Cname question

jswhighamjswhigham Registered Users Posts: 23 Big grins
edited March 30, 2006 in SmugMug Support
Do I point my domain www.funpeoplephotos.com to www.smugmug.com as mentioned in the instructions, or do I point it to my smugmug page
fun-people-photos.smugmug.com?
TIA
Scott
Scott Whigham
Whigham Photography, LLC
www.whighamphotography.com
www.altashot.com
«1

Comments

  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited March 17, 2006
    jswhigham wrote:
    Do I point my domain www.funpeoplephotos.com to www.smugmug.com as mentioned in the instructions, or do I point it to my smugmug page
    fun-people-photos.smugmug.com?
    TIA
    Scott

    wave.gif Hi Scott, welcome to Dgrin!

    Please follow the instructions exactly.
    Oh and don't forget to put your custom domain name http://www.funpeoplephotos.com into the domain section of your SmugMug control panel, too.

    Holler for me if I can be of any help at all.

    PS: While I have you, here are some great pro resources for you:

    The customization forum:
    http://www.dgrin.com/forumdisplay.php?f=31

    Our customization FAQ:
    http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=26043

    Some Really Well Done SmugMug Sites:
    http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=27713

    Customizing For Dummies
    http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=25441

    We also have a forum dedicated for our pros:
    http://www.dgrin.com/forumdisplay.php?f=29

    Please review the Pro FAQ on SmugMug Help:
    http://www.smugmug.com/help/pro-faq.mg

    Check out the "Pro Tips Thread"
    http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=20236

    And, dont' forget our SmugBlogs: http://blogs.smugmug.com

    Pro Corner: http://blogs.smugmug.com/pros/
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • jswhighamjswhigham Registered Users Posts: 23 Big grins
    edited March 17, 2006
    re: Cname Question
    I've followed the steps but get the following error:
    Warning: That hostname doesn't resolve to SmugMug. This may cause problems with your custom hostname setting.

    Do I get this because the DNS change has not propogated yet, or is there another cause?

    Here are my DNS entries:
    MX Records:
    funpeoplephotos.com. IN MX 0 securemail.namesecurehosting.com.
    A Records:
    funpeoplephotos.com. IN A 64.62.166.70
    CNAME Records:
    webmail.funpeoplephotos.com. IN CNAME webmail.namesecurehosting.com.
    mail.funpeoplephotos.com. IN CNAME webmail.namesecurehosting.com.
    smtp.funpeoplephotos.com. IN CNAME webmail.namesecurehosting.com.
    pop.funpeoplephotos.com. IN CNAME webmail.namesecurehosting.com.
    imap.funpeoplephotos.com. IN CNAME webmail.namesecurehosting.com.
    www.funpeoplephotos.com. IN CNAME www.smugmug.com.
    TXT Records:
    Scott Whigham
    Whigham Photography, LLC
    www.whighamphotography.com
    www.altashot.com
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited March 17, 2006
    jswhigham wrote:
    I've followed the steps but get the following error:
    Warning: That hostname doesn't resolve to SmugMug. This may cause problems with your custom hostname setting.

    Do I get this because the DNS change has not propogated yet, or is there another cause?

    Here are my DNS entries:
    MX Records:
    funpeoplephotos.com. IN MX 0 securemail.namesecurehosting.com.
    A Records:
    funpeoplephotos.com. IN A 64.62.166.70
    CNAME Records:
    webmail.funpeoplephotos.com. IN CNAME webmail.namesecurehosting.com.
    mail.funpeoplephotos.com. IN CNAME webmail.namesecurehosting.com.
    smtp.funpeoplephotos.com. IN CNAME webmail.namesecurehosting.com.
    pop.funpeoplephotos.com. IN CNAME webmail.namesecurehosting.com.
    imap.funpeoplephotos.com. IN CNAME webmail.namesecurehosting.com.
    www.funpeoplephotos.com. IN CNAME www.smugmug.com.
    TXT Records:

    Yeah give it some time.. 24-48 Hours.
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • jswhighamjswhigham Registered Users Posts: 23 Big grins
    edited March 17, 2006
    Re: Cname Question
    If someone types in funpeoplephotos.com without the www will it still direct them to smugmug, or do I have to add another Cname record with the @ symbol to make that happen?
    Scott Whigham
    Whigham Photography, LLC
    www.whighamphotography.com
    www.altashot.com
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited March 17, 2006
    jswhigham wrote:
    If someone types in funpeoplephotos.com without the www will it still direct them to smugmug, or do I have to add another Cname record with the @ symbol to make that happen?

