Go to my website without the www...

hacksaw35

I would like customers to be able to get to my site using www.bluestampphoto.com as well as just bluestampphoto.com (without the www.)

I use godaddy for my domain. Any suggestions? Thanks

BTW, I tried this but it didn't work... http://jacobwilmoth.com/wordpress/2009/06/godaddy-domain-without-www-tutorial/

WinsomeWorks

I'm with GoDaddy & didn't do anything special that I know of. IN FF at least, whether you put in www.winsomeworks.com or just winsomeworks.com it goes straight to it. I think you need the http:// though. [ETA: I just peeked at that tutorial you shared. It's talking about using A records. Don't we use C Records instead here for our SmugMug sites? Or at least at some point, I thought we were supposed to. Don't ask me to recall the difference, but there is a difference. I don't think you want any tutorials that speak of A Records or A Name Records. I think you want the C Name one. Yes-- I, like the guy who just posted, also got my domain through SmugMug.]

Dan7312

Likewise I use Godaddy and both danalphotos.com and www.danalphotos.com take you to my smugmug site. I got my domain from Godaddy via Smugmug, not Godaddy directly.

hacksaw35

Hmm...I wonder how they set it up differently. Without the "www" mine just goes to the godaddy site.

Dan7312

Check with help@smugmug.com. They will tell you how to fix things up, in fact they often just go and fix it up for you. They are incredibly helpful and responsive.

Dan

hacksaw35 wrote: »

Hmm...I wonder how they set it up differently. Without the "www" mine just goes to the godaddy site.

denisegoldberg

for info on how to drop the www, go to this page - http://www.smugmug.com/help/power-custom-domain, and click on the plus sign in front of "How do I drop 'www' from my address?".

--- Denise

Andy

WinsomeWorks wrote: »

I'm with GoDaddy & didn't do anything special that I know of. IN FF at least, whether you put in www.winsomeworks.com or just winsomeworks.com it goes straight to it. I think you need the http:// though. [ETA: I just peeked at that tutorial you shared. It's talking about using A records. Don't we use C Records instead here for our SmugMug sites? Or at least at some point, I thought we were supposed to. Don't ask me to recall the difference, but there is a difference. I don't think you want any tutorials that speak of A Records or A Name Records. I think you want the C Name one. Yes-- I, like the guy who just posted, also got my domain through SmugMug.]

YOU MUST use an A-record to have it work this way.

OP: Please write our Support Heroes and we'll set you up

hacksaw35

Thanks for the link Denise. It says to set an @ CNAME subdomain...I'm not really sure what to change though. I will try the help@smugmug. Thanks everyone.

WinsomeWorks

Andy wrote: »

YOU MUST use an A-record to have it work this way.

OP: Please write our Support Heroes and we'll set you up

Well, all I know is that originally I was told by SmugMug to have a CName, and that's what I got. I believe the instructions still say that. I don't know if something was changed since.... I remember something that Smug did for me a yr. or so ago when there was some change with domains. But I never had to go in & do something myself to make it so that people could drop www to get to my site.

denisegoldberg

WinsomeWorks wrote: »

Well, all I know is that originally I was told by SmugMug to have a CName, and that's what I got. I believe the instructions still say that. I don't know if something was changed since....

You still need a CName.

If you want the domain to work without the www you also need an A-Record.

--- Denise

WinsomeWorks

denisegoldberg wrote: »

You still need a CName.

If you want the domain to work without the www you also need an A-Record.

--- Denise

Then I'm thinking someone must have added the A-record for me along with the CName, because I'm clueless about this & all I know is mine works w/o www.

Andy

WinsomeWorks wrote: »

Well, all I know is that originally I was told by SmugMug to have a CName, and that's what I got. I believe the instructions still say that. I don't know if something was changed since.... I remember something that Smug did for me a yr. or so ago when there was some change with domains. But I never had to go in & do something myself to make it so that people could drop www to get to my site.

