Cannot get custom domain to work

ansel4

I use Netfirms as my registrar. I have setup a CNAME with www. pointing to domains.smugmug.com. It has been 24 hours so I tried to input my domain www.silvertouchphotography.com into my Smugmug control panel but I get the following message:
That hostname doesn't resolve to SmugMug's CNAME (domains.smugmug.com). See our help section on custom hostnames.

Please help.

Also, what should my DNS servers be for this domain. Currently they are pointed at my old hosting account, which I do not plan to use anymore. Could this be causing a problem? If so, where do I point my domain?

Thanks.

BeachBill

ansel4 wrote:

I use Netfirms as my registrar. I have setup a CNAME with www. pointing to domains.smugmug.com. It has been 24 hours so I tried to input my domain www.silvertouchphotography.com into my Smugmug control panel but I get the following message:
That hostname doesn't resolve to SmugMug's CNAME (domains.smugmug.com). See our help section on custom hostnames.

Please help.

Also, what should my DNS servers be for this domain. Currently they are pointed at my old hosting account, which I do not plan to use anymore. Could this be causing a problem? If so, where do I point my domain?

Thanks.

If Netfirms is going to be providing your DNS, you will need to change the DNS name servers to the ones provided by Netfirms. You will need to contact Netfirms to see what name servers they want you to use.

ansel4

BeachBill wrote:

If Netfirms is going to be providing your DNS, you will need to change the DNS name servers to the ones provided by Netfirms. You will need to contact Netfirms to see what name servers they want you to use.

Ok, I wasn't sure since they are only the registrar, not my hosting company for that domain. I no longer have a host for that domain. I just made the change to Netfirms' name servers so once it propagates I'll try to input my website address into my Smugmug account setting. Thanks for the help.

BeachBill

The thing to keep in mind is that all DNS entries (CNAME, etc.) must by set up at the location that you have the DNS name servers pointing to, otherwise they will not be seen or work.

ansel4

BeachBill wrote:

The thing to keep in mind is that all DNS entries (CNAME, etc.) must by set up at the location that you have the DNS name servers pointing to, otherwise they will not be seen or work.

That makes sense. Ok, now my domain www.silvertouchphotography.com takes me to smugmug's home page. I went to enter my domain in my control panel under custom hostname and I still get the the following message:

That hostname doesn't appear to be valid. It doesn't resolve to a hostname. See our help section on custom hostnames.


Any thoughts?

Thanks.

BeachBill

You've just got to give it some time. Without going into the details about how the domain name system works, it takes anywhere between 12 and 72 hours for the new information to propagate across the Internet.

ansel4

BeachBill wrote:

You've just got to give it some time. Without going into the details about how the domain name system works, it takes anywhere between 12 and 72 hours for the new information to propagate across the Internet.

Ok, so even though it now points to Smugmug's home page it may still end up working and let me input my domain info into my control panel?

I knew these things could take awhile but I figured since it already resolves to Smugmug's home page something was wrong.

Thanks again.

BeachBill

It is resolving to smugmug's home page from *your* point of view. Basically when you try to go to a domain name, your ISP checks their local DNS cache, if they have nonexpired information for the domain you are asking for, they use it, otherwise if they have no information for a domain or the information they have has expired, they ask the upstream DNS resolvers for the information about that domain.

What this means is:

Your ISP knows about the updated information for your domain
Smugmug's DNS resolver had the cached information from the first time you tried entering the hostname in the control panel, i.e. it had not expired yet, so they were still seeing the old information. Once the DNS resolver(s) that Smugmug uses expire the cached information for your domain, the latest, updated information will be pulled in.

One of the above two situations is true for every Internet provider across the world. Each Internet providers DNS cache is set to expire after a specific amount of time (varies from provider to provider). My experience is this area tells me that after about 12 hours, most providers caches will have expired, but there are always those who like to retain information for a very long time and 72 hours is a safe bet for 99% of the providers out there to have refreshed their cache.

*I would also guesstimate that 99% of the Internet providers don't currently have your domain in their DNS cache so most of this discussion is entirely moot. The important thing is that Smugmug has the old information in their DNS cache and you will just need to wait for it to expire.

...sorry I didn't mean to ramble on and on... hopefully you are not more confused now...

ansel4

BeachBill wrote:

It is resolving to smugmug's home page from *your* point of view. Basically when you try to go to a domain name, your ISP checks their local DNS cache, if they have nonexpired information for the domain you are asking for, they use it, otherwise if they have no information for a domain or the information they have has expired, they ask the upstream DNS resolvers for the information about that domain.

What this means is:

Your ISP knows about the updated information for your domain
Smugmug's DNS resolver had the cached information from the first time you tried entering the hostname in the control panel, i.e. it had not expired yet, so they were still seeing the old information. Once the DNS resolver(s) that Smugmug uses expire the cached information for your domain, the latest, updated information will be pulled in.

One of the above two situations is true for every Internet provider across the world. Each Internet providers DNS cache is set to expire after a specific amount of time (varies from provider to provider). My experience is this area tells me that after about 12 hours, most providers caches will have expired, but there are always those who like to retain information for a very long time and 72 hours is a safe bet for 99% of the providers out there to have refreshed their cache.

*I would also guesstimate that 99% of the Internet providers don't currently have your domain in their DNS cache so most of this discussion is entirely moot. The important thing is that Smugmug has the old information in their DNS cache and you will just need to wait for it to expire.

...sorry I didn't mean to ramble on and on... hopefully you are not more confused now...

That was a good explanation. I appreciate you taking the time to explain this. I had a rudimentary understanding previously, but this explanation is very helpful and now I better understand specifically why it would take up to 72 hours. Thanks again!

Brian

ansel4

Bill,

It is now resolving just fine. Thanks for all your help!

Brian

BeachBill

Good to hear.