Custom domain name problem

Andrew Gould

As I saw "Power Users: Custom hostname" listed as an option in Smugmug Help, I proceeded as instructed and paid for my new domain name, which is andrewgouldphotography.com

When I tried to enter this name, it was not recognised.

I now see, below, in the same help section, step 3, which states, "While logged in as a SmugMug Pro, click here to go directly to your Control Panel." How can I do that if I'm a Power User? And if I have to be a Pro User to have this custom name, then why is it on offer for Power Users?

I hope I'm wrong, and there's something I haven't understood in this. Can anyone help, please?

Thanks!

PS. I'm back... I've just realised that it says at the bottom of those instructions, "That's all there is to it. SmugMug supports one domain hookup per Professional SmugMug account."
I'd never accuse Smugmug of being tricky, but this should have been clear at the top of the section, where it refers to Power users, that this is only on upgrade, if that is the case.(I still hope I'm wrong, and that it is availabe to Power Users.)

aktse

It should work for power users too according to the release notes

The help pages probably need a refresh....

DrDavid

It works just fine for Power and Pro users. However, I have an issue with how smugmugdomains auto sets up your domain to work with smugmug.

The issue is that it only creates a CNAME, not an A record. It also manages to drop all the other DNS info for the free email account, etc..

So, make sure that you go into the total DNS control and set an a record too! or, when you go to http://yourdomain.com it won't work; but, http://www.yourdomain.com will. But, all sites SHOULD work both ways IMHO.

I know and understand WHY they did what they did, but, it still should have a bit more info in the help pages to clear things up a bit better (i.e. explaining that you might want to create the A record too, even though the A record could, in the future, change).

David

Andrