my new domain does not load when i put it in thr address box of my browser and click go. am i doing something wrong?

Answer by: Andrew Hickl, Aplus.Net Knowledge Base Support

There are four major issues that could cause your site to not be available from your web browser. 

1. Your hosting plan is off-line.  When your site is off-line, you should always check the status of your hosting plan first. To confirm that your hosting plan is active, type your utility domain into the address bar of your browser. Aplus.Net utility domains are based on your FTP Username. For UNIX-based hosting plans, your utility domain should be: http://ftpusername.web.aplus.net. For Windows-based hosting plans, your utility domain should be: http://ftpusername.win.aplus.net.
   
   If you do not see your site’s content via your utility domain, the problem most likely resides with your hosting plan. Call Customer Support at (888) 301-2516 for a further resolution of your problem.

2. The Domain Name Registration hasn’t propagated yet. With any new domain name registration, you should allow 48-72 hours the domain to become active. During this time, important information about the domain name (including information about its name servers, registrar, and contact information) is being sent to all of the name servers around the world. You will not be able to access your domain until all the name servers that lie between your local computer and your server have received and processed this information. A similar process occurs any time a domain is renewed after its expiration date. If you renew your domain before its expiration date, however, no downtime will be experienced.
   
   In order to check the status of your domain name registration, you can perform a WHOIS search on the Internet.
   
   Note:  Domain registrations should take no more than 96 hours to propagate.  If you still don’t see information about your domain after 4 days, please call Customer Support at (888) 301-2516.

3. Your domain name registration has expired. Domain names will go off-line if they have expired. You can also perform a WHOIS search to check the status of your domain registration as well. If the Status field reads anything other than Active, you should call Customer Support at (888) 301-2516 to investigate the problem further.

4. The Name Servers aren’t set correctly. Every domain name is associated with (at least) two name servers. Name servers translate the actual name of a domain from a string of characters (i.e. yourdomain.com) into the actual physical location of your site’s hosting server (such as the home/u5/username/html/ directory on the pro6.abac.com server). Without this translation, your request to receive traffic from the website won’t be received, and you won’t be able to view your site.
   If your domain is hosted with Aplus.Net, your name servers should be set to ns1.abac.com and ns2.abac.com.

You can use the Aplus.Net Control Panel to change the name server information associated with your domain. Here’s how:

1. Start by logging into the Aplus.Net Control Panel at http://cp.aplus.net using your Registration Number and Customer Password.
2. Select Domains from the top navigation bar.
3. Click the domain name that you’d like to modify.
4. Click the Manage Name Servers icon.
5. Enter (at least) the primary and secondary name servers for your domain name. You may add as many as 4 name servers in total.  Name servers should be added as addresses, such as ns1.abac.com, and not as IP addresses (like 66.228.68.3).
6. Click Modify to change the name servers. Click Cancel to escape.

Please keep in mind that all DNS changes take between 48-72 hours to propagate over the worldwide network of name servers.