# Register and manage domains for your website in Lightsail
<a name="amazon-lightsail-domain-registration"></a>

Your website needs a name, such as `example.com`. With Amazon Lightsail you can register a name for your website, known as a domain name. To access your website, users type your domain name into their web browser.

Use the **Domains & DNS** tab in the Amazon Lightsail console to register and manage domain names. Lightsail uses Amazon Route 53, a highly available and scalable Domain Name System (DNS) web service, to register domains for you. After your domain is registered, you can assign it to your Lightsail resources or manage DNS records for it. For general information about DNS, see [DNS](understanding-dns-in-amazon-lightsail.md).

For more information about domain registration in Amazon Lightsail, continue reading.

**Contents**
+ [How domain registration works](#how-registration-works)
+ [Domains that you can register in Lightsail](#domains-register)
+ [Pricing for domain registration](#domain-pricing)

## How domain registration works
<a name="how-registration-works"></a>

The following overview shows how you register a domain name in Amazon Lightsail:

1. Confirm that the domain name you want is available to use on the internet. If the domain name you want is not available, you can try other names or change only the top-level domain, such as **.com**, to another top-level domain, such as **.org** or **.net**. For a list of the top-level domains (TLDs) that Lightsail supports, see [Domains that you can register in Amazon Lightsail](#domains-register).

1. Register the domain name with Lightsail. When you register a domain, you provide names and contact information for the domain owner and other contacts.

At the end of the registration process, we send the information that you provide to the registrar for the domain. The domain registrar is a company that is accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to process domain registrations for specific TLDs. The registrar for the domain is either Amazon Registrar or our registrar associate, Gandi. 

Amazon Registrar and Gandi hide different information by default. Amazon Registrar, Inc. hides all of your contact information, and Gandi hides all of your contact information except organization name.
+ To find out who the registrar is for your domain, see [Domains that you can register in Amazon Lightsail](#domains-register).
+ The registrar sends your information to the registry for the domain. A registry is a company that sells domain registrations for one or more top-level domains, such as **.com**.
+ The registry stores the information about your domain in their own database and also stores some of the information in the public WHOIS database. 

For more information about how to register a domain name, see [Register a new domain](amazon-lightsail-register-new-domain.md).

After you register a domain using Lightsail, Route 53 makes itself the DNS service for your domain by assigning a set of name servers to your domain. A name server is a server that helps translate domain names into IP addresses. .

Lightsail automatically does the following to make itself the DNS service for the domain:
+ Creates a [Lightsail DNS zone](understanding-dns-in-amazon-lightsail.md) that has the same name as your domain.
+ Assigns a set of four name servers to the Lightsail DNS zone. 
+ Replaces the domain’s Route 53 name servers with the name servers from your Lightsail DNS zone.

If you already registered a domain name with another registrar, you can choose to transfer management of the domain’s DNS to Lightsail. This isn't required to use other Lightsail features. For more information, see [Create a DNS zone to manage your domain’s DNS records](lightsail-how-to-create-dns-entry.md).

## Domains that you can register in Lightsail
<a name="domains-register"></a>

Lightsail uses the same generic top-level domains (TLDs) as Route 53. For a list of generic TLDs that you can use to register domains in Lightsail, see [Domains that you can register with Amazon Route 53](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/registrar-tld-list.html#registrar-tld-list-index-generic) in the Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide.

If the TLD isn’t included in the list, or if you would like to register a geographic domain, we recommend you use the Route 53 console. Your geographic domain will be available in the Lightsail console after it has been registered using Route 53. For more information, see [Geographic top-level domains](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/registrar-tld-list.html#registrar-tld-list-index-geographic) in the Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide.

## Pricing for domain registration
<a name="domain-pricing"></a>

Lightsail uses Route 53 for domain registration. Therefore, the Route 53 pricing also applies to Lightsail registrations.

For information about the cost of registering domains, see [Domains that you can register in Amazon Route 53](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/registrar-tld-list.html) in the Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide.

## Additional information about domains
<a name="domains-additional-info"></a>

The following articles can help you manage domains in Lightsail:
+ [DNS](understanding-dns-in-amazon-lightsail.md)
+ [Format domain names](amazon-lightsail-domain-name-format.md)
+ [Manage a Lightsail domain in Amazon Route 53](amazon-lightsail-manage-domain-advanced.md)
+ [Create a DNS zone to manage your domain’s DNS records](lightsail-how-to-create-dns-entry.md)
+ [Domain registration renewal](amazon-lightsail-domain-manage-auto-renew.md)
+ [Edit or delete a DNS zone](amazon-lightsail-edit-or-delete-a-dns-zone.md)
+ [Point your domain to a load balancer](add-alias-record-for-lightsail-load-balancer.md)
+ [Point your domain to a distribution](amazon-lightsail-point-domain-to-distribution.md)
+ [Point your domain to an instance](amazon-lightsail-routing-to-instance.md)
+ [Route traffic for your domain to a container service](amazon-lightsail-point-domain-to-container-service.md)

# Understanding DNS in Lightsail
<a name="understanding-dns-in-amazon-lightsail"></a>

People can access the web application on your Lightsail instance by browsing to the public internet protocol (IP) address of your instance, which could be an IPv4 or IPv6 address. However, IP addresses are complex and difficult for people to remember. Therefore, you should have people browse to an easy-to-remember domain name, like `example.com`, to access the web application on your instance. This is achieved through the Domain Name System (DNS), which functions as a directory that maps registered domain names to IP addresses.

To route traffic for your domain name to your Lightsail instance, you add an address (A) record that points your domain name to the static IPv4 address of your instance, or a AAAA record that points to the IPv6 address of your instance. If you registered a domain name using Lightsail, you can manage the DNS records from the DNS zone that was created when you registered the domain name. If your domain was registered through another registrar, you can manage the DNS records at the registrar or you can transfer management of your domain's DNS to Lightsail.

To make it easier to map your domain name to your Lightsail instance, we recommend that you transfer management of your domain's DNS records to Lightsail by creating a DNS zone. For more information, see [Create a DNS zone to manage your domain’s DNS records](lightsail-how-to-create-dns-entry.md). You can create up to six DNS zones in Lightsail. If you require more than six DNS zones, we recommend using Route 53 to manage the DNS of all your domains. You can use Route 53 to point your domain name to your Lightsail instance. For more information about managing DNS with Route 53, see [Use Amazon Route 53 to point a domain to an instance](amazon-lightsail-using-route-53-to-point-a-domain-to-an-instance.md).

## DNS terminology
<a name="lightsail-dns-zone-terminology"></a>

So that you can manage DNS for your domain, there are terms you should be familiar with.

**Apex domain / root domain**  
An apex domain, also known as a root domain, is a domain that does not contain a subdomain part. An example of an apex domain is `example.com`. Whereas, subdomain examples are `www.example.com` and `blog.example.com`. These are subdomains because they contain the `www` and `blog` subdomain parts respectively.

**Domain Name System (DNS)**  
DNS routes easy-to-remember domain names, such as `example.com`, to the IP addresses of web servers.  
For more information, see [Domain Name System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System) on *Wikipedia*.

**DNS record**  
A DNS record is a mapping parameter. It tells the DNS server which IP address or hostname a domain or subdomain is associated with.  
For more information, see [List of DNS record types](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_DNS_record_types) on *Wikipedia*.

**DNS zone**  
A DNS zone is a container that holds information about how you want to route traffic on the internet for a specific domain, such as `example.com`, and its subdomains, such as `blog.example.com`.  
For more information, see [DNS zone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS_zone) on *Wikipedia*.

**Domain name registrar**  
A domain name registrar, also known as a domain name provider, is a company or organization that manages the assignment of domain names. You can purchase a domain or manage an existing domain using Lightsail, Amazon Route 53 or any other domain name registrar.  
For more information, see [Domain name registrar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_registrar) on *Wikipedia*.

**Name server**  
A name server routes traffic to your domain. In Lightsail, the name server is an AWS instance that runs a network service to help translate easy-to-remember domain names to IP addresses. Lightsail provides several AWS name server options (e.g., `ns-NN.awsdns-NN.com`) to route traffic to your domain. You can choose from among these AWS name servers when you change your domain using a domain registrar.  
For more information, see [Name server](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_server) on *Wikipedia*.

**Subdomain**  
A subdomain is anything in the domain hierarchy, other than the root domain, that is part of the larger domain. For example, `blog` is the subdomain part of the `blog.example.com` subdomain.  
For more information, see [Subdomain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subdomain) on *Wikipedia*.

**Time to live (TTL)**  
TTL dictates the lifespan of a DNS record on local resolving name servers; for example, a shorter time means less time to wait until the changes go into effect. TTL cannot be configured in the Lightsail DNS zone. Instead, all Lightsail DNS records default to a TTL of 60 seconds.  
For more information, see [Time to live](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_to_live) on *Wikipedia*.

**Wildcard DNS record**  
A wildcard DNS record matches requests for non-existent domain names. A wildcard DNS record is specified by using the asterisk symbol (\$1) as the leftmost part of a domain name, such as `*.example.com` or `*example.com`.  
Lightsail DNS zones support wildcard records for name server domains (`*awsdns.com`) defined in a Name Server (NS) record.

