Custom Hostname not working as expected

MitchMitch Registered Users Posts: 111 Major grins
edited May 17, 2005 in SmugMug Support
Recently I purchased a domain name: mthphoto.com.

I followed the directions for using this as my custom hotname. After only a couple of hours www.mthphoto.com takes me to my smugmug page. GREAT! Everthing on the page works as it should.

The problem is when I typed mthphoto.com without the www I was taken to godaddy.com parked domain page. Now I knew I was doing something wrong and after several tries I contacted support over at godaddy. Basicly they gave me the same directions as I got here. (I have a work around in place see examples below)

Ok so then I started looking for others who have setup custom hostnames just to see how theirs worked.

Recently jowille posted a thread Custom Hostname, a place to start. Then I fond andy's url. I hope you two don't mind if I use you as examples.

The address www.jowilephoto.com will take you to his smugmug page no problem. Now enter jowilephoto.com without www and this now takes you to www.smugmug.com the home page for you know where. OK his was closer.

Then I tried andy's and again www.moonriverphotography.com works, but without the www it takes you to where he got his domain with a coming soon page.

Ok..above I mentioned a work around. In addition to the CNAMES thing I am using forwarding with mask. (don't ask me how I fond it, if you click enough buttons something will happen:rofl) Not the way I would like it but it work. The problem with this work around is that mthphoto.com (without www) does not display sub-dir different page address or whatever it's called. No matter where on the site you go the address bar only shows http://mthphoto.com.

Now I can live with this, but if anyone has a better way please let me know.:D

Thanks all


Mitch

Comments

  • lenscapelenscape Registered Users Posts: 101 Major grins
    edited April 24, 2005
    Mitch wrote:
    Recently I purchased a domain name: mthphoto.com.

    I followed the directions for using this as my custom hotname. After only a couple of hours www.mthphoto.com takes me to my smugmug page. GREAT! Everthing on the page works as it should.

    The problem is when I typed mthphoto.com without the www I was taken to godaddy.com parked domain page. Now I knew I was doing something wrong and after several tries I contacted support over at godaddy. Basicly they gave me the same directions as I got here. (I have a work around in place see examples below)

    Ok so then I started looking for others who have setup custom hostnames just to see how theirs worked.

    Recently jowille posted a thread Custom Hostname, a place to start. Then I fond andy's url. I hope you two don't mind if I use you as examples.

    The address www.jowilephoto.com will take you to his smugmug page no problem. Now enter jowilephoto.com without www and this now takes you to www.smugmug.com the home page for you know where. OK his was closer.

    Then I tried andy's and again www.moonriverphotography.com works, but without the www it takes you to where he got his domain with a coming soon page.

    Ok..above I mentioned a work around. In addition to the CNAMES thing I am using forwarding with mask. (don't ask me how I fond it, if you click enough buttons something will happenrolleyes1.gif) Not the way I would like it but it work. The problem with this work around is that mthphoto.com (without www) does not display sub-dir different page address or whatever it's called. No matter where on the site you go the address bar only shows http://mthphoto.com.

    Now I can live with this, but if anyone has a better way please let me know.:D

    Thanks all


    Mitch
    Hi Mitch,
    I'm using godaddy too. Mine works with or without www but the sub domain only works without www (accept one). I'm forwarding my domain and use the cname record to my smugmug page not the smugmug main page.

    P.S I was having problem with 1and1 before I moved here.

    www.lenscapephotography.com

    'you don't take a photograph, you make it.' - Ansel Adams
    http://www.lenscapephotography.com
  • onethumbonethumb Administrators Posts: 1,269 Major grins
    edited April 25, 2005
    Mitch wrote:
    Recently I purchased a domain name: mthphoto.com.

    I followed the directions for using this as my custom hotname. After only a couple of hours www.mthphoto.com takes me to my smugmug page. GREAT! Everthing on the page works as it should.

    The problem is when I typed mthphoto.com without the www I was taken to godaddy.com parked domain page. Now I knew I was doing something wrong and after several tries I contacted support over at godaddy. Basicly they gave me the same directions as I got here. (I have a work around in place see examples below)

    Ok so then I started looking for others who have setup custom hostnames just to see how theirs worked.

    Recently jowille posted a thread Custom Hostname, a place to start. Then I fond andy's url. I hope you two don't mind if I use you as examples.

    The address www.jowilephoto.com will take you to his smugmug page no problem. Now enter jowilephoto.com without www and this now takes you to www.smugmug.com the home page for you know where. OK his was closer.

    Then I tried andy's and again www.moonriverphotography.com works, but without the www it takes you to where he got his domain with a coming soon page.

    Ok..above I mentioned a work around. In addition to the CNAMES thing I am using forwarding with mask. (don't ask me how I fond it, if you click enough buttons something will happenrolleyes1.gif) Not the way I would like it but it work. The problem with this work around is that mthphoto.com (without www) does not display sub-dir different page address or whatever it's called. No matter where on the site you go the address bar only shows http://mthphoto.com.

