Overview
Where is my website hosted?
Can actually have quite a few different answers. Hosting is comprised of a variety of different services. And although it is possible to have all your hosting services through a single company, it isn't uncommon to see a site have each of their hosting services provided through several hosting companies. As an example, you could have your:
- Domain Registration with GoDaddy
- Your DNS hosted on a private server
- Your web hosting with Media Temple
- Your CDN with CloudFlare
- Your email hosting with G Suite (Google)
This guide will provide instrution on how you can run a few quick searches to find out who is hosting each aspect of your website.
Before starting
It may be helpful for you to get familiar with the concept of DNS. However, extensive knowledge of DNS is not required for this article.
Domain Registration
A domain registration is service that ensures you own the name of your site. As a quick reminder, a domain registration does NOT include the code, files, database, or email of your website. You can quickly check your domain registration provider by doing a WHOIS search.
- Navigate to a WHOIS search engine such as https://www.godaddy.com/whois.
- Search for your domain name.
- Look through your results until you find the Reseller information. This will let you know who is servicing your domain registration. If your results do not show a Reseller, you can look for the Registrar information.
- Great! You now know where to go in order to make domain registration changes! The domain registration is also where you would change the nameservers.
Nameservers
The nameservers determine where your DNS files are hosted. This information is important if you plan to make DNS changes. This can also be quickly found through a WHOIS search.
- Use a WHOIS search engine such as https://www.godaddy.com/whois.
- Search for your domain name.
- Look through your results until you find the Name Server information. This will let you know who is hosting your DNS.
- Great! You now know where to go in order to make DNS changes!
Web hosting
Your web hosting is where your code, files, images, videos, etc are residing. An quick way to find your web hosting provider is by digging the A-record DNS.
- Use a DNS checker such as https://dnschecker.org
- Search your domain name. Make sure you are searching for the A-Record.
- An IP address should propagate from your search.
- Now visit an IP search site such as https://whatismyipaddress.com/ip-lookup.
- Enter the IP address you found. The result should tell you know where the IP is originating from.
- If you are a Media Temple customer and have multiple servers for web hosting, you can check which one your site is residing in by logging into your Media Temple account and comparing the DNS results to your server ip address server ip address server ip address.
- Great! You now know where to go in order to make changes to your website code, files, image, video, etc.
Your web hosting is where your code, files, images, videos, etc are residing. An easy way to find your web hosting provider is by digging your A-record DNS information.
- Use a DNS checker such as https://dnschecker.org
- Search for your domain name, ensuring you are searching for an A-Type record.
- You should see an IP address propagate from your search.
- Now visit an IP search site such as https://whatismyipaddress.com/ip-lookup.
- Enter the IP address you found. The result should tell you know where the IP is originating from.
Managed WordPress users will show the provider as GoDaddy.
- If you are Managed WordPress customer with multiple sites/servers, you can check where in your account your site is hosted by logging into your Media Temple account.
- Click on the blue ADMIN button associated to your Managed WordPress service.
- Hover your cursor over your site slot. Then click Manage Site.
- In the left-hand menu, click Domains.
- Check to see if your A-record matches either:
The IP address in the INFO box.
or
The IP address in the EDIT DNS Page
Firewalls and CDNs
If your site is using a firewall or CDN, the A-record that appears may be different from your actual web host. This is because when you activate a CDN change, it will typically require you to change your A-records.
In this example, the provider is showing to be Sucuri, which is the servicer for the (mt) Security Pack / CDN & WAF. Therefore, you can log into your Media Temple account to see if your website is configured to (mt) Security Pack / CDN & WAF. For other Firewall or CDN providers, you may need to contact your website's developer directly for more information.
Email hosting refers to the server that controls your email sending / receiving. This can be checked by looking up the MX-records for your domain.
Keep in mind, the Managed WordPress servers do not include email hosting by Media Temple. However, you can use the information below to find if you have email hosted at a third-party.
- Use a DNS checker such as https://dnschecker.org
- Search for your domain name. Ensure you are searching for the MX-Record.
- You should see MX-records propagate from your search.
- Take the MX-record you just found, and search for its A-type record. This should output an IP address.
- Now visit an IP search site such as https://whatismyipaddress.com/ip-lookup.
- Enter the IP address you found. The result should tell you know where the IP is originating from.
- You now know which company / account to visit in order to make email related changes (add/remove users, change passwords, check email, etc).