## DNS record types supported in the Lightsail DNS zone
<a name="lightsail-dns-records-supported-in-lightsail"></a>

Address (A) record  
An A record maps a domain, such as `example.com`, or a subdomain, such as `blog.example.com`, to a web server’s IP address.  
For example, in the Lightsail DNS zone, you want to direct web traffic for `example.com` (the apex of the domain) to your instance. You would create an A record, enter an `@` symbol into the **Subdomain** text box, and enter the IP address of your web server into the **Resolves to address** text box.  
For more information about the A record, see [List of DNS record types](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_DNS_record_types) on *Wikipedia*.

AAAA record  
An AAAA record maps a domain, such as `example.com`, or a subdomain, such as `blog.example.com`, to a web server’s IPv6 address.  
For example, in the Lightsail DNS zone, you want to direct web traffic for `example.com` (the apex of the domain) to your instance over the IPv6 protocol. You would create an AAAA record, enter an `@` symbol into the **Subdomain** text box, and enter the IP address of your web server into the **Resolves to address** text box.  
For more information about the AAAA record, see the [Domain Name System for IPv6](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6_address#Domain_Name_System) on *Wikipedia*.  
Lightsail does not support static IPv6 addresses. If you delete your Lightsail resource and create a new resource, or if you disable and re-enable IPv6 on the same resource, you might need to update your AAAA record to reflect the latest IPv6 address for the resource.

Canonical name (CNAME) record  
A CNAME record maps an alias or subdomain, such as `blog.example.com`, to another domain or subdomain.  
For example, in the Lightsail DNS zone, you want to direct web traffic for `www.example.com` to `example.com`. You would create an alias CNAME record for `www` with a "resolves to" address of `example.com`.  
For more information, see [CNAME Record](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNAME_record) on *Wikipedia*.

Mail exchanger (MX) record  
An MX record maps a subdomain, such as `mail.example.com`, to an email server address with values for priority when multiple servers are defined.  
For example, in the Lightsail DNS zone you want to direct mail for `mail.example.com` to the `10 inbound-smtp.us-west-2.amazonaws.com` Amazon WorkMail server. You would create an MX record with a subdomain of `example.com`, a priority of `10`, and a "resolves to" address of `inbound-smtp.us-west-2.amazonaws.com`.  
For more information, see [MX Record](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MX_record) on *Wikipedia*.

Name server (NS) record  
An NS record delegates a subdomain, such as `test.example.com`, to a name server, such as `ns-NN.awsdns-NN.com`.  
For more information, see [Name server](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_server) on *Wikipedia*.

Service locator (SRV) record  
An SRV record maps a subdomain, such as `service.example.com`, to a service address with values for priority, weight, and port number. Telephony or instant messaging are a couple of the services typically associated with SRV records.  
For example, in the Lightsail DNS zone, you want to direct traffic for `service.example.com` to `1 10 5269 xmpp-server.example.com`. You would create an SRV record with a priority of `1`, a weight of `10`, a port number of `5269`, and a "maps to" address of `xmpp-server.example.com`.  
For more information, see [SRV Record](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRV_record) on *Wikipedia*.

Text (TXT) record  
A TXT record maps a subdomain to plaintext. You create TXT records to confirm ownership of your domain to a service provider.  
For example, in the Lightsail DNS zone, you want to respond with `23223a30-7f1d-4sx7-84fb-31bdes7csdbb` when the `_amazonchime.example.com` hostname is queried. You would create a TXT record with a subdomain value of `_amazonchime` and a "responds with" value of `23223a30-7f1d-4sx7-84fb-31bdes7csdbb`.  
For more information, see [TXT Record](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TXT_record) on *Wikipedia*.

# Create a DNS zone to manage domain records for Lightsail instances
<a name="lightsail-how-to-create-dns-entry"></a>

To route traffic for a domain name, such as `example.com`, to an Amazon Lightsail instance, you add a record to the Domain Name System (DNS) of your domain. You can manage the DNS records of your domain using the registrar where you registered your domain, or you can manage them using Lightsail.

We recommend that you transfer management of your domain's DNS records to Lightsail. This allows you to efficiently administer your domain and compute resources together in one place—Lightsail. You can manage the DNS records of your domain using Lightsail by creating a Lightsail DNS zone. You can create up to six Lightsail DNS zones. If you require more than six DNS zones, because you manage more than six domain names, we recommend using Amazon Route 53 to manage the DNS of all of your domains. You can use Route 53 to route traffic for your domain to your Lightsail resources. For more information about managing DNS with Route 53, see [Use Amazon Route 53 to point a domain to an instance](amazon-lightsail-using-route-53-to-point-a-domain-to-an-instance.md).

This guide shows you how to create a Lightsail DNS zone for your domain, and how to transfer management of your domain's DNS records to Lightsail. After transferring management of your domain's DNS records to Lightsail, you will continue to manage renewals and billing for your domain at your domain's registrar.

**Important**  
Any changes you make to the DNS of your domain might require several hours to propagate through the internet's DNS. Because of this, you should keep the DNS records of your domain in place at your domain's current DNS hosting provider while the transfer of management to Lightsail propagates. This ensures that traffic for your domain continues to route to your resources uninterrupted while the transfer takes place.

## Step 1: Complete the prerequisites
<a name="lightail-creating-dns-zone-prerequisites"></a>

Complete the following prerequisites if you haven’t already done so:

1. Register a domain name. Then, confirm that you have administrative access to edit the domain's name servers.

   If you need a registered domain name, you can register a domain using Lightsail. For more information, see [Domain registration](amazon-lightsail-domain-registration.md).

1. Confirm that the necessary DNS record types for your domain are supported by the Lightsail DNS zone. The Lightsail DNS zone currently supports address (A and AAAA), canonical name (CNAME), mail exchanger (MX), name server (NS), service locator (SRV), and text (TXT) record types. For NS records, you can use wildcard DNS record entries.

   If the DNS record types required for your domain are not supported by the Lightsail DNS zone, you might want to use Route 53 as your domain's DNS hosting provider because it supports a greater number of record types. For more information, see [Supported DNS Record Types](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/ResourceRecordTypes.html) and [Making Amazon Route 53 the DNS Service for an Existing Domain](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/MigratingDNS.html) in the Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide.

1. Create a Lightsail instance to which you will point your domain. For more information, see [Create an instance](how-to-create-amazon-lightsail-instance-virtual-private-server-vps.md).

1. Create a static IP and attach it to your Lightsail instance. For more information, see [Create a static IP and attach it to an instance](lightsail-create-static-ip.md).

## Step 2: Create a DNS zone in the Lightsail console
<a name="lightail-create-a-dns-zone"></a>

Complete the following steps to create a DNS zone in Lightsail. When you create a DNS zone, you must specify the domain name that the DNS zone will apply to.

1. Sign in to the [Lightsail console](https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/).

1. In the left navigation pane, choose **Domains & DNS**. Then choose **Create DNS zone**.

1. Choose one of the following options:
   + **Use a domain that is registered with Amazon Route 53**, to specify a domain that was registered with Amazon Route 53
   + **Use a domain from another registrar**, to specify a domain that was registered using another registrar

1. Select or enter your registered domain name, such as `example.com`.

   It isn’t necessary to include `www` when entering your domain name. You can add the `www` using an address (A) record as part of the [Step 3: Add records to the DNS zone](#lightail-add-records-to-the-dns-zone) section later in this guide.
**Note**  
Lightsail DNS zones are created in the Virginia (`us-east-1`) AWS Region. You will get a resource name conflict error ("some names are already in use") if you named a resource in that Region the same as the Lightsail DNS zone ( `example.com`) you want to create.  
To resolve the error, [create a snapshot of the resource](understanding-snapshots-in-amazon-lightsail.md). [Create a new resource from the snapshot](lightsail-how-to-create-instance-from-snapshot.md) and give it a new, unique name. Then, delete the original resource that is named the same as the domain for which you want to create a Lightsail DNS zone.

1. Choose **Create DNS zone**.

   You are redirected to the DNS zone **Assignments** page, where you can manage domain resource assignments. Use assignments to point a domain to your Lightsail resources, such as load balancers and instances.

## Step 3: Add records to the DNS zone
<a name="lightail-add-records-to-the-dns-zone"></a>

Complete the following steps to add records to your domain’s DNS zone. DNS records specify how internet traffic is routed for the domain. For example, you could route traffic for the apex of your domain, such as `example.com`, to one instance, and route traffic for a subdomain, such as `blog.example.com`, to a different instance.

1. From the DNS zone assignments page, choose the **DNS records** tab.

   Your DNS zones are listed in the **Domains & DNS** tab of the [Lightsail console](https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/).
**Note**  
On the DNS zone **Assignments** page, you can add, remove, or change which Lightsail resource your domain points to. You can point domains at Lightsail instances, distributions, container services, load balancers, static IP addresses and more. On the **DNS records** page, you can add, edit, or delete your domain’s DNS records.

1. Choose one of the following record types:  
**Address (A) record**  
An A record maps a domain, such as `example.com`, or a subdomain, such as `blog.example.com`, to a web server’s or instance’s IPv4 address, such as `192.0.2.255`.  

   1. In the **Record name** text box, enter the target subdomain for the record, or enter an @ symbol to define the apex of your domain.

   1. In the **Resolves to** text box, enter the target IP address for the record, select your running instance, or configured load balancer. When you select a running instance, the public IP address of that instance is automatically added.

   1. Select **Is AWS resource alias** to route traffic to your Lightsail and AWS resources, such as a distribution or container service. You can also route traffic from one record in a DNS zone to another record.
**Note**  
We recommend that you attach a static IP to your Lightsail instance and then choose the static IP as the value that the record resolves to. For more information, see [Create a static IP](lightsail-create-static-ip.md).  
**AAAA record**  
An AAAA record maps a domain, such as `example.com`, or a subdomain, such as `blog.example.com`, to a web server’s or instance’s IPv6 address, such as `2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334`.  
Lightsail does not support static IPv6 addresses. If you delete your Lightsail resource and create a new resource, or if you disable and re–enable IPv6 on the same resource, you might need to update your AAAA record to reflect the latest IPv6 address for the resource.

   1. In the **Record name** text box, enter the target subdomain for the record, or enter an `@` symbol to define the apex of your domain.

   1. In the **Resolves to** text box, enter the target IPv6 address for the record, select your running instance, or configured load balancer. When you select a running instance, the public IPv6 address of that instance is automatically added.

   1. Select **Is AWS resource alias** to route traffic to your Lightsail and AWS resources, such as a distribution or container service. You can also route traffic from one record in a DNS zone to another record.  
**Canonical name (CNAME) record**  
A CNAME record maps an alias or subdomain, such as `www.example.com`, to another domain, such as `example.com`, or another subdomain, such as `blog.example.com`.  

   1. In the **Record name** text box, enter the subdomain for the record.

   1. In the **Route traffic to** text box, enter the target domain or subdomain for the record.  
**Mail exchanger (MX) record**  
An MX record maps a subdomain, such as `mail.example.com`, to an email server address with priority values when multiple servers are defined.  

   1. In the **Record name** text box, enter the subdomain for the record.

   1. In the **Priority** text box, enter the priority for the record. This is important when adding records for multiple servers.

   1. In the **Route traffic to** text box, enter the target domain or subdomain for the record.  
**Service locator (SRV) record**  
An SRV record maps a subdomain, such as `service.example.com`, to a service address with values for priority, weight, and port number. Telephony or instant messaging are a couple of the services typically associated with SRV records.  

   1. In the **Record name** text box, enter the subdomain for the record.

   1. In the **Priority** text box, enter the priority for the record.

   1. In the **Weight** text box, enter a relative weight for SRV records with the same priority.

   1. In the **Route traffic to** text box, enter the target domain or subdomain for the record.

   1. In the **Port** text box, enter the port number in which a connection to the service can be made.  
**Text (TXT) record**  
A TXT record maps a subdomain to plain text. You create TXT records to confirm ownership of your domain to a service provider.  

   1. In the **Record name** text box, enter the subdomain for the record.

   1. In the **Responds with** text box, enter the text response that is given when the subdomain is queried.
**Note**  
The input text doesn't need to be enclosed with quotes.

1. When you're done adding the record, choose the **Save** icon to save your changes.

   The record is added to the DNS zone. Repeat the above steps to add multiple records to your domain's DNS zone.
**Note**  
Time to live (TTL) for DNS records cannot be configured in the Lightsail DNS zone. Instead, all Lightsail DNS records default to a TTL of 60 seconds. For more information, see [Time to live](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_to_live) on Wikipedia.

## Step 4: Change the name servers at your domain’s current DNS hosting provider
<a name="lightail-change-the-name-servers"></a>

Complete the following steps to transfer management of your domain's DNS records to Lightsail. To do this, you sign in to the website of your domain’s current DNS hosting provider, and change your domain’s name servers to the Lightsail name servers.

**Important**  
If web traffic is currently being routed to your domain, make sure that all of the existing DNS records are present in the Lightsail DNS zone before changing the name servers at your domain’s current DNS hosting provider. This way, traffic continually flows uninterrupted after the transfer to the Lightsail DNS zone.

1. Write down the Lightsail name servers that are listed on your domain's DNS zone management page. The name servers are located on the **Domains** tab of your Lightsail DNS zone.  
![\[The DNS zone name servers in the Lightsail console.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/images/amazon-lightsail-dns-zone-name-servers.png)

1. Sign in to your domain’s current DNS hosting provider’s website.

1. Find the page where you can edit your domain's name servers.

   For more information about locating this page, see the documentation from your domain’s current DNS hosting provider.

1. Enter the Lightsail name servers, and remove other name servers listed.

1. Save your changes.

   Allow time for the name server change to propagate through the internet's DNS, which might take several hours. After that is completed, internet traffic for your domain should begin routing through the Lightsail DNS zone.

## Next steps
<a name="lightail-dns-management-next-steps"></a>
+ [Edit a DNS zone](amazon-lightsail-edit-or-delete-a-dns-zone.md)
+ [Create a load balancer and attach instances to it](create-lightsail-load-balancer-and-attach-lightsail-instances.md)

# Edit a Lightsail DNS zone
<a name="amazon-lightsail-edit-or-delete-a-dns-zone"></a>

Edit the DNS records in your domain's DNS zone. You can also delete your domain's DNS zone in Amazon Lightsail if you want to transfer management of your domain's DNS records to another DNS hosting provider or back to the registrar where you registered your domain. For more information, see [Delete a DNS zone in Lightsail](lightsail-delete-dns-zone.md)

**Note**  
Before you can edit records using the DNS editor in the Lightsail console, you must transfer management of your domain's DNS records to Lightsail. For more information, see [Create a DNS zone to manage your domain’s DNS records](lightsail-how-to-create-dns-entry.md).

## Edit DNS records
<a name="lightsail-edit-dns-records"></a>

You can edit the DNS records for your domain's DNS zone at any time using the Lightsail console.

**To edit the DNS zone**

1. Sign in to the Lightsail console.

1. On the Lightsail console home page, In the left navigation pane, choose **Domains & DNS**.

1. Choose the name of the DNS zone you want to edit.

1. On the DNS zone **DNS records** page, choose the **Delete** icon next to the record you want to delete.

1. When you're done, choose the **Save** icon to save your changes.
**Note**  
Allow time for the DNS record changes to propagate through the internet's DNS, which may take several hours.

# Delete a DNS zone in Lightsail
<a name="lightsail-delete-dns-zone"></a>

In some cases, you might want to completely remove a DNS zone that you've set up in Amazon Lightsail to manage your domain's DNS records. Perhaps you want to transfer DNS management to a different provider or back to your domain registrar. Deleting a DNS zone is a straightforward process, but it's important to plan ahead to ensure your domain's traffic continues to route correctly. Let's go over the steps to delete a DNS zone in Lightsail.

**Important**  
If you plan to continue routing traffic through your domain, prepare a different DNS hosting provider before deleting your domain's DNS zone in Lightsail. Otherwise, all traffic to your website stops when you delete the Lightsail DNS zone. 

**To delete a DNS zone**

1. On the Lightsail console home page, In the left navigation pane, choose **Domains & DNS**.

1. Choose the name of the DNS zone you want to delete.

1. Choose the vertical ellipsis menu (⋮). Then, choose the **Delete** option.

1. Choose **Delete DNS zone** to confirm the deletion.

   The DNS zone is deleted from Lightsail.

# Learn how internet traffic is routed to your website in Lightsail
<a name="amazon-lightsail-internet-traffic-routing"></a>

All computers on the internet, including smart phones, laptops, and website servers, communicate with one another by using unique strings of characters. These strings, known as IP addresses, are in one of the following formats:
+ Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) format, such as 192.0.2.44
+ Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) format, such as 2001:DB8::/32

When you open a browser and go to a website, you don't have to remember and enter a long string of characters like that. Instead, you can enter a domain name like **example.com** and still end up in the right place. This is achieved through the Domain Name System (DNS), which functions as a directory that maps registered domain names to IP addresses.

**Contents**
+ [Overview of how you configure Lightsail to route internet traffic for your domain](#internet-traffic-routing)
+ [How traffic is routed for your domain](#lightsail-traffic-routing)
+ [Next steps](#internet-traffic-routing-next-steps)

## Overview of how you configure Lightsail to route internet traffic for your domain
<a name="internet-traffic-routing"></a>

This overview explains how to use Lightsail to register and configure a domain that routes internet traffic to your website or web application. 

1. Register your domain name. For an overview, see [Domain registration](amazon-lightsail-domain-registration.md).

1. After you register your domain name, Lightsail automatically creates a DNS zone that has the same name as the domain.

1. The Lightsail console allows you to easily assign a domain to a Lightsail resource, such as an instance or load balancer. You can also create DNS records in your DNS zone to route traffic to your resources. Each record includes information about how you want to route traffic for your domain, such as the following:

   **Name**

   The name of the record corresponds with the domain name (example.com) or subdomain name (www.example.com, retail.example.com). The name of every record in a DNS zone must end with the name of the DNS zone. For example, if the name of the DNS zone is example.com, all record names must end in example.com. 

   **Type**

   The record type usually depends on the type of resource that you want traffic to be routed to. For example, to route traffic to an email server, you specify **MX** for **Type**. To route traffic for your domain name to your Lightsail instance, you add an **A** record that points your domain name to the static IPv4 address of your instance, or a **AAAA** record that points to the IPv6 address of your instance.

1. **Target**

   The target is where you want traffic to be routed to. You can create alias records that route traffic to Lightsail instances, Lightsail container services, and other Lightsail resources. For more information, see [DNS](understanding-dns-in-amazon-lightsail.md).

## How traffic is routed for your domain
<a name="lightsail-traffic-routing"></a>

After you configure Lightsail to route your internet traffic to your resources, such as instances, load balancers, distributions, or container services, here’s what happens when someone requests content for **www.example.com**.

1. A user opens a web browser, enters **www.example.com** in the address bar, and presses **Enter**.

1. The request for **www.example.com** is routed to a DNS resolver, which is typically managed by the user's internet service provider (ISP). ISPs can be cable internet providers, DSL broadband providers, or corporate networks.

1. The DNS resolver for the ISP forwards the request for **www.example.com** to a DNS root name server. 

1. The DNS resolver forwards the request for **www.example.com** again, this time to one of the TLD name servers for **.com** domains. The name server for **.com** domains responds to the request with the names of the four name servers that are associated with the **example.com** domain. 

   The DNS resolver caches (stores) the four name servers. The next time someone browses to **example.com**, the resolver skips steps 3 and 4 because it already has the name servers for **example.com**. The name servers are typically cached for two days.

1. The DNS resolver chooses a name server and forwards the request for **www.example.com** to that name server.

1. The name server looks in the **example.com** DNS zone for the **www.example.com** record and gets the associated value, such as the IP address for a web server (192.0.2.44). Then, the name server returns the IP address to the DNS resolver.

1. The DNS resolver finally has the IP address that the user needs. The resolver returns that value to the web browser.

1. The web browser sends a request for **www.example.com** to the IP address that it got from the DNS resolver. This is where your content is, for example, a web server running on an Lightsail instance or container service that's configured as a website endpoint.

1. The web server or other resource at 192.0.2.44 returns the web-page for **www.example.com** to the web browser, and the web browser displays the page.

## Next steps
<a name="internet-traffic-routing-next-steps"></a>
+ [DNS](understanding-dns-in-amazon-lightsail.md)
+ [Point your domain to an instance](amazon-lightsail-routing-to-instance.md)
+ [Point your domain to a load balancer](add-alias-record-for-lightsail-load-balancer.md)
+ [Point your domain to a distribution](amazon-lightsail-point-domain-to-distribution.md)

# Route domain traffic to a Lightsail instance
<a name="amazon-lightsail-routing-to-instance"></a>

You can use the DNS zone in Amazon Lightsail to point a registered domain name, like **example.com**, to your website running on a Lightsail instance, also known as a virtual private server (VPS). You can create up to six DNS zones in you Lightsail account. Not all DNS record types are supported. For more information about Lightsail DNS zones, see[ DNS](understanding-dns-in-amazon-lightsail.md).

If you expect to create more than six DNS zones or use DNS record types that aren’t supported in Lightsail, we recommend using an Amazon Route 53 hosted zone. With Route 53, you can manage the DNS for up to 500 domains. It also supports a greater variety of DNS record types. For more information, see [Working with hosted zones](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/hosted-zones-working-with.html) in the Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide.

This guide shows you how to edit the DNS records for a domain managed in Lightsail so that it points to your Lightsail instance. Allow up to 48 hours for any DNS zone changes to propagate through the internet's DNS.

**Prerequisites**

Complete the following prerequisites if you haven’t already done so:
+ Register a domain name using Lightsail. For more information, see [Register a new domain](amazon-lightsail-register-new-domain.md).
+ If you already registered a domain but you’re not using Lightsail to manage its records, then you must transfer management of the DNS records for your domain to Lightsail. For more information, see [Create a DNS zone to manage your domain’s DNS records](lightsail-how-to-create-dns-entry.md).
+ The default dynamic public IP address attached to your Lightsail instance changes every time you stop and restart the instance. Create a static IP and attach it to your instance to keep the public IP address from changing. In this guide, you create a DNS record in your domain’s DNS zone that resolves to the static IP address so you don’t have to update your domain’s DNS records every time you stop and restart your instance. For more information, see [Create a static IP and attach it to an instance](lightsail-create-static-ip.md).

  **Optional**–You can leave IPv6 enabled for your Lightsail instance. The IPV6 address persists when you stop and start your instance. For more information, see [Enable and disable IPv6](amazon-lightsail-enable-disable-ipv6.md).

**Assign a domain to a Lightsail instance**

Use one of the following methods to assign a domain to an instance in Lightsail:
+ [Instance domains tab](#instance-domains-tab)
+ [Static IP domains tab](#static-ip-domains-tab)
+ [DNS zone assignments tab](#dns-zone-assignments-tab)

## Instance domains tab
<a name="instance-domains-tab"></a>

Complete the following procedure to assign your domain to a Lightsail instance in the instance **Domains & DNS** section of the Lightsail console.

**To assign your domain by using the instance **Domains** tab**

1. Sign in to the [Lightsail console](https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/).

1. Choose the instance name that you want to assign the domain to.

1. Choose **Assign domain** in the **Domains** tab.

1. Select the domain that you want to assign to your Lightsail instance.

1. Verify that the routing information is correct, and then choose **Assign**.

**Optional**

To edit or remove your domain assignment from the instance, choose the edit icon or the waste bin icon next to the domain name.

## Static IP domains tab
<a name="static-ip-domains-tab"></a>

Complete the following procedure to assign your domain to a Lightsail instance in the static IP **Domains & DNS** tab of the Lightsail console.

**To assign your domain by using the static IP **Domains** tab**

1. Sign in to the [Lightsail console](https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/).

1. Choose the **Networking** tab.

1. Choose the static IP that you want to assign the domain to.

1. Choose **Assign domain** in the **Domains** tab.

1. Select the domain that you want to assign to your static IP.

1. Verify that the routing information is correct, and then choose **Assign**.

**Optional**

To edit or remove your domain assignment from the static IP, choose the edit icon or the waste bin icon next to the domain name.

## DNS zone assignments tab
<a name="dns-zone-assignments-tab"></a>

Complete the following procedure to assign your domain to a Lightsail instance in the **Assignments** tab of the DNS zone.

**To assign your domain by using the **Assignments** tab**

1. Sign in to the [Lightsail console](https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/).

1. Choose the **Domains & DNS** tab.

1. Choose the DNS zone for the domain name that you want to use.

1. Choose **Add assignment** in the **Assignments** tab.

1. Select the domain name that you want to assign to your Lightsail instance. If a static IP isn’t already attached to the instance, you are prompted to attach one.

1. Verify that the routing information is correct, and then choose **Assign**.

**Optional**

To edit or remove your domain assignment from the resource, choose the edit icon or the waste bin icon next to the domain name.

# Point your domain to a Lightsail load balancer
<a name="add-alias-record-for-lightsail-load-balancer"></a>

After you [verify that you control the domain where you want to have encrypted (HTTPS) traffic](verify-tls-ssl-certificate-using-dns-cname-https.md), you need to add an address (A) record to your domain's DNS hosting provider that points your domain to your Lightsail load balancer. In this guide, we show you how to add the A record to a Lightsail DNS zone, and an Amazon Route 53 hosted zone.

## Add an A record using the DNS zone - Assignments page
<a name="add-a-record-assignments"></a>

1. In the left navigation pane, choose **Domains & DNS**.

1. Choose the DNS zone you want to manage.

1. Choose the **Assignments** tab.

1. Choose **Add assignment**.

1. In the **Select a domain name** field, choose whether to use the domain name, or a subdomain of the domain.

1. In the **Select a resource** drop down, select the load balancer you want to assign the domain to.

1. Choose **Assign**.

Allow time for the change to propagate through the internet's DNS. This may take a few minutes to several hours.

## Add an A record using the DNS zone - DNS records page
<a name="add-address-record-lightsail"></a>

1. In the left navigation pane, choose **Domains & DNS**.

1. Choose the DNS zone you want to manage.

1. Choose the **DNS records** tab.

1. Complete one of the following steps depending on the current state of your DNS zone:
   + If you haven't added an A record, choose **Add record**.
   + If you previously added an A record, choose the edit icon next to the existing A record listed on the page, and then skip to step 5 of this procedure.

1. Choose **A record** in the **Record type** dropdown menu.

1. In the **Record name** text box, enter one of the following options:
   + Enter `@` to route traffic for the apex of your domain (e.g., `example.com`) to your load balancer.
   + Enter `www` to route traffic for the www subdomain (e.g., `www.example.com`) to your load balancer.

1. In the **Resolves to** text box, choose the name of your Lightsail load balancer.

1. Choose the **Save** icon.

Allow time for the change to propagate through the internet's DNS. This may take a few minutes to several hours.

