comwired.