Power and Pro users with Custom Domains take note!! - Changes needed

docwalker

The announcement email has been sent. http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=1017533#post1017533

Folks that are getting the error message recently. This thread is not exactly related to your issue. Your problem is something a little different. You have your custom domain set with yournickname.smugmug.com That should never have worked but it did. We made some changes this weekend and it broke how that works. We did not know that this would happen so we could not warn you. The warnings for this post will be going out soon. But, if you make the changes here, you will be ahead of the curve. I am sorry for the inconvenience. I will help get your domain working again as fast as possible.


@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@


If you use SmugMug's custom domain feature, you'll need to make a few (hopefully painless) changes. This includes most smugmugdomains.com customers set up before 8/20/08.

In the past, SmugMug users were instructed to set up their custom domains using a CNAME. We also had A record instructions, but with a warning that the A record may change in the future. That time has come and we are actually changing both the CNAME and A records.

You will need to edit your existing setup so that your domains CNAME points to domains.smugmug.com instead of to www.smugmug.com . It must be exactly domains.smugmug.com do not put anything else in. DO NOT point your domain at yournickname.smugmug.com no matter how tempted you may be. It will not work.

If you have an A record pointed at your site, it will now need to point to 208.79.45.23 . We have instructions that will apply to most users on our wiki here: http://wiki.smugmug.net/display/SmugMug/CNAME+Custom+Domain+Name+Help

If you are using a subdomain such as photos.yourdomain.com, you may only have a CNAME or A record. You do not need both.

Also, DO NOT use domain forwarding or redirects. Those will also cause problems.

Simply put, go to your domain registrar and locate the Total DNS control, cPanel, DNS Manager, or whatever your domain host calls it.

Look for anything that points to www.smugmug.com and change it to domains.smugmug.com any IP address of 63.81.134.23 should be changed to 208.79.45.23

Once you make the change you will need to wait between 1-24 hours before the updates will fully propagate.

If you get stuck making the changes, we'll be happy to unstick you. Please send via email to the help desk the name of your domain host, your domain host customer number/login ID, and set a temporary password so that we can login. Send this mail ATTN: Doc in the subject line. We will go in and make the changes for you.

If done properly, your visitors should have uninterrupted access to your SmugMug site via your custom domain. In other words, they won't know anything has changed. In some rare cases, your domain may be taken down by your domain host for 24-48 hours while the DNS settings update. So please plan accordingly.

It's best to take care of this immediately. We still have not sent out the email. We will be sending out more notifications by QuickNews, Blogs, Release Notes and Email.

***************************************

There have been several requests for how to check to make sure your domain is set up correctly. I have instructions for running an NSLookup here: http://wiki.smugmug.net/display/SmugMug/Troubleshooting+your+CNAME+setup These are the same steps I use when checking your domains when you write the help desk.

***************************************

****smugmugdomains.com users please note that in the past your domain was setup automatically with an * hostname. You probably want to delete that record and create new records as shown here: http://wiki.smugmug.net/display/SmugMug/GoDaddy+CNAME+Setup

xris

Now, or sometime in the future?
So, can we do that now? Or shall we wait for a go-ahead?

docwalker

Now It is working and I have been setting people up this way for about a week now.

It really is nothing more than an IP address and domain name change. The old ones will stop working in about a month. I will have the exact date soon. ETA September 3rd.

Awais Yaqub

My domain providor has changed them i wonder how can i check the change

Andy

xris wrote:

So, can we do that now? Or shall we wait for a go-ahead?

You can do it now My site, Moon River Photography has been on the new stuff for days.

Awais Yaqub

I have AVG it tells IP address of the website in Google search it shows

208.79.45.23 for awaisyaqub.com
63.81.134.23 for awais.smugmug.com

I think changes have implemented correctly

Maestro

Okay I did it. At least I think I did it. Over at Joker.com I hit save after deleting the previous IP/DNS settings, but then just picked where I was supposed to be. My custom name page doesn't look like the one in the screen capture though. I had no reference to the password, plus I really didn't have to change my custom name. That never changed but I resubmitted anyway.

docwalker

To test it out you can go here: http://www.zoneedit.com/lookup.html

Enter your domain and then for the 2nd option pick Alias CNAME.