## Add an A record in Route 53
<a name="add-address-record-route-53"></a>

1. Sign in to the [Route 53 console](https://console.aws.amazon.com/route53).

1. In the navigation pane, choose **Hosted zones**.

1. Choose the hosted zone for the domain name that you want to use to route traffic to your load balancer.

1. Choose **Create record**.

   The **Quick create record** page appears.  
![\[Create a record in Route 53 to point an alias to your Lightsail load balancer\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/images/create-record-set-alias-record-route-53-blank.png)
**Note**  
If you see the **Choose routing policy** page, then choose **Switch to quick create** to switch to the quick create wizard before continuing with the following steps.

1. For **Record name**, type `www` if you plan to use the `www` subdomain (i.e., `www.example.com`) or leave it blank if you plan to use the apex of the domain (i.e., `example.com`).

1. For **Record type**, choose **A - Routes traffic to an IPv4 address and some AWS resources**.

1. Choose the **Alias** toggle to enable alias records.

1. Choose the following options for **Route traffic to**:

   1. For **Choose endpoint**, choose **Alias to Application and Classic Load Balancer**.

   1. For **Choose Region**, choose the AWS Region in which you created your Lightsail load balancer.

   1. For **Choose load balancer**, enter or paste the endpoint URL (i.e., DNS name) of your Lightsail load balancer.

1. For **Routing Policy**, choose **Simple routing**, and disable the **Evaluate target health** toggle.

   Lightsail already performs health checks on your load balancer. For more information, see [Health checks for your load balancer](enable-set-up-health-checking-for-lightsail-load-balancer-metrics.md).

   Your record should look like the following example.  
![\[Create a record in Route 53 to point an alias to your Lightsail load balancer\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/images/create-record-set-alias-record-route-53.png)

1. Choose **Create records** to add the record to your hosted zone.
**Note**  
Allow time for the change to propagate through the internet's DNS. This may take a few minutes to several hours.

# Transfer DNS management for your Lightsail domain
<a name="amazon-lightsail-domain-register-other-dns-service-procedure"></a>

You can use an Amazon Lightsail DNS zone to manage the DNS records for a domain that you registered using Lightsail. Or, if you'd like, you can transfer management of DNS records for the domain to another DNS hosting provider. In this guide, we show you how to transfer management of DNS records for a domain you registered with Lightsail to another DNS hosting provider.

**Important**  
Any changes you make to the DNS of your domain might require several hours to propagate through the internet’s DNS. Because of this, you should keep the DNS records of your domain in place at your current DNS hosting provider until the transfer of management is done. This ensures that traffic for your domain continues to route to your resources uninterrupted while the transfer takes place.

**Contents**
+ [Complete the prerequisites](#other-dns-service-prerequisites)
+ [Add records to the DNS zone](#other-dns-service-add-records-dns-zone)

## Complete the prerequisites
<a name="other-dns-service-prerequisites"></a>

Complete the following prerequisites if you haven’t already done so:

1. Register a domain name. You can register a domain name using Lightsail. For more information, see [Register a new domain](amazon-lightsail-register-new-domain.md).

1. Use the process that’s provided by your DNS service to get the name servers for your domain.

## Add records to the DNS zone
<a name="other-dns-service-add-records-dns-zone"></a>

Complete the following procedure to add the name servers for another DNS hosting provider into your registered domain in Lightsail.

1. Sign in to the [Lightsail console](https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/).

1. Choose the **Domains & DNS** tab.

1. Choose the name of the domain that you want to configure to use another DNS service.

1. Choose **Edit Name Servers**.

1. Change the names of the name servers to the name servers that you got from your DNS service when you completed the prerequisites.

1. Choose **Save**.

# Point a domain to your Lightsail instance using Amazon Route 53
<a name="amazon-lightsail-using-route-53-to-point-a-domain-to-an-instance"></a>

The DNS zone in Amazon Lightsail makes it easy to point a registered domain name, like `example.com`, to your website running on a Lightsail instance. You can create up to six Lightsail DNS zones, and not all DNS record types are supported. For more information about Lightsail DNS zones, see [DNS](understanding-dns-in-amazon-lightsail.md).

If the Lightsail DNS zone is too limited for you, then we recommend using an Amazon Route 53 hosted zone to manage your domain’s DNS records. You can manage the DNS for up to 500 domains using Route 53, and it supports a greater variety of DNS record types. Or, you might already be using Route 53 to manage your domain’s DNS records and prefer to continue using it. This guide shows you how to edit the DNS records for a domain managed in Route 53 to point to your Lightsail instance.

## Prerequisites
<a name="using-amazon-route-53-prerequisites"></a>

Complete the following prerequisites if you haven’t already done so:
+ Register a domain name using Route 53. For more information, see [Registering a New Domain](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/domain-register.html) in the Route 53 documentation.
+ If you already registered a domain but you’re not using Route 53 to manage its records, then you must transfer management of the DNS records for your domain to Route 53. For more information, see [Making Amazon Route 53 the DNS Service for an Existing Domain](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/MigratingDNS.html) in the Route 53 documentation.
+ Create a public hosted zone for your domain in Route 53. For more information, see [Creating a Public Hosted Zone](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/CreatingHostedZone.html) in the Route 53 documentation.
+ Create a static IP and attach it to your Lightsail instance. In this guide, you create a DNS record in your domain’s Route 53 hosted zone that resolves to the static IP address (public IP address) of your instance. For more information, see [Create a static IP and attach it to an instance](lightsail-create-static-ip.md).

## Point a domain to a Lightsail instance using Route 53
<a name="pointing-a-domain-to-a-lightsail-instance-using-route-53"></a>

Complete the following steps to create an address (A) record in Route 53 to point your domain to a Lightsail instance.

**Note**  
This procedure is also documented in the Route 53 Developer Guide. For more information, see [Creating Records by Using the Amazon Route 53 Console](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/resource-record-sets-creating.html) in the Route 53 documentation.

1. Sign in to the [Route 53 console](https://console.aws.amazon.com/route53).

1. In the navigation pane, choose **Hosted zones**.

1. Choose the hosted zone for the domain name that you want to use to route traffic to your load balancer.

1. Choose **Create record**.

   The **Quick create record** page appears.  
![\[Create a record in Route 53 to point an alias to your Lightsail load balancer\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/images/create-record-set-alias-record-route-53-blank.png)
**Note**  
If you see the **Choose routing policy** page, then choose **Switch to quick create** to switch to the quick create wizard before continuing with the following steps.

1. Keep the **Record name** text box empty to point the apex of your domain, such as `example.com`, to an IP address, or enter a subdomain.

1. For **Record type**, choose **A - Routes traffic to an IPv4 address and some AWS resources**.

1. Enter the static IP address (public IP address) of your Lightsail instance in the **Value** text box.

1. Keep the TTL of 300, and the routing policy as **Simple routing**.  
![\[Address record example in a Route 53 hosted zone.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/images/amazon-lightsail-route-53-hosted-zone-a-record.png)

1. Choose **Create records** to add the record to your hosted zone.
**Note**  
Allow time for the change to propagate through the internet's DNS. This may take a few minutes to several hours.

   To edit an existing record set in the Route 53 hosted zone, choose the record to edit, enter your changes, and then choose **Save**.

# Register a domain in Lightsail
<a name="amazon-lightsail-register-new-domain"></a>

You can register new domains using Amazon Lightsail. Lightsail domains are registered through Amazon Route 53, a highly available and scalable DNS web service. If you have domains that are registered with other providers, you can transfer DNS management of those domains to Lightsail. You can also point those domains to your Lightsail resources. 

Choose one of the following procedures to register a new domain with Lightsail:
+ For registering a new domain, see [Register a new domain by using Lightsail](#register-new-domain-using-lightsail).
+ For an existing domain, see [Create a DNS zone to manage your domain’s DNS records](lightsail-how-to-create-dns-entry.md).
+ For moving a domain to another registrar, see [Manage a Lightsail domain in Amazon Route 53](amazon-lightsail-manage-domain-advanced.md).

Before you start, note the following considerations for domain registration:

**Domain registration pricing**  
For information about the cost to register domains, see [Amazon Route 53 pricing guide](https://aws.amazon.com/route53/pricing/#Domain_Names).

**Domain service quotas**  
There is a limit for how many domains you can register. For more information, see [Service quotas](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/DNSLimitations.html#limits-api-entities-domains) in the Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide. Contact Route 53 if you want to increase the limit.

**Supported domains**  
Lightsail supports the registration of all generic top-level domains (TLDs). For a list of supported TLDs, see [Domains that you can register with Amazon Route 53](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/registrar-tld-list.html#registrar-tld-list-index-generic) in the Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide.  
You must use Route 53 to register geographic top-level domains. For more information, see [Geographic top-level domains](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/registrar-tld-list.html#registrar-tld-list-index-geographic) in the Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide.

**Domain names can’t be changed after registration**  
If you accidentally register the wrong domain name, you won’t be able to change it. Instead, you must register another domain name and specify the correct name. There are no refunds for accidentally registered domain names.

**Charges for DNS zones**  
When you register a domain with Lightsail, we automatically create a DNS zone for the domain. Lightsail does not charge a fee for the DNS zone.