Anna Lisa. We have ALWAYS allowed A-records along with CNAMEs. The only caveat is that an A-record must point to an IP address and our IP address can (and has) changed. So if our IP address changes, you'd have to change the A-record, too.

Please, just refer people to our awesome help page - there's no need ever for any confusion or uncertainty

http://www.smugmug.com/help/professional-accounts

WinsomeWorks

Andy wrote: »

Anna Lisa. We have ALWAYS allowed A-records along with CNAMEs. The only caveat is that an A-record must point to an IP address and our IP address can (and has) changed. So if our IP address changes, you'd have to change the A-record, too.

Please, just refer people to our awesome help page - there's no need ever for any confusion or uncertainty

http://www.smugmug.com/help/professional-accounts

Oh good grief. First of all, the OP was already directed to Help, so I didn't need to do that as well. And maybe you should read more carefully-- I never said that SmugMug did not allow A-records along with a CName. I simply observed that my site works either way (with www or without). I also correctly observed that (actually in several places on the site still) we are told to set up a CName. I'm not, and was not, saying that we can't have both. In fact, I said that perhaps a Smug hero had fixed it up differently for me. Here's what people are still being directed to in your post #1 of a thread that's in a sticky under Support:

"...We have more information on the correct domain setups here:
http://www.smugmug.com/help/professional-accounts

In a nutshell, to set up the CNAME correctly you need the following:
1. for the www host point a CNAME record to domains.smugmug.com
2. also add or change an A record to 208.79.45.23 if you want people to be able to
access your site without www. Some domains allow you to use an @ sign
for the host to indicate that it is empty. Check the help at your
domain host to see what they recommend.

If you use subdomain.yourdomain.com instead of www.yourdomain.com ,
point the subdomain with a CNAME record to domains.smugmug.com and don't
add an A record as it isn't needed...."

Now, if I were reading that post, I would certainly look at it and say, "Ok, I need a CName for sure. From what it says, I can add an A record, but it's not needed, and I shouldn't have just an A-record". If you want to tell people that they should have a CName and an A-record for the no-www thing, then you need to change that 2nd sentence, and have it read like this: You MUST have an A record along with your CName if you want people to be able to access your site without www....." On the other hand, if you want to tell people that it's Ok to only have an A record, then it should say: " If you only have an A record, be sure to change it to 208.79.45.23 if you want people to be able to access your site without www..."

I'm not arguing about which is correct at this point in time. I still don't even know, after all this! All I was saying was that originally when I joined SmugMug & got my own domain, I know I was told I should have a CName in case SmugMug's IP changed or something to that effect. I'm not saying I was told I could only have a CName! I did not even know I could have both. And I observed that things changed a while back. But I see why there's all this confusion now, and there will be more if those instructions stay like that... it's just not clear if you should have one, or both, and when. No, it's not my problem if the instructions aren't clear, but I'm trying to care enough to want them to improve so that we don't all have to figure this out again. I didn't look at the other links for clarity... will let that up to you guys.

Andy

WinsomeWorks wrote: »

I'm not arguing about which is correct at this point in time. I still don't even know, after all this!

I know. That's why I gave the definitive answer

WinsomeWorks

Andy wrote: »

I know. That's why I gave the definitive answer

...which just made it sound like I'd said something that I hadn't. Well... an example from today shows just how definitive all this info is around the site: http://www.digitalgrin.com/showthread.php?t=177403 Yeh. Anyway. You can leave the info that's in several places on the site just the way it is, or you can make it a lot more clear. It's not funny to people who are on the GoDaddy site & tearing their hair out trying to match up conflicting info. It would be so much simpler to just fix the info so that it's clear & make sure it's exactly the same everywhere on Smug & DGrin, rather than making more & more people look all over for the answers. "Help" is fine, but it's the rare person who's not going to try helping themselves first, and afterall, that's why DGrin & all the FAQs exist in the first place.... right?