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Getting Started with Yahoo! Domains

Welcome to Yahoo! Domains! This brief guide will help get you started setting up and managing the features of your new web address. If you have any questions along the way, see our Yahoo! Domains Help.

About Your Domain

When you signed up for your plan, you chose a web address, or domain, for your business. Your customers will use this domain, such as learn2yoga.com, to find your business online.

If you recently signed up for Yahoo! Domains, your domain may still be pending. Pending means that your domain is not yet active across the Internet; don't worry, this is normal for all domain registrations and changes, and can take up to 72 hours. The effects of a pending domain:

• Web address: If you are registering a new domain, visitors who visit your web address will get a Page Not Found error. If you are using a domain you registered elsewhere, visitors will see the page or web site that is currently active, depending on the settings you have made at your registrar.
• Email: Any email messages sent to your domain name may not be delivered while your domain is pending. If you are using a domain you ordered through another provider, your email may be delivered to your registrar until your domain becomes active.

We'll notify you as soon as your domain becomes active. In the meantime, you can begin familiarizing yourself with your Yahoo! plan features!

Using a Domain You Already Own

To use your existing domain name with your Yahoo! plan, you'll need to contact the company where you originally registered your domain, such as Network Solutions, and request a name server change to redirect your existing domain name to Yahoo!

You don't need to understand name servers to make the switch. Just provide your registrar with this information about your new service (be sure to replace learn2yoga.com with your own domain name):

I would like Yahoo! Small Business to host my domain name. Please make the following changes for learn2yoga.com:

Primary name server: yns1.yahoo.com
Primary IP address: 66.218.71.205
Secondary name server: yns2.yahoo.com
Secondary IP address: 66.196.84.168

After you've done this, the change may take up to 72 hours (during this time, your domain will appear as pending).

Note: This process is not a registrar transfer. Your current provider will continue to renew your domain, and you'll pay any associated fees to that provider. Yahoo! will not renew your domain. Learn more.

Your Domain Control Panel

To begin exploring your new domain features, sign in to your account:

1. Visit your Business Control Panel. (If you haven't entered your Yahoo! ID and password, you'll be prompted to do so here. If you forget your password, click the "Forgot your password?" link and follow the prompts to retrieve it.)
2. Click "Domain Control Panel."
3. From here, you'll see a list of tasks, where you can manage all of your Yahoo! Domains services:
   
   Starter Web Page: Create or edit a basic web page for your web address.
   Forward Your Domain: Send visitors from your domain to another web site.
   Set Up Email Address: Set up your domain name email address.
   View/Edit Your Domain Registration: Review and update your WHOIS contact information.
   Manage Advanced DNS Settings: Set up CNAME, A Records, and MX records (for advanced users only).

Starter Web Page

When you purchase a Domains, Custom Mailbox, or Business Mail plan, we automatically create a placeholder "Under Construction" web page for you at your web address. To customize this page, you can use our starter web page feature, which allows you to add your name, contact information, and details about your business, as well as change the page design. A starter web page is a great way to establish a presence at your domain until you're ready to build a more comprehensive web site. Learn more.

Note: Do you already have a web site? You can forward traffic from your new domain name to your existing site. Learn how.

Email Features

If you have a Domains plan, you'll also get one free email address! You can specify an email address at your domain, such as linda@learn2yoga.com, and retrieve these messages from your free Yahoo! Mail account (for example, youryahooID@yahoo.com).

You can also take advantage of our "catch-all" feature, which allows any email sent to misaddressed, misspelled, or nonexistent addresses at your domain to be redirected to your Yahoo! Mail account. You can activate this feature in the "Set Up Email Address" task from the Domains Control Panel. Learn more.

Other Settings

From your Domain Control Panel, you can edit both your domain registration information and your advanced DNS settings:

• Domain Registration Information: At any time, you can visit this task to edit your registrant and administrator contact information. We recommend keeping this information up-to-date in the event that your domain name registrar or another third party needs to contact you regarding any technical or legal issue with your domain name. Learn more.
• Advanced DNS Settings: If you're an advanced user, you can customize your domain name to work with other services. You can add A or CNAME records, or change MX records or your name servers. However, we recommend changing DNS records only if you're an advanced users, as making such changes can prevent your services from functioning properly. If you've made changes and would like to revert to the old settings, you can reset the advanced DNS settings to their default values.

Next Steps

What's next? We'll email you as soon as your domain becomes active. To test this domain, visit your web address at http://www.yourdomain.com (be sure to replace "yourdomain.com" with your own domain name). You should see an "Under Construction" page, or, if you set up a starter web page, your business and contact information in the template you selected. (If you forwarded your domain, you should be redirected to the web address you specified.)