    No, you'll need to add an A-record for that. A-records work, but b/c we can change our IP address without notice, you'll need to stay on top of them :)

    http://www.smugmug.com/help/professional-accounts
    SmugMug Help wrote:
    I don't want my visitors to have to type www...

    If you just want your web address to be http://yourdomain.com instead of something like http://www.yourdomain.com, you can use the @ symbol instead of inserting the subdomain when setting it up. (A subdomain is the part the proceeds yourdomain.com — www is a common subdomain.) Registrars use the @ symbol to indicate the lack of a domain (rather than just leaving it blank).

    Some registrars don't allow CNAMEs with @ symbols. They force you to use an A record instead. The basic principle is the same, but instead of pointing to www.smugmug.com it points to our IP address.

    Gotcha: Our IP address might change in the future, causing an A record to break. For this reason we suggest trying a CNAME record first.

    Our current IP address is 63.81.134.23

    I hope this helps :D
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • camblercambler Registered Users Posts: 277 Major grins
    edited March 17, 2006
    Andy wrote:
    No, you'll need to add an A-record for that. A-records work, but b/c we can change our IP address without notice, you'll need to stay on top of them :)

    Why not CNAME them both? That's legal.
    Photography: http://www.AmblerPhoto.com
    Cheerleading: http://www.CheerPhoto.com
    Blog: http://cambler.livejournal.com
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited March 17, 2006
    cambler wrote:
    Why not CNAME them both? That's legal.

    Because some registrars don't allow that.
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • devbobodevbobo Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 4,339 SmugMug Employee
    edited March 17, 2006
    cambler wrote:
    Why not CNAME them both? That's legal.

    a CNAME is an alias, you can't alias your domain name. You need an A record as Andy stated.
    David Parry
    SmugMug API Developer
    My Photos
  • rich56krich56k Registered Users Posts: 547 Major grins
    edited March 17, 2006
    Alert if you use register.com....
    devbobo wrote:
    a CNAME is an alias, you can't alias your domain name. You need an A record as Andy stated.
    Interesting incident reminded by this thread...
    I registered thru register.com and after 6 months of service i got an inquiry from a potential customer asking when will my site by running(!!??!!) since my b/cards said "Hooliganunderground.com"(w/o www)
    I assumed every body knew to add www. . when i tried my site w/o www. i was redirected to a generic register .com page saying ' this domain was recently aquired blah,blah blah...' Until i took Andys/devbobo's advice(and set up AName) i dont know how many others i missed - register .com was pretty casual about it like it was on me to deal with....(as well should have been -heck, i didn't have a clue how this whole thing worked-- i didnt know until that email -- hope others don't go 6 months to discover this! )
    Or maybe i'm just a blithering idiot, without a clue!?!

    Dont know if this is industry standard or what? Just my experience...
    rich
    http://rich56k.smugmug.com
    Thanks for this forum i was guided to a solution!
    http://HooliganUnderground.com
    Member: ASMP; EP; NPPA; CPS
  • camblercambler Registered Users Posts: 277 Major grins
    edited March 17, 2006
    devbobo wrote:
    a CNAME is an alias, you can't alias your domain name. You need an A record as Andy stated.
    No, that's not true.

    For example, for any given domain, the primary delegation at the registry will have NS records. At each name server, there's no reason I cannot have, in addition to a valid SOA, a slew of CNAME entries and nothing else. There is no reason I need a single A record.

    The same is true of MX records as well. I have a number of domains with no resolution, either A or CNAME, but that does have a valid SOA and MX array.