## Register a new domain by using Lightsail
<a name="register-new-domain-using-lightsail"></a>

**Topics**
+ [Prerequisites for registering a new domain](#reg-new-domain-prerequisites)
+ [Register a new domain](#reg-new-domain-steps)
+ [Verify the domain contact information](#reg-new-domain-verify-info)

### Prerequisites for registering a new domain
<a name="reg-new-domain-prerequisites"></a>

Confirm that the necessary DNS record types for your domain are supported by the Lightsail DNS zone. The Lightsail DNS zone currently supports address (A), canonical name (CNAME), mail exchanger (MX), name server (NS), service locator (SRV), and text (TXT) record types. For NS records, you can use wildcard DNS record entries.

If the DNS record types required for your domain are not supported by the Lightsail DNS zone, you might want to use Route 53 as your domain's DNS hosting provider. Route 53 supports more record types. For more information, see [Supported DNS Record Types](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/ResourceRecordTypes.html) and [Making Amazon Route 53 the DNS Service for an Existing Domain](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/MigratingDNS.html) in the Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide.

### Register a new domain
<a name="reg-new-domain-steps"></a>

**To register a new domain**

1. Sign in to the [Lightsail console](https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/).

1. Choose the **Domains & DNS** tab.

1. Choose **Register domain**, and specify the domain that you want to register.

   1. Enter the domain name that you want to register, and choose **Check availability** to find out whether the domain name is available. If the domain is available, continue to **Automatic domain renewal**.

   1. If the domain name isn’t available, you see a list of other domains that you might want to register instead of your first choice or in addition to your first choice. Choose **Select** for the domain that you want to register.

1. Choose whether to automatically renew your domain registration before the expiration date. When you register a domain name, you own it for a year by default. If you don't renew your domain name registration, it expires and someone else can register the domain name. To make sure that you keep your domain name, you can choose to renew it automatically every year, or select a longer term.

1. In the **Domain contact information** section, enter contact information for the domain registrant, administrator, and technical contacts. For more information, see [Values that you specify when you register or transfer a domain](amazon-lightsail-domain-register-values-specify.md).

   Note the following considerations:  
**First name and Last name**  
For **First name** and **Last name**, we recommend that you specify the name on your official ID. For some changes to domain settings, some domain registries require that you provide proof of identity. The name on your ID must match the name of the registrant contact for the domain.  
**Different contacts**  
By default, we use the same information for all three contacts. If you want to enter different information for one or more contacts, uncheck the **Same as registrant** checkbox and enter the new contact information.

1. In the **Privacy protection** section, choose whether you want to hide your contact information from WHOIS queries.

   For more information, see the following topics:
   + [Privacy protection](amazon-lightsail-domain-privacy-protection.md)
   + [Domains that you can register with Amazon Route 53](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/registrar-tld-list.html#registrar-tld-list-index-generic)

1. Choose **Register domain** to continue. The **DNS zones** and **Summary** sections show information about the domain’s DNS zone, pricing, and renewal schedule.

1. You must accept the [Amazon Route 53 domain name registration agreement](https://aws.amazon.com/route53/domain-registration-agreement/) before you can register your domain.

### Verify the domain contact information
<a name="reg-new-domain-verify-info"></a>

After you register your domain, you must verify that the email address for the registrant contact is valid.

We automatically send a verification email from one of the following email addresses:
+ **noreply@registrar.amazon** – For domains with Amazon Registrar as the registrar.
+ **noreply@domainnameverification.net** – For domains with our registrar associate, Gandi, as the registrar. To determine who the registrar is for your TLD, see [Domains that you can register with Amazon Route 53](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/registrar-tld-list.html#registrar-tld-list-index-generic) in the Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide. 

Use the following procedure to complete the domain verification process.

**To complete domain verification**

1. When you receive the verification email, choose the link in the email that verifies that the email address is valid. If you don't receive the email immediately, check your junk email folder.

1. Return to the Lightsail console. If the status doesn't automatically update to **Verified**, choose **Refresh status**.
**Important**  
The registrant contact must follow the instructions in the email to verify that the email was received, or we will suspend the domain as required by ICANN. When a domain is suspended, it's not accessible on the internet.

1. When domain registration is complete, choose whether to use Lightsail as your DNS service, or use a different DNS service.
   + **Lightsail**

     In the DNS zone that Lightsail created when you registered the domain, create records to tell Lightsail how you want to route traffic for the domain and subdomains. 

     For example, when someone enters your domain name in a browser and that query is forwarded to Lightsail, do you want Lightsail to respond to the query with the IP address of a web server or with the name of a load balancer? For more information, see [Edit or delete a DNS zone](https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/ls/docs/en_us/articles/amazon-lightsail-edit-or-delete-a-dns-zone).
   + **Using another DNS service**

     Configure your new domain to route DNS queries to a DNS service other than Lightsail. For more information, see [Update the name servers for your domain when you want to use another DNS service](amazon-lightsail-domain-register-other-dns-service-procedure.md).

# View registration details for domains that are registered with Amazon Registrar
<a name="amazon-lightsail-domain-whois-rdap"></a>

You can view information about .com, .net, and .org domains that were registered using Amazon Lightsail and Amazon Route 53, for which Amazon Registrar is the registrar. This information includes details such as when the domain was originally registered and contact information for the domain owner and for the technical and administrative contacts.

Note the following:

**Email domain contacts when privacy protection is active**  
If privacy protection is active for the domain, contact information for the registrant, technical, and administrative contacts is replaced with contact information for the Amazon Registrar privacy service. For example, if the **example.com** domain is registered with Amazon Registrar and if privacy protection is active, the value of **Registrant Email** in the response to a WHOIS query would be similar to `owner1234@example.com.whoisprivacyservice.org`.  
To contact one or more domain contacts when privacy protection is active, send an email to the corresponding email addresses. We will automatically forward your email to the applicable contact. 

**Report abuse**  
To report any illegal activity or violation of the [Acceptable Use Policy](http://aws.amazon.com/route53/amazon-registrar-policies/#acceptable-use-policy) , including inappropriate content, phishing, malware, or spam, send an email to **trustandsafety@support.aws.com**.

**To view information about domains that are registered with Amazon Registrar**  

1. In a web browser, go to one of the following websites. Both websites display the same information. However, they use different protocols and display the information in different formats:
   + **WHOIS**: [https://registrar.amazon.com/whois](https://registrar.amazon.com/whois)
   + **RDAP**: [https://registrar.amazon.com/rdap](https://registrar.amazon.com/rdap)

1. Enter the name of the domain that you want to view information about, and choose **Search**. If the domain you search for was not registered using Amazon Lightsail or Route 53, then you will see a message stating that the domain is not in the registrar database.

# Format domain names in Lightsail
<a name="amazon-lightsail-domain-name-format"></a>

To help people access the website or application, choose a domain name that’s easy to remember. Domain names (and the names of DNS zones, and records) consist of a series of labels separated by periods (.). Naming requirements depend on whether you're registering a domain name or specifying the name of a DNS zone or a record.

Format your domain name according to the following guidelines.

**Contents**
+ [Format domain names for domain name registration](#formatting-for-registration)
+ [Format domain names for DNS zones and records](#formatting-for-dns-zones-and-records)
+ [Use an asterisk (\$1) in the names of DNS zones and records](#using-asterisk)
+ [Next steps](#domain-name-format-next-steps)

## Format domain names for domain name registration
<a name="formatting-for-registration"></a>

For domain name registration, your domain name must have 1-255 characters. Valid characters for domain names include (a-z), (A-Z), (0-9), hyphens (-), and periods (.).

You can't use spaces or put a hyphen at the beginning or end of a domain name. Lightsail supports any valid generic top-level domain (TLD) name. For more information, see [Generic top-level domains](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/registrar-tld-list-generic.html) in the Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide.

## Format domain names for DNS zones and records
<a name="formatting-for-dns-zones-and-records"></a>

For DNS zones and records, the domain name must have 1-255 characters. Valid characters for domain names include (a-z), (A-Z), (0-9), hyphens (-), and periods (.). You can’t use spaces.

Lightsail stores alphabetic characters as lowercase letters (a-z), even if you specify them as uppercase letters (A-Z).

Lightsail supports DNS zones for both generic and geographic TLDs. For more examples of geographic TLDs, see [Geographic top-level domains](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/registrar-tld-list.html#registrar-tld-list-index-geographic) in the Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide.

## Using an asterisk (\$1) in the names of DNS zones and records
<a name="using-asterisk"></a>

DNS treats the asterisk (\$1) character as a wildcard character, depending on where the asterisk appears in the name. A wildcard DNS record is a record that answers DNS requests for any subdomain that you haven’t already defined. In Lightsail, you can create DNS zones and records that include the asterisk (\$1) in the name with the following conditions: 

**DNS zones**
+ You can't include an asterisk (\$1) in the leftmost label in a domain name. For example, you can’t use **\$1.example.com**.
+ If you include the asterisk (\$1) in other positions, DNS treats it as an ASCII 42 character, not a wildcard. For more information about ASCII characters, see [ASCII](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII) in *Wikipedia*.