Then remove the www. and run it again using IP Address (A) for the second option.

You should see the IP address and CNAME in the results.

docwalker

Awais, yours looks right.

I forgot to mention that Mac users can use the preinstalled app called Network Utility. The lookup tab is the one you want.

Maestro

I'm pretty sure it is correct. I just received an email notification and the new CNAME for my custom name is domains.smugmug.com so all looks good.

xris

Done
Okay. I've made the CName changes. It doesn't show yet on the test page, but I understand changes can take up to 48 hrs to register.

Montec

Is this correct? GoDaddy is confusing

Montec

Montec wrote:

Is this correct? GoDaddy is confusing

Should have sent this one I think

docwalker

Top block put www

Bottom put domains.smugmug.com

What you have now is going to cause you problems.

docwalker

Just so you understand why that is not correct.

Anything in the alias block is what ends up in the TLD part of your domain. That is normally www. So what you have now is going to give you domains.smugmug.com.yourdomain.com Not good.

The alias needs to be www and the host is domains.smugmug.com

docwalker

Also, note that you have forwarding turned on in your screen shot. Do not use forwarding. That will cause you problems.

xris

New CName Working
Done and working.... Test checks out too.:ivar
Thanks for the great directions!


PS. Is this a lead-up to something? What's up?

docwalker

xris wrote:

PS. Is this a lead-up to something? What's up?

Yup, it leads to your site working :-) Nothing special. Our IP needed to change so we had to update it. That means you do too.

xris

docwalker wrote:

Yup, it leads to your site working :-) Nothing special. Our IP needed to change so we had to update it. That means you do too.

Andy

Montec wrote:

Should have sent this one I think

Looks good, monte

jwalkeroh

Thanks for the heads-up. I suggest sending an email to all power and pro users. I'm guessing that some will not see this thread in time, and an email out to all would be additionally proactive.

docwalker

Working on it

Llywellyn

Worked like a charm. Thank you!

docwalker

Yep, Yours is working great.

OffTopic

Thanks for having such specific directions in the Wiki for making the changes. GoDaddy doesn't make it very clear how to modify the records after they're already set up (at least for those of us who aren't very familiar with this stuff).

docwalker

I try to keep it up to date. I am in the domain hosts on an almost daily basis so I try to keep the screen shots accurate.

I do find it funny that people tell me occasionally that it is not up to date. I go back and check and the screen shots are identical. Thanks for making me feel better.

mikegodwin

I never put in a custom A record the first time, just the custom CNAME record. Do I need to put an A record in this time or just leave it like it is?
I use IX Web Hosting. Here's what it looks like:

cowtowndns.JPG

Also.. I just made the CNAME change less then 30 minutes ago so it might not have had time to replicate.

docwalker

A records are needed if you want your visitors to go straight to your SmugMug site using yourdomain.com if not, they must type in www.yourdomain.com

I see that your cowtownphoto.com currently points to a redirect page and then to a web page hosted somewhere else. So that is up to you.

darkdragon

I just followed the instructions in the help to register a new domain through smugdomains but my smugmug control panel won't accept the domain.

Came here to check and figure out what I did wrong and saw this thread, which I think might be related.

Should I just give it some more time for the registration to complete? (it's been about 10 minutes).

docwalker

It can take changes at your domain host 24-48 hours to propagate around the internet and update. Some systems are faster than others.

I just checked and your stills shows the old info on my DNS server. Give it some time. I will probably update.

darkdragon

docwalker wrote:

It can take changes at your domain host 24-48 hours to propagate around the internet and update. Some systems are faster than others.

I just checked and your stills shows the old info on my DNS server. Give it some time. I will probably update.

Thanks! I did also just get an email with the 24-48 hour thing too. I'll just give it some time.