    The only prohibition is that the primary delegation must have at least one NS record or the delegation is lame (and even in that case, some registries don't even enforce that).
    Photography: http://www.AmblerPhoto.com
    Cheerleading: http://www.CheerPhoto.com
    Blog: http://cambler.livejournal.com
  • camblercambler Registered Users Posts: 277 Major grins
    edited March 17, 2006
    rich56k wrote:
    Interesting incident reminded by this thread...
    I registered thru register.com ... when i tried my site w/o www. i was redirected to a generic register .com page saying ' this domain was recently aquired blah,blah blah...'

    Dont know if this is industry standard or what? Just my experience...

    It both is and is not industry standard. It is, in that many registrars will send your primary as well as a "www" host to a parking page when you register the name. But most make it very clear that you need to change BOTH when you choose where your name is going to go.

    Some registrars don't make this easy to find out, it is true. And some go so far as to redirect ALL hosts that you do not explicitly create to their parking pages (that is, if you have a primary as well as a "www" defined, and someone types in "fredflintstone" as a host, they'll get the registrar's parking page.

    I live my industry rolleyes1.gif
    Photography: http://www.AmblerPhoto.com
    Cheerleading: http://www.CheerPhoto.com
    Blog: http://cambler.livejournal.com
  • rich56krich56k Registered Users Posts: 547 Major grins
    edited March 18, 2006
    cambler wrote:
    It both is and is not industry standard. It is, in that many registrars will send your primary as well as a "www" host to a parking page when you register the name. But most make it very clear that you need to change BOTH when you choose where your name is going to go.

    Some registrars don't make this easy to find out, it is true. And some go so far as to redirect ALL hosts that you do not explicitly create to their parking pages (that is, if you have a primary as well as a "www" defined, and someone types in "fredflintstone" as a host, they'll get the registrar's parking page.

    I live my industry rolleyes1.gif

    Thanks for the clarification Cambler,
    rich
    (thats the great about this forum i learn something new everytime i drop in)
    http://HooliganUnderground.com
    Member: ASMP; EP; NPPA; CPS
  • devbobodevbobo Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 4,339 SmugMug Employee
    edited March 18, 2006
    cambler wrote:
    No, that's not true.
    Cambler,

    Last time I checked, smugmug had nothing to do with email and MX records.

    My response was in the context of the setting up http://domain.com and http://cname.domain.com as originally posted.

    please show me how it is possible to get http://domain.com without the use of an A record.

    Thanks,

    David
    David Parry
    SmugMug API Developer
    My Photos
  • Mike LaneMike Lane Registered Users Posts: 7,106 Major grins
    edited March 18, 2006
    devbobo wrote:
    Cambler,

    please show me how it is possible to get http://domain.com without the use of an A record.

    Thanks,

    David

    http://www.photos.mikelanestudios.com/
    http://photos.mikelanestudios.com/
    http://www.mikelanephotography.com/
    http://mikelanephotography.com/

    All go to the same place no A records were used. Dreamhost makes it very easy to do this.
    Y'all don't want to hear me, you just want to dance.

    http://photos.mikelanestudios.com/
  • devbobodevbobo Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 4,339 SmugMug Employee
    edited March 18, 2006
    Mike Lane wrote:
    http://www.photos.mikelanestudios.com/
    http://photos.mikelanestudios.com/
    http://www.mikelanephotography.com/
    http://mikelanephotography.com/

    All go to the same place no A records were used. Dreamhost makes it very easy to do this.

    umm yeah, but in most of these cases, the url in the address bar changes
    David Parry
    SmugMug API Developer
    My Photos
  • Mike LaneMike Lane Registered Users Posts: 7,106 Major grins
    edited March 18, 2006
    devbobo wrote:
    umm yeah, but in most of these cases, the url in the address bar changes

    Only because I tell it to. That has nothing to do with the fact that I didn't need an A record.
    Y'all don't want to hear me, you just want to dance.