**DNS Records**

Note the following restrictions on using an asterisk (\$1) as a wildcard in a DNS record name:
+ As a wildcard, the asterisk must replace the leftmost label in a domain name, for example, **** **\$1.example.com** or **\$1.acme.example.com**. If you include an asterisk in any other position, such as **prod.\$1.example.com**, DNS treats it as an ASCII 42 character, not as a wildcard.
+ The asterisk must replace the entire label. For example, you can't specify **\$1prod.example.com** or **prod.\$1.example.com**.
+ Specific domain names take precedence. For example, if you create records for **\$1.example.com** and **acme.example.com**, DNS queries for **acme.example.com** respond with the values in the **acme.example.com** record.
+ The asterisk applies to DNS queries for the subdomain level that includes the asterisk, and all the subdomains of that subdomain. For example, if you create a record named **\$1.example.com**, DNS queries for **\$1.example.com** will respond to the following:

  **zenith.example.com** 

  **acme.zenith.example.com**

  **pinnacle.acme.zenith.example.com** (if there are no records of any type for that DNS zone)

If you create a record named **\$1.example.com** and there's no **example.com** record, Lightsail responds to DNS queries for **example.com** with `NXDOMAIN` (non-existent domain).

You can configure Lightsail to return the same response to DNS queries for all subdomains at the same level and also for the domain name. For example, you can configure Lightsail to respond to DNS queries such as **acme.example.com** and **zenith.example.com** by using the **example.com** record. Perform the following steps to route traffic for subdomains to the **example.com** top-level domain:

1. Create a record for the domain, such as **example.com**.

1. Create an alias record for the subdomain, such as **\$1.example.com**. Specify the record that you created in the previous step as the target for the alias record.

## Next steps
<a name="domain-name-format-next-steps"></a>

For more information, see the following topics:
+ [Create a DNS zone to manage your domain’s DNS records](lightsail-how-to-create-dns-entry.md)
+ [DNS](understanding-dns-in-amazon-lightsail.md)

# Manage Lightsail domains with advanced Route 53 features
<a name="amazon-lightsail-manage-domain-advanced"></a>

Amazon Lightsail registers domains through Amazon Route 53, a highly available and scalable DNS web service. When you register a domain using Lightsail, you can manage the domain in both Lightsail and Route 53. 

Tasks such as registering a domain, and routing traffic for a domain to Lightsail resources are done in the Lightsail console. For more information, see [Domain registration in Amazon Lightsail](amazon-lightsail-domain-registration.md).

Advanced tasks, such as transferring domains, and deleting your registration must be done in the Amazon Route 53 console.

This guide provides information for some of the advanced management tasks you can complete using the Route 53 console. For a complete overview of Route 53, see [What is Amazon Route 53?](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/Welcome.html) in the *Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide*.

**Contents**
+ [View the status of a domain registration](#domain-registration-status)
+ [Lock a domain to prevent unauthorized transfer to another registrar](#locking-domain)
+ [Restore an expired or deleted domain](#restoring-expired-domain)
+ [Transfer domains](#transfer-domain-registration)
+ [Delete a domain name registration](#delete-domain-registration)

## View the status of a domain registration
<a name="domain-registration-status"></a>

Domain names have statuses that are also known as Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) status codes. ICANN, the organization that maintains a central database of domain names developed the EPP status code. EPP status codes tell you the status of a variety of operations. For example, registering a domain name, renewing the registration for a domain name, and so on. All registrars use this same set of status codes. To view the status code for your domains, see [Viewing the status of a domain registration](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/domain-view-status.html) in the *Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide*.

## Lock a domain to prevent unauthorized transfer to another registrar
<a name="locking-domain"></a>

The domain registries for all generic top-level domains (TLDs) let you lock a domain to prevent someone from transferring the domain to another registrar without your permission. For more information, see [Locking a domain to prevent unauthorized transfer to another registrar](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/domain-lock.html) in the *Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide*.

## Restore an expired or deleted domain
<a name="restoring-expired-domain"></a>

If you don't renew a domain before the end of the late-renewal period or if you accidentally delete the domain, some registries for top-level domains (TLDs) allow you to restore the domain before it becomes available for others to register. Use the linked procedure to try to restore your domain registration. For more information, see [Restoring an expired or deleted domain](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/domain-restore-expired.html) in the *Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide*.

## Transfer domain registrations
<a name="transfer-domain-registration"></a>

You can transfer domain registration from another registrar to Route 53, from one AWS account to another, or from Route 53 to another registrar. For more information, see [Transfer domains](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/domain-transfer.html) in the *Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide*.

## Delete a domain name registration
<a name="delete-domain-registration"></a>

For most top-level domains (TLDs), you can delete the registration if you no longer want it. If the registry allows you to delete the registration, perform the procedure in this topic. For more information, see [Deleting a domain name registration](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/domain-delete.html) in the *Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide*.

# Provide domain information when you register or transfer a domain in Lightsail
<a name="amazon-lightsail-domain-register-values-specify"></a>

When you use Amazon Lightsail to register a domain, you provide domain information such as the registration period (*term*) and domain contact information. You also configure automatic domain renewal and privacy protection.

You can also change information for a domain that is currently registered with Lightsail.

**Note**  
If you change contact information for the domain, we send an email notification to the registrant contact about the change. This email comes from **noreply@registrar.amazon**. For most changes, the registrant contact is not required to respond.
For changes to contact information that also constitute a change in ownership, we send the registrant contact an additional email. ICANN, the organization that maintains a central database of domain names, requires that the registrant contact confirm receiving the email. For more information, see [First name, last name](#first-name-last-name) and [Organization](#organization) later in this section.

For more information about changing contact information for an existing domain, see [Update contact information for a domain](amazon-lightsail-domain-update-contacts.md).

**Topics**
+ [Term](#term)
+ [Automatic domain renewal](#automatic-domain-renewal)
+ [Registrant, administrative, technical, and billing contacts](#registrant-admin-tech)
+ [Contact type](#contact-type)
+ [First name, last name](#first-name-last-name)
+ [Organization](#organization)
+ [Email](#email)
+ [Phone](#phone)
+ [Address 1](#address-1)
+ [Address 2](#address-2)
+ [Country](#country)
+ [State](#state)
+ [City](#city)
+ [Postal/zip code](#postal-code)
+ [Privacy protection](#privacy-protection)

## Term
<a name="term"></a>

The registration period for the domain. The term is typically one year, although you can increase the term up to ten years while registering the domain.

## Automatic domain renewal
<a name="automatic-domain-renewal"></a>

When you register a domain with Lightsail, we configure the domain to renew automatically. The automatic renewal period is typically one year. Choose whether to have Lightsail automatically renew the domain before it expires. The registration fee is charged to your AWS account. For more information, see [Domain registration renewal](amazon-lightsail-domain-manage-auto-renew.md).

**Important**  
If you deactivate automatic domain renewal, registration for the domain will not be renewed when the expiration date passes. As a result, you might lose control of the domain name. 

## Registrant, administrative, technical, and billing contacts
<a name="registrant-admin-tech"></a>

The following contacts are required when you register your domain:
+ **Registrant** – The owner of the domain.
+ **Administrator** – The point-of-contact responsible for administering the domain.
+ **Technical** – The point-of-contact responsible for making technical changes to the domain.
+ **Billing** – The point-of-contact responsible for billing inquiries about the domain.

**Note**  
By default, we use the same information that you specify for the registrant and apply it to the other contacts. To enter different information for a contact, clear the **Same as registrant** selection.

## Contact type
<a name="contact-type"></a>

The category for this contact.

**Note**  
If you choose the **Company** or **Association** option, you must enter an organization name.
For some top-level domains (TLDs), privacy protection availability depends on the value that you choose for **Contact type**. For the privacy protection settings for your TLD, see [Domains that you can register with Amazon Route 53](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/registrar-tld-list.html#registrar-tld-list-index-generic)

## First name, last name
<a name="first-name-last-name"></a>

The first and last names of the contact. For **First name** and **Last name**, we recommend that you use the name on your official ID. For some changes to domain settings, you must provide proof of identity. In those cases, the name on your ID must match the name of the registrant contact for the domain.

If you change the email address of the registrant contact, this email is sent to both the former and new email addresses.

## Organization
<a name="organization"></a>

The organization that is associated with the contact, if any. For the registrant and administrative contacts, this is typically the organization that is registering the domain. For the technical contact, this might be the organization that manages the domain.

When the contact type is any value except **Person** and you change the **Organization** field for the registrant contact, you change the domain owner. ICANN requires that we email the registrant contact to get approval. The email comes from one of the following email addresses:
+ **noreply@registrar.amazon** – For domains with Amazon Registrar as the registrar.
+ **noreply@domainnameverification.net** – For domains with our registrar associate, Gandi, as the registrar.

To determine who the registrar is for your TLD, see [Domains that you can register with Amazon Route 53](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/registrar-tld-list.html#registrar-tld-list-index-generic).

If you change the email address of the registrant contact, this email is sent to both the former and new email addresses.

## Email
<a name="email"></a>

The email address for the contact.

**Note**  
If you change the email address for the registrant contact, we send notification emails to both the former and new email addresses. This email comes from **noreply@registrar.amazon**.

## Phone
<a name="phone"></a>

The phone number for the contact:
+ If you're entering a phone number for locations in the United States or Canada, enter 1 followed by the 10-digit phone number with area code.
+ If you're entering a phone number for any other location, enter the country code followed by rest of the phone number. For a list of country calling codes, see [List of country calling codes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_country_calling_codes) on *Wikipedia*.

