PlusNet (PN) have been supplying my domain for years at no charge and continue to renew it annually without incident. As this facilitates the ability for me to have multiple email boxes/addresses associated to my domain name along with a 'capture all' option, I'm pretty happy at getting all this without additional payment when most of the webhost companies I have researched would insist on me going for one of their upper tier packages to have similar options.
I have also run a website using my domain name, which is written using WordPress(WP) that is installed on the web space PN also supplies me with, as a part of my package.
However, I managed to break said website a while back when I stupidly amended some URL settings relating to SSL, having not first knowing what I should be doing.
Now, I could get some help to fix this but I understand (after trawling though this forum) that installing an SSL certificate onto the PN servers has limitations, in that I would not be able to use it for my domain name, but would need to use a PlusNet URL. This is of no use to me.
So (if you're still with me), as I'm familiar with the WP user interface, the sensible option to me is to host my website on wordpress.com and get my domain name to point to it. This would allow me to continue to get my domain name for free and to leave my email set-up untouched.
I've been in contact with WP support and have established which of their packages I'd need and am comfortable with that and its price. That said, they then asked a few questions that I was unable to answer as, despite being OK at the design part, I'm not greatly skilled when it comes to settings/tech stuff.
So my hope is that there's someone out there that has either already achieved when I'm aiming to do and can maybe guide me through some steps.
If not then perhaps someone may be able to advise which on the following taken from my chat with WP and answer the email DNS question so that I can get back to them and hopefully build a new site on their platform.
Do you know the DNS records for their email service?
Where do I find this?
There are two ways to connect a domain with WordPress.com.
1. Update name servers to:
ns1.wordpress.com
ns2.wordpress.com
ns3.wordpress.com
This method would make the domain's DNS records manageable at WordPress.com. Also, if you have an existing email address with another company, you will need to add the DNS records of your email service at WordPress.com. Here's the guide: https://en.support.wordpress.com/add-email/add-other-email/
2. Add A records of WordPress.com on your domain registrar.
In this method, the domain will be completely managed at your domain registrar. You'll just need to add the WordPress.com IP address on the domain.
Option 2 looks simpler, but is it a PN option?
Would PN assist me with any of the options or do I do it all myself?
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.