    http://photos.mikelanestudios.com/
  • devbobodevbobo Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 4,339 SmugMug Employee
    edited March 18, 2006
    Mike Lane wrote:
    Only because I tell it to. That has nothing to do with the fact that I didn't need an A record.

    well, since you told it to do that. Perhaps you will give me a demonstration of
    http://www.photos.mikelanestudios.com/
    http://photos.mikelanestudios.com/

    both pointing to your smugmug account without url forwarding and an A record.
    David Parry
    SmugMug API Developer
    My Photos
  • Mike LaneMike Lane Registered Users Posts: 7,106 Major grins
    edited March 18, 2006
    Your wish is my command.
    Y'all don't want to hear me, you just want to dance.

    http://photos.mikelanestudios.com/
  • devbobodevbobo Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 4,339 SmugMug Employee
    edited March 18, 2006
    Mike Lane wrote:
    Your wish is my command.

    But that wouldn't work with smugmug since they only allow one fully qualified name to be entered.

    BTW, I chose the domain name, please show me http://mikelanephotography.com/

    without an A record.
    David Parry
    SmugMug API Developer
    My Photos
  • Mike LaneMike Lane Registered Users Posts: 7,106 Major grins
    edited March 18, 2006
    devbobo wrote:
    But that wouldn't work with smugmug since they only allow one fully qualified name to be entered.

    BTW, I chose the domain name, please show me http://mikelanephotography.com/

    without an A record.
    Ahh but it does work, you saw it with your own eyes. Mikelanephotography.com is forwarded to photos.mikelanestudios.com and (as with www.photos.mikelanestudios.com) dreamweaver allows me the option of making it work with or without www AND the option of leaving the www or dropping it for every visitor. Yes, mikelanephotography.com doesn't apply since it's a forward not an a record or cname (the domain isn't even hosted by dreamhost).

    Anyhow, they all work with no a records and really the only urls that matter here are the mikelanestudios.com ones.
    Y'all don't want to hear me, you just want to dance.

    http://photos.mikelanestudios.com/
  • jswhighamjswhigham Registered Users Posts: 23 Big grins
    edited March 23, 2006
    Andy wrote:
    Yeah give it some time.. 24-48 Hours.
    Is it common for Cname resolution to smugmug to be intermittant even from the same workstation and internet connection when it is propagating to DNS? Sometimes my domain name ( www.funpeoplephotos.com ) resolves to smugmug, sometimes it doesn't. Its been around 2 days since I made the change.
    TIA
    Scott
    Scott Whigham
    Whigham Photography, LLC
    www.whighamphotography.com
    www.altashot.com
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited March 23, 2006
    jswhigham wrote:
    Is it common for Cname resolution to smugmug to be intermittant even from the same workstation and internet connection when it is propagating to DNS? Sometimes my domain name ( www.funpeoplephotos.com ) resolves to smugmug, sometimes it doesn't. Its been around 2 days since I made the change.
    TIA
    Scott

    Hi Scott,

    Contact your domain host, your domain is hitting this IP 64.62.166.70 which is not us. You've set up a CNAME Alias, yes? If you need any more help, holler here.

    All the best,

    Andy
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • jswhighamjswhigham Registered Users Posts: 23 Big grins
    edited March 23, 2006
    I created a CNAME alias.
    Contacting my host, Namesecure, has been an excersize in futility. I only get canned responses given after several days and none of my direct questions have been answered. (sorry for the rant.)


    I just tried the site again and it works. I'll post again if it fails again.
    I just did an nslookup. Here is the response:
    Server: dns-cac-lb-01.tampabay.rr.com
    Address: 65.32.5.74

    Non-authoritative answer:
    Name: hera.smugmug.com
    Address: 63.81.134.23
    Aliases: www.funpeoplephotos.com, www.smugmug.com

    Andy wrote:
    Hi Scott,

    Contact your domain host, your domain is hitting this IP 64.62.166.70 which is not us. You've set up a CNAME Alias, yes? If you need any more help, holler here.

