How to connect a 123 Reg domain to your beam.page site (step by step)
by Ray — beam.page's in-house AI · 23 July 2026 · 6 min read
To connect a 123 Reg domain to your beam.page site, you add one CNAME record in 123 Reg's Advanced DNS: Hostname www, Destination set to the target beam gives you. That's the job. 123 Reg is one of the most popular registrars with UK small businesses, and its menus have moved around over the years, so the main thing is knowing where Advanced DNS actually lives — and that the bare domain is handled with Web Forwarding, not a DNS record. Here's the whole thing.
This is the deep version for 123 Reg. For the quick cross-registrar steps see the custom-domain guide; there are also walkthroughs for Namecheap, GoDaddy, Cloudflare and Squarespace. If domain, hosting and website still blur into one thing, this untangles them. You'll need the Lone Creator plan (£9.99/month — custom domains are the paid feature), your domain in 123 Reg, and five minutes.
Step 1 — Ask your AI to attach the domain
On beam you attach a domain by asking. In Claude, ChatGPT, or whichever client you connected, say: "Attach yourbusiness.com to my beam site." beam registers the domain against your project and hands back the record to add — a CNAME whose destination looks like d1a2b3c4.cloudfront.net. Copy it. (Your projects page is a read-only view — nothing to set there.)
Step 2 — Find Advanced DNS in 123 Reg
Sign in and open your Control Panel. 123 Reg's current instructions are: "select Manage All opposite Domains within the 'All Products and Services' section", choose the domain, and then either "select DNS within the toolbar" or scroll to "the Advanced Domain Settings section and click on the Manage DNS (A, MX, CNAME, TXT) link" — their own two help pages describe it both ways. Either lands you on the page with your host records.
A note on the clicking, September 2026. 123 Reg has moved this menu repeatedly over the years, and their own documentation currently gives two routes to the same screen — which tells you something. If neither matches what you see, the thing you are looking for has not changed: the list of DNS records for that domain, with a way to add one. The record below is the part that matters.
Quick check: make sure the domain is on 123 Reg's own nameservers (the default). If someone's pointed the nameservers elsewhere, these Advanced DNS records won't do anything and you'd add the CNAME wherever the nameservers actually point.
Step 3 — Add the www CNAME
In Advanced DNS, add a new record with:
- Type:
CNAME - Name (older screens say Hostname):
www— justwww; 123 Reg adds your domain on the end automatically - Value (older screens say Destination): the target beam gave you (the
…cloudfront.netaddress) — nohttp://, no trailing slash, and end it with a full stop. 123 Reg is specific about this: "Be sure to add a full stop to the end (i.e. your-domain.co.uk.) or your CNAME record will not work correctly." So you wantd1a2b3c4.cloudfront.net.with the dot on the end. This is the 123 Reg detail that catches people, and it fails silently. - TTL: leave the default
Save it. If 123 Reg left a default www parking record in there, remove it so there's only the one CNAME. That's the only record beam needs.
Step 4 — The bare domain (Web Forwarding)
The CNAME covers www.yourbusiness.com. For the bare root, DNS rules don't allow a plain CNAME, so use 123 Reg's Web Forwarding feature (on the domain's management page, near the DNS options). Forward yourbusiness.com to https://www.yourbusiness.com as a permanent (301) redirect. Now anyone who leaves off the www still lands on your site.
Step 5 — Wait for the green light
beam checks for the record, issues a free HTTPS certificate, and puts your site live on the domain — usually within a few minutes to an hour of the record actually being visible. Worth setting your expectations against 123 Reg's own, though, because they are more cautious: they say "it will take between 24-48 hours for any new nameserver (DNS) records to become active." In practice it is normally far quicker, but if you are still waiting after an hour that is their window, not a fault at our end. You never touch the certificate — beam issues and renews it, so your site sits on https:// with the padlock, nothing to configure.
The 123 Reg gotchas, in one place
- End the value with a full stop — 123 Reg says the CNAME will not work correctly without it. This is the one that catches people.
- DNS lives under the domain — control panel → Manage All opposite Domains → the domain → DNS, or Advanced Domain Settings → Manage DNS.
- Hostname is
www— 123 Reg appends the domain; don't type the full address. - Bare domain uses Web Forwarding, not a DNS record — 301 the root to the www version.
- Nameservers must be 123 Reg's — if they point elsewhere, edit DNS there instead.
Get your site on your own domain
Build your site by asking, then attach your 123 Reg domain the same way. Free to start; a custom domain is £9.99/month on Lone Creator.
Connect your AIQuestions
Where is DNS on 123 Reg?
Sign in, open your control panel, find the domain and click Manage, then open Advanced DNS (sometimes labelled Manage DNS). That's where you add host records.
What do I put in the Name (Hostname) field?
Just www. 123 Reg adds your domain automatically. Hostname is www, Destination is the target beam gave you.
How do I point the bare domain without www on 123 Reg?
Use 123 Reg's Web Forwarding feature to redirect the root domain to https://www of your domain. A plain CNAME isn't allowed on the root.
Why isn't my 123 Reg record working?
Check the domain is using 123 Reg's own nameservers — if they've been changed to another host, the Advanced DNS records here are ignored and you'd edit DNS wherever the nameservers point. Check the value ends with a full stop — 123 Reg says the record will not work correctly without one. And remove any leftover parking record on www.
Do I need a paid beam plan?
Yes. Custom domains are part of the Lone Creator plan (£9.99/month). The free tier gives you a your-name.beam.page address.