    Now I can live with this, but if anyone has a better way please let me know.:D

    Thanks all


    Mitch

    smugmug only allows a single hostname. www.mthphoto.com is a completely different hostname than mthphoto.com, and thus, both won't work simultaneously.

    Using domain masking, domain framing, domain forwarding, etc etc (there are a lot of names for the same thing) will *break* most smugmug usages because cookies don't work. No shopping cart, no passworded galleries, no logging in/out, etc etc. I wouldn't use it.

    Don
  • winnjewettwinnjewett Registered Users Posts: 329 Major grins
    edited April 25, 2005
    onethumb wrote:
    smugmug only allows a single hostname. www.mthphoto.com is a completely different hostname than mthphoto.com, and thus, both won't work simultaneously.

    Using domain masking, domain framing, domain forwarding, etc etc (there are a lot of names for the same thing) will *break* most smugmug usages because cookies don't work. No shopping cart, no passworded galleries, no logging in/out, etc etc. I wouldn't use it.

    Don
    Here's a solution: host a simple page that redirects from http://yourdomain.com to http://www.yourdomain.com. If you would like, I have access to a server that can do this for you. If a ton of people are interested in this service, I might have to charge a couple bucks, but for now, I'd be happy to just set it up and forget about it.

    -Winn
    www.BrilliantPhoton.com
  • MitchMitch Registered Users Posts: 111 Major grins
    edited April 25, 2005
    onethumb wrote:
    smugmug only allows a single hostname. www.mthphoto.com is a completely different hostname than mthphoto.com, and thus, both won't work simultaneously.

    Using domain masking, domain framing, domain forwarding, etc etc (there are a lot of names for the same thing) will *break* most smugmug usages because cookies don't work. No shopping cart, no passworded galleries, no logging in/out, etc etc. I wouldn't use it.

    Don
    Don,

    I do have a lot to learnheadscratch.gif. You did tell me before that SM only allows a single hostname. I thought www.mthphoto.com and mthphoto.com would be basicly the same thing. When I asked before it was if I could use two completely different domain names.

    Thanks again for your help.

    Mitch
  • MitchMitch Registered Users Posts: 111 Major grins
    edited April 25, 2005
    lenscape wrote:
    Hi Mitch,
    I'm using godaddy too. Mine works with or without www but the sub domain only works without www (accept one). I'm forwarding my domain and use the cname record to my smugmug page not the smugmug main page.

    P.S I was having problem with 1and1 before I moved here.

    www.lenscapephotography.com
    Correct me if I am wrong. It looks like your start page is being hosted somewhere other than SM. When I rollover the pictures on your start page it points to a SM gallery at http://photos.lenscapephotography.com/gallery/#

    Is photos.lenscapephotography.com your domain name? If not where did the photos. come from?

    Thanks for your help.


    Mitch
  • lenscapelenscape Registered Users Posts: 101 Major grins
    edited April 25, 2005
    Mitch wrote:
    Correct me if I am wrong. It looks like your start page is being hosted somewhere other than SM. When I rollover the pictures on your start page it points to a SM gallery at http://photos.lenscapephotography.com/gallery/#

    Is photos.lenscapephotography.com your domain name? If not where did the photos. come from?

    Thanks for your help.


    Mitch
    Mitch,
    My domain (www.lenscapephotography.com)goes to a page is hosted outside the SM page.
    My sub domain (photos.lenscapephotography) is forwarded to SM and it's setup with SM preferences so it doesn’t break any frame.


    P.S I use (_top) to forward my links from the startup page to SM so it changes the URL from www.lenscapephotography.com to photos.lenscapephotography.com


    Hope it helps.:D

    'you don't take a photograph, you make it.' - Ansel Adams
    http://www.lenscapephotography.com
  • JesseJesse Registered Users Posts: 2 Beginner grinner
    edited April 25, 2005
    Hello All,



    I just signed up for the Pro account and immediately started setting up my site! Still a lot to do! If you don't mind I have a question referencing the custom hostname-

    Registered my Domain name www.jessefarrar.com at Go Daddy and followed each step as mentioned but when clicking on www.jessefarrar.com it takes me to www.smugmug.com . Should I have directed www.jessefarrar.com to www.jessefarrar.smugmug.com in Go Daddy for the setup?

    Any help is appreciated. Thank you.
  • MitchMitch Registered Users Posts: 111 Major grins
    edited April 25, 2005
    Jesse wrote:
    Hello All,



    I just signed up for the Pro account and immediately started setting up my site! Still a lot to do! If you don't mind I have a question referencing the custom hostname-

    Registered my Domain name www.jessefarrar.com at Go Daddy and followed each step as mentioned but when clicking on www.jessefarrar.com it takes me to www.smugmug.com . Should I have directed www.jessefarrar.com to www.jessefarrar.smugmug.com in Go Daddy for the setup?