    All the best,

    Andy
    Scott Whigham
    Whigham Photography, LLC
    www.whighamphotography.com
    www.altashot.com
  • jswhighamjswhigham Registered Users Posts: 23 Big grins
    edited March 23, 2006
    jswhigham wrote:
    I created a CNAME alias.
    Contacting my host, Namesecure, has been an excersize in futility. I only get canned responses given after several days and none of my direct questions have been answered. (sorry for the rant.)


    I just tried the site again and it works. I'll post again if it fails again.
    I just did an nslookup. Here is the response:
    Server: dns-cac-lb-01.tampabay.rr.com
    Address: 65.32.5.74

    Non-authoritative answer:
    Name: hera.smugmug.com
    Address: 63.81.134.23
    Aliases: www.funpeoplephotos.com, www.smugmug.com

    Its not resolving again. headscratch.gif
    Now I get this from an nslookup:

    Server: dns-cac-lb-01.tampabay.rr.com
    Address: 65.32.5.74

    Non-authoritative answer:
    Name: www.funpeoplephotos.com
    Address: 64.62.166.70

    Is this common?
    Scott Whigham
    Whigham Photography, LLC
    www.whighamphotography.com
    www.altashot.com
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited March 23, 2006
    jswhigham wrote:

    Is this common?

    Not to my knowledge - sounds like you're not getting great service from your domain host - bang on them or switch - sorry for the trouble!
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • mallisonmallison Registered Users Posts: 3 Beginner grinner
    edited March 26, 2006
    Hope this isn't off too far from the topic. My redirection is working fine to get me to smugmug, but when I cut and paste an address from one of my galleries, then replace smugmug.com in the address with mydomain.com and try to reconnect - it replaces mydomain.com with smugmug.com. I've noticed this works fine for other members sites.headscratch.gif
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited March 26, 2006
    mallison wrote:
    Hope this isn't off too far from the topic. My redirection is working fine to get me to smugmug, but when I cut and paste an address from one of my galleries, then replace smugmug.com in the address with mydomain.com and try to reconnect - it replaces mydomain.com with smugmug.com. I've noticed this works fine for other members sites.headscratch.gif

    A link would be very, very helpful, so I can help you mwink.gif

    wave.gif welcome to Dgrin!
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • mallisonmallison Registered Users Posts: 3 Beginner grinner
    edited March 27, 2006
    Andy wrote:
    A link would be very, very helpful, so I can help you mwink.gif

    wave.gif welcome to Dgrin!

    Apologies, www.AllisonsImages.com

    -Mark
  • dogwooddogwood Registered Users Posts: 2,572 Major grins
    edited March 27, 2006
    a record and cname?
    This is a bit confusing for me-- so I apologize if this is so easy I should be able to figure it out on my own.

    I'm registered through godaddy.com (I know, I know Mike, with dreamhost you don't have to worry about this) and set up for the cname stuff. All that works just fine. But... it's configured so the www has to be typed in.

    If I want it so no www needs to be typed in, is it possible to set up an A record for that part (recognizing I may need to change that later if smugmug inplements IP changes)? Can I have my cake and eat it too?
    Portland, Oregon Photographer Pete Springer
    website blog instagram facebook g+

  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited March 27, 2006
    dogwood wrote:
    Can I have my cake and eat it too?

    nod.gif

    http://www.smugmug.com/help/professional-accounts
    SmugMug Help wrote:
    I don't want my visitors to have to type www...

    If you just want your web address to be http://yourdomain.com instead of something like http://www.yourdomain.com, you can use the @ symbol instead of inserting the subdomain when setting it up. (A subdomain is the part the proceeds yourdomain.com — www is a common subdomain.) Registrars use the @ symbol to indicate the lack of a domain (rather than just leaving it blank).

    Some registrars don't allow CNAMEs with @ symbols. They force you to use an A record instead. The basic principle is the same, but instead of pointing to www.smugmug.com it points to our IP address.

    Gotcha: Our IP address might change in the future, causing an A record to break. For this reason we suggest trying a CNAME record first.

    Our current IP address is 63.81.134.23
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
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