How to Connect a Domain with IP (Step by Step Guide)?

How to Connect a Domain with IP (Step by Step Guide)?

When you buy a domain name, the next step is to connect it to your server so people can visit your website using yourdomain.com. In this guide, we’ll walk through connecting a domain with Nginx and setting up HTTPS using Let’s Encrypt. There are 6 Steps like below:

1. Point Your Domain to the Server
2. Install Nginx
3. Create Web Root for Your Domain
4. Configure Nginx for Your Domain
5. Install Free SSL (Let’s Encrypt)
6. Test Your Website

For this guide, I used: Hosting Server: VPS from Duen Penh Data Center : https://dpdatacenter.com/en

Domain Service: GoDaddy : https://www.godaddy.com/ (You can use any VPS provider and domain registrar of your choice — the steps are the same.)

1. Point Your Domain to the Server

1.1. Login to your domain registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, etc.).

1.2. Go to DNS settings.

1.3. Add an A record:

1.3.1. Host: @ (or yourdomain.com)

1.3.2. Value: Your server’s public IP address

1.3.3. TTL: Auto or 3600

1.4. (Optional: Add www as a CNAME pointing to yourdomain.com)

Example on GoDaddy > Type: A, Name: @, Data: our server public ip , TTL: Auto or 1 Hour

If you want to add a sub domain > Type: A, Name: yoursubdomain, Data: Your server public ip , TTL: Auto or 1 Hour

✅ Now your domain points to your server.

2. Install Nginx

If your sever not yet install nginx:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install nginx -y

Check status

systemctl status nginx

Open your server IP in the browser → you should see the Nginx welcome page.

3. Create Web Root for Your Domain

Create a directory

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/yourdomain.com

Create a html file

sudo vim /var/www/yourdomain.com/index.html Example content:

<main>
    <h2>Default Page</h2>
    <p>If you see this page, your Nginx setup is successful.</p>
    <p>Replace this file with your own content at:</p>
    <code>/var/www/html/index.html</code>
</main>

<footer>
    <p>&copy; 2025 My Website</p>
</footer>

4. Configure Nginx for Your Domain

Create a new config file

sudo vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/yourdomain.com

Sample:

server {

server_name yourdomain.com;

root /var/www/yourdomain.com;
index index.html;

access_log /var/log/nginx/yourdomain_access.log;
error_log  /var/log/nginx/yourdomain_error.log;

location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
}

listen 443 ssl; # managed by Certbot
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot
include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot
ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot

}

server {

listen 80;
server_name yourdomain.com;
return 301 https://$host$request_uri;  # redirect HTTP → HTTPS

}

Enable the site: Link config file to enable:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/yourdomain.com.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Check Status:

sudo nginx -t

Restart:

sudo systemctl reload nginx

5. Install Free SSL (Let’s Encrypt)

Run Certbot:

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y

sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com

Check auto-renew:

sudo systemctl status certbot.timer

6. Test Your Website

Open http://yourdomain.com → should redirect to HTTPS.

Open https://yourdomain.com → should show your custom page.

Conclusion

That’s it! You have successfully connected your domain with Nginx and secured it with SSL. 🎉 Now you can host websites, APIs, or apps using your custom domain.

Note: If you find this article useful, please like and share it with your friends or community. Your support motivates me to create more helpful guides! 🚀

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