    Any help is appreciated. Thank you.
    The way mine is set:


    Alias Points To
    www www.mthphoto.smugmug.com


    Typing www.mthphoto.com into the address bar sends you to my SM account or what would be www.mthphoto.smugmug.com. That much I have down pat.:giggle

    I hope that helped

    Mitch
  • BaldyBaldy Registered Users, Super Moderators Posts: 2,853 moderator
    edited April 25, 2005
    Jesse wrote:
    Registered my Domain name www.jessefarrar.com at Go Daddy and followed each step as mentioned but when clicking on www.jessefarrar.com it takes me to www.smugmug.com .
    I just noticed that in the instructions for GoDaddy, we neglected to add the final step — telling your smugmug account what your domain name is.

    It's the last step on this help page for Register.com:

    http://www.smugmug.com/help/network-solutions.mg

    Sorry about that omission.

    All the best,
    Baldy
    My Smug Mug
  • JesseJesse Registered Users Posts: 2 Beginner grinner
    edited April 25, 2005
    Thank you all I got it to work!
  • JamesJWegJamesJWeg Registered Users Posts: 795 Major grins
    edited April 25, 2005
    onethumb wrote:
    smugmug only allows a single hostname. www.mthphoto.com is a completely different hostname than mthphoto.com, and thus, both won't work simultaneously.

    Using domain masking, domain framing, domain forwarding, etc etc (there are a lot of names for the same thing) will *break* most smugmug usages because cookies don't work. No shopping cart, no passworded galleries, no logging in/out, etc etc. I wouldn't use it.

    Don
    I think I am not alone in saying that we want the ability to point more than one dns entry to our smugmug accounts without a redirector page hosted elsewhere. Will that every happen? Or would you be ever so kind as to arrange for some sort of onsite redirection for us?

    James.
    http://pics.jamesjweg.com
    http://www.jamesjweg.com
  • jowillejowille Registered Users Posts: 6 Beginner grinner
    edited May 1, 2005
    no www
    I came back here to look for some answers:): and I was acutally pleased to see you used me as an example! This has been driving me crazy, but what I did was to go to my godaddy account and in the total dns manager, I set up a new cname record. jowillephoto.com without the www is not directed to my smugmug name, www.jowille.smugmug.com . I actually set it to go to www.jowillephoto.com but I don't see my domain in the url box.

    I saw the official smugmug reply about only one domain name. The problem is that in these days, people are actually getting too lazy to type in the www in front of the url.

    It works for now, but not exactly like I want it to.... :)

    Thanks,

    Bill


    Mitch wrote:
    Recently I purchased a domain name: mthphoto.com.

    I followed the directions for using this as my custom hotname. After only a couple of hours www.mthphoto.com takes me to my smugmug page. GREAT! Everthing on the page works as it should.

    The problem is when I typed mthphoto.com without the www I was taken to godaddy.com parked domain page. Now I knew I was doing something wrong and after several tries I contacted support over at godaddy. Basicly they gave me the same directions as I got here. (I have a work around in place see examples below)

    Ok so then I started looking for others who have setup custom hostnames just to see how theirs worked.

    Recently jowille posted a thread Custom Hostname, a place to start. Then I fond andy's url. I hope you two don't mind if I use you as examples.

    The address www.jowilephoto.com will take you to his smugmug page no problem. Now enter jowilephoto.com without www and this now takes you to www.smugmug.com the home page for you know where. OK his was closer.

    Then I tried andy's and again www.moonriverphotography.com works, but without the www it takes you to where he got his domain with a coming soon page.

    Ok..above I mentioned a work around. In addition to the CNAMES thing I am using forwarding with mask. (don't ask me how I fond it, if you click enough buttons something will happenrolleyes1.gif) Not the way I would like it but it work. The problem with this work around is that mthphoto.com (without www) does not display sub-dir different page address or whatever it's called. No matter where on the site you go the address bar only shows http://mthphoto.com.

    Now I can live with this, but if anyone has a better way please let me know.:D

    Thanks all


    Mitch
  • winnjewettwinnjewett Registered Users Posts: 329 Major grins
    edited May 1, 2005
    I am pleased to announce three new hosting packages designed for smugmug professionals.

    The first package is totally free, and includes a redirect page that will allow your customers access to your site regardless of how they type the url.

    Cheers,
    Winn
    www.BrilliantPhoton.com
  • lifeonfilmphotographylifeonfilmphotography Registered Users Posts: 4 Beginner grinner
    edited May 17, 2005
    Hi Winn,

    You are terrific! We will likely use one of your options for the site, just need to run it by the owner. Thanks very much!
  • winnjewettwinnjewett Registered Users Posts: 329 Major grins
    edited May 17, 2005
    lifeonfilmphotography wrote:
    Hi Winn,

    You are terrific! We will likely use one of your options for the site, just need to run it by the owner. Thanks very much!
    You are most welcome. I'm just glad I can help out.

    -Winn
    www.BrilliantPhoton.com
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