## Address 1
<a name="address-1"></a>

The street address or P.O. box for the contact. 

## Address 2
<a name="address-2"></a>

Additional address information for the contact, such as apartment, suite, unit, building, floor, or mail stop.

## Country
<a name="country"></a>

The country for the contact.

## State
<a name="state"></a>

The state or province for the contact, if any.

## City
<a name="city"></a>

The city for the contact.

## Postal/zip code
<a name="postal-code"></a>

The postal or zip code for the contact.

## Privacy protection
<a name="privacy-protection"></a>

Choose whether to conceal your contact information from WHOIS queries. If you activate privacy protection for your domain’s contact information, WHOIS ("who is") queries will return contact information for the domain registrar instead of your personal information. The domain registrar is the company that manages domain name registrations.

**Note**  
The same privacy setting applies to the administrative, registrant, and technical contacts.

If you deactivate privacy protection for your domain’s contact information, you will get more email spam at the email address that you specified.

Anyone can send a WHOIS query for a domain and get back all of the contact information for that domain. The WHOIS command is available in many operating systems, and it's also available as a web application on many websites.

**Important**  
Although there are legitimate users for your domain contact information, the most common users are spammers, who target domain contacts with unwanted email and bogus offers. In general, we recommend leaving **Privacy protection** activated for **Contact information**.

For more information about privacy protection, see the following topics:
+ [Manage privacy protection for a domain](amazon-lightsail-domain-privacy-protection.md)
+ [Domains that you can register with Amazon Route 53](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/registrar-tld-list.html#registrar-tld-list-index-generic)

# Renew or deactivate domain registration in Lightsail
<a name="amazon-lightsail-domain-manage-auto-renew"></a>

When you register a domain with Amazon Lightsail, we configure the domain to renew automatically by default. The default automatic renewal period is one year, although the registries for some top-level domains (TLDs) have longer renewal periods. All generic TLDs let you extend domain registration for longer periods, typically up to ten years in one-year increments. 

**Note**  
Make sure to deactivate automatic renewal if you intend to close your AWS account. Otherwise, your domain registration will be renewed even after you have closed your account.

**Contents**
+ [Automatic renewal](#automatic-renewal)
+ [Configure automatic renewal for a domain during domain registration](#enable-disable-auto-renew-during-registration)
+ [Configure automatic renewal for a domain that is already registered](#enable-disable-auto-renew-after-registration)

## Automatic renewal
<a name="automatic-renewal"></a>

The following timeline shows what happens when automatic renewal is active:

**45 days before expiration**  
We send an email to the registrant contact to tell you that automatic renewal is active. The email also contains instructions for how to deactivate automatic renewal. Keep the registrant contact email address current so the email isn't missed.

**35 or 30 days before expiration**  
For all domains except **.com.ar**, **.com.br**, and **.jp** domains, we renew domain registration 35 days before the expiration date. This way, we have time to resolve any issues with the renewal before the domain name expires.  
The registries for **.com.ar**, **.com.br**, and **.jp** domains require that we renew the domains no more than 30 days before expiration. Gandi, our registrar associate, will send a renewal email 30 days before expiration. If automatic renewal is active, this email is sent on the same day that we renew the domain.

If automatic renewal is inactive, the following timeline shows what happens as the domain name expiration date approaches:

**45 days before expiration**  
We send an email to inform the registrant contact that automatic renewal is currently inactive. The email also contains instructions for how to activate automatic renewal. Keep the registrant contact email address current so the email isn’t missed.

**35 and 7 days before expiration**  
If automatic renewal is inactive for the domain, ICANN, the governing body for domain registration, requires the registrar to send the registrant contact an email. The email comes from one of the following email addresses:    
**noreply@registrar.amazon** – For domains with Amazon Registrar as the registrar.    
**noreply@domainnameverification.net** – For domains with our registrar associate, Gandi, as the registrar.  
If you activate automatic renewal less than 30 days before expiration, we renew the domain registration within 24 hours.

For more information about renewal periods, see the "Deadlines for renewing and restoring domains" section for your TLD in [Domains that you can register with Amazon Route 53](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/registrar-tld-list.html) in the Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide.

**After the expiration date**  
Most domains are held by the registrar for a brief time after expiration, so you might be able to renew an expired domain after the expiration date, but we strongly recommend keeping automatic renewal active if you want to keep the domain. For information about trying to renew a domain after the expiration date, see [Restore an expired or deleted domain](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/domain-restore-expired.html) in the Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide.  
If your domain expires but late renewal is allowed for the domain, you can renew the domain for the standard renewal price. To determine whether a domain is still within the late-renewal period, perform the procedure in [Extend the registration period for a domain](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/domain-extend.html) in the Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide. If the domain is still listed, it's within the late-renewal period.

## Configure automatic renewal for a domain during domain registration
<a name="enable-disable-auto-renew-during-registration"></a>

When you register a new domain name with Lightsail, we configure the domain to renew automatically. You can choose to deactivate automatic domain renewal during the domain registration procedure.

1. Sign in to the [Lightsail console](https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/).

1. Choose the **Domains & DNS** tab.

1. Choose the **Register domain** button.

1. Specify the domain name that you want to register with Lightsail, then choose **Check availability**.

1. If the domain name is available, you will see the domain registration page. In the **Automatic domain renewal** section, turn the toggle switch on or off to activate or deactivate automatic domain renewal.

## Configure automatic renewal for a domain that is already registered
<a name="enable-disable-auto-renew-after-registration"></a>

When you want to change whether Lightsail automatically renews registration for a domain shortly before the expiration date, or if you want to view the current setting for automatic renewal, perform the following procedure.

1. Sign in to the [Lightsail console](https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/).

1. Choose the **Domains & DNS** tab.

1. Choose the domain that you want to view or update.

1. Choose the **Contact info** tab

1. 5. In the **Automatic domain renewal** section, turn the toggle switch on or off to activate or deactivate automatic renewal for the domain’s registration period.

# Manage privacy protection for domain contacts in Lightsail
<a name="amazon-lightsail-domain-privacy-protection"></a>

When you register a domain on Amazon Lightsail, we activate privacy protection by default for all the domain contacts. This typically hides most of your contact information from WHOIS ("Who is") queries and reduces the amount of spam that you receive. Your contact information is replaced with either the contact information for the registrar or with the phrase "REDACTED FOR PRIVACY." There are no charges for using privacy protection.

If you choose to deactivate privacy protection, anyone can send a WHOIS query for the domain and, for most top-level domains (TLDs), they might be able to get all the contact information that you provided when you registered the domain. This information includes name, address, phone number, and email address. The WHOIS command is widely available. It's included in many operating systems, and it's also available as a web application on many websites.

To manage privacy protection for a domain that you registered by using Lightsail, perform the following procedure.

**Contents**
+ [Complete the prerequisites](#privacy-protection-prerequisites)
+ [Manage privacy protection for your domain](#manage-domain-privacy-protection)

## Complete the prerequisites
<a name="privacy-protection-prerequisites"></a>

Register a domain with Lightsail. For more information, see [Register a new domain](amazon-lightsail-register-new-domain.md).

## Manage privacy protection for your domain
<a name="manage-domain-privacy-protection"></a>

1. Sign in to the [Lightsail console](https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/).

1. Choose the **Domains & DNS** tab.

1. Choose the name of the domain that you want to change the privacy protection for.

1. Choose **Contact info**.

1. You can manage privacy protection for your contact information by turning the **Privacy protection** toggle switch on or off.

# Update domain contact information in Lightsail
<a name="amazon-lightsail-domain-update-contacts"></a>

When you register a domain with Amazon Lightsail, you must specify contact information for your domain. Your domain’s contact information is used to verify ownership of your domain and to keep you updated about any information related to your domain name. For more information about the information required during domain registration, see [Provide domain information when you register or transfer a domain in Lightsail](amazon-lightsail-domain-register-values-specify.md).

**Topics**
+ [Who is the owner of a domain?](#who-is-domain-owner)
+ [Update contact information for a domain](#update-contacts-update-domain-contact-info)

## Who is the owner of a domain?
<a name="who-is-domain-owner"></a>

When the contact type is **Person** and you change the **First Name** or **Last Name** fields for the registrant contact, you change the owner of the domain.

When the contact type is any value except **Person** and you change **Organization**, you change the owner of the domain.

The following actions happen when you change the contact information for a domain that is currently registered with Lightsail:
+ If you change contact information for the domain, we send an email notification to the registrant contact about the change. This email comes from **noreply@registrar.amazon**. For most changes, the registrant contact is not required to respond.
+ For changes to contact information that also constitute a change in ownership, we send the registrant contact an additional email. ICANN, the organization that maintains a central database of domain names, requires that the registrant contact confirm receiving the email.

## Update contact information for a domain
<a name="update-contacts-update-domain-contact-info"></a>

To update contact information for a domain, perform the following procedure.

1. Sign in to the [Lightsail console](https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/).

1. Choose the **Domains & DNS** tab.

1. Choose the name of the domain that you want to update.

1. Choose the **Contact info** tab. Then, choose **Edit contact**.

1. Update the applicable values. For more information, see [Values that you specify when you register or transfer a domain](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/domain-register-values-specify.html) in the Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide.

1. Choose **Save**.