Custom domain without WWW

Ferguson

I have the custom domain CaptivePhotons.com, and it works. I have a cname pointing to the smugmug link, and have www.captivephotons.com in my account, and it works.

I also have an "A" record created for the CaptivePhotons.com (without the "WWW") and pointing to 208.79.45.23 which is a smugmug.com address, and THAT works. So I can either do:

http://www.captivephotons.com -or- http://captivephotons.com

And both end up on my site.

HOWEVER, smugmug changes the link to always include the "www". I think that's because I have "www" in the account settings.

So I tried removing it, and it won't allow me to do so, because I lack the appropriate CNAME record for the non-WWW format.

Except you can't (at least at GoDaddy, but I think generally you cannot) have a CNAME for the @ (root) domain, since that CNAME is then in conflict with things like MX records. You can have an "A" record, as I do, no problem.

So my web site works without the "WWW", but I'd really like it to "stick" so that people getting links, saving shortcuts, etc. don't get the "WWW".

Am I missing something, or is that not possible the way Smugmug now is set up (i.e. the validation step)? Is there any technical reason it couldn't allow me to do it (perhaps with a warning)? I.e. is this just a "keep users more safe", or is there really some reason I need to keep having www in front of the domain name (like www -- yes, I realize it could be anything, not only www).

PS. "why" you might ask? Clearly this is not a huge priority, but to me the "www" is just extra typing. Yes, it lets one specify additional hosts in a domain explicitly, but you could STILL do that but have one default host. It's just a lot of extra typing. Imagine if everyone in the world had never typed "www" on any web site, all the time that would have been saved! :rolleyes

bobbyhero

If you type in the root domain (i.e. http://domain.com), it will then add the 'www' - i.e. "http://www.domain.com". This is the intended behavior, and cannot be changed.

There is no need to type the 'extra' www. As you mentioned, if you go to the address without the www, a visitor will still end up at your site.

Ferguson

bobbyhero wrote: »

If you type in the root domain (i.e. http://domain.com), it will then add the 'www' - i.e. "http://www.domain.com". This is the intended behavior, and cannot be changed.

There is no need to type the 'extra' www. As you mentioned, if you go to the address without the www, a visitor will still end up at your site.

Yeah, I tried to explain that I realized that and it was working.

The problem is that the "Share" type links, as well as the address bar continue to then show "www". I was hoping there was a fix.

>>> This is the intended behavior, and cannot be changed.

I guess that's my answer then. Thank you.

If you have a couple minutes and know -- is there a reason that's required/intended behavior? I.e. why did Smugmug take the extra time to require it require it?

rainforest1155

We only support a hostname that is configured with a CNAME record. Since in your original post, As you pointed out in your original post, you can't set up the CNAME record without the www at your host and therefore you'll need to keep the www for your SmugMug site.

If you wonder why that is, it's for speed reasons. With an A record, your site would be lots slower for visitors. The CNAME record ensures that your site is fast regardless of where it's accessed from in the world.

Of course, you may manually remove it from the links you send out, but accessing the links, visitors will be redirected to the version with the www in front.

If you want to keep links short, you could use our Smu.gs link shortener. You can even set up your own bit.ly Pro link shortener using a domain of your own. You can add your bit.ly Pro details in the account settings > discovery > sharing section.

Ferguson

rainforest1155 wrote: »

If you wonder why that is, it's for speed reasons. With an A record, your site would be lots slower for visitors. The CNAME record ensures that your site is fast regardless of where it's accessed from in the world.

Of course, you may manually remove it from the links you send out, but accessing the links, visitors will be redirected to the version with the www in front.

Thanks for the reply. It's an interesting perspective. Usually in DNS Land people consider A records faster to resolve, since it yields an IP with one query, rather than needing to resolve the CNAME to an FQDN then resolve the FQDN to the IP, but perhaps it's some interaction with Smugmug or Akamai.

Anyway, it is what it is, thank you.

shandrew

According to the DNS standards (RFC1912 explains this the most clearly), "A CNAME record is not allowed to coexist with any other data". This is why your DNS provider won't let you set captivephotons.com to be a CNAME; they need to associate other DNS records (like nameservers) with captivephotons.com for it to function.

The reason the CNAME increases the speed of your SmugMug site is that your visitors will be directed to an endpoint that is optimized for their location. That optimization is huge compared to any difference in DNS query time (if any). If you enjoy poking around DNS records, you'll observe that other large sites such as www.apple.com and www.facebook.com are configured similarly.

Ferguson

shandrew wrote: »

The reason the CNAME increases the speed of your SmugMug site is that your visitors will be directed to an endpoint that is optimized for their location. That optimization is huge compared to any difference in DNS query time (if any). If you enjoy poking around DNS records, you'll observe that other large sites such as www.apple.com and www.facebook.com are configured similarly.

Thank you, that makes sense now that I realize you are load balancing off the DNS name.

Garga

We need www ....... for speed!?

SamirD

We don't. It's just what people are used to. Also, if you use the common browser keyboard shortcut 'ctrl-enter', www and .com are part of the automatic filling-out of the url.

Garga

I think it's old and outdated - plus it's certainly headed that way at least.