cname, domain help

mrfizzed

I am having issues with my domain...for some reason even though i am regiustered with godaddy it is just not working. i tried to follow the instructions here..

http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93340

but to no avail. can anyone help?

heres another question....i think my domain on godaddy is registered without the www does that matter?

on my smugmug settings page i get this messahe.

That hostname doesn't appear to be valid. Your hostname needs to be setup using a CNAME record at your domain registrar.

should i be entering my domain with or without the www?

Ferguson

Domains don't have the WWW, that's a host address (otherwise known usually as an "A" record) within the domain's zone file (the thing that tells DNS what is in your domain and where).

The overall structure is host.domain.suffix. Or host.subdomain.domain.suffix. They can go deeper and deeper. But the www is pointing to a specific resource (usually called a host even if it isn't) within your domain. Note it could be xyz, pqr, abcdef... any name there can do the same, there is no real magic in www except convention.

Smugmug is not happy trying to access a site without the host portion (usually www), so it pretty much forces you to use it on a custom domain. I point my "A" record for the domain (captivephotons.com) to the smugmug IP address, but what it really operates on is the host containing name (www.captivephotons.com). in that case the www name is given a cname (think "alias") of domains.smugmug.com. I give the domain A record a specific IP (208.79.45.23, which came from Smugmug) which is a smugmug IP, which when you hit it ends up coming back to www.captivephotons.com (thanks to Smugmug provided magic).

This means that you can hit either captivephotons.com or www.captivephotons.com and end up the same place, specifically www.captivephotons.com.

You can't change it so that you end up without the www for arcane technical reasons, that ultimately end up relating to how smugmug caches for performance.

So...

Set a CNAME for www.yourdomain.com, then put the whole name (with the www) in the custom domain settings in Smugmug, and you should be good. If you want the www-less name to work put an "A" record in for that as above. Note that if you have other things in your domain (other web servers, email, etc.) that A record needs some careful thought to ensure it doesn't conflict (e.g. a mail server then needs an MX record to supersede the A record which would otherwise point away from your mail server).

Confused? Provide the domain and others may be able to help even more.

Ferguson

More concisely, set up:

A CName record for www.yourdomain.suffix pointing to domains.smugmug.com
An "A" record for yourdomain.suffix pointing to 208.79.45.23

Do this last step only if you do not already have an "A" record for your domain itself.

On most systems the domain itself is represented by an "@", so you may see something like

@ A 208.79.45.23

That means:

Yourdomain.suffix gets the IP address 208.79.45.23.

Note that trailing periods mean "that's the end", and names without trailing periods generally mean "add to this my domain name". So

www cname domains.smugmug.com

will really mean:

www.mydomain.suffix is given the alias of domains.smugmug.com, so when you need to access it translate that name instead.

mrfizzed

im lost
i see this

Ferguson

No image came through in the attachment in the posting above.

Per your separate email, it's really not a big deal to change the DNS on GoDaddy. Log in, and follow to the DNS, and look to find "DNS Zone File". There's different ways to buy at GoDaddy, so not sure if all the screens look the same, but it should be there somewhere. For me I hit my name, then My Account, then expand Domains and click on "Launch", then there's a DNS Zone File tab.

There should be two sections of interest -- CNAME and A.

CNAME Is the important one. You want to add to it a WWW entry. It should look as mine does below in the red circled line. The TTL is not terribly relevant, take the default. You get into this mode by hitting EDIT, then in eash section Quick Add.

The "A" record can also be set as indicated but only if you do not already have one. Since you haven't shared your domain name there's no way for me to tell (unless you not going to let anyone see your site, your domain name is not usually a secret, and knowing it allows people to see the DNS settings (which are always public, mostly, for any domain, else the internet doesn't work)). The "A" record is not needed, it is only used to provide the shortcut of browsing to your site without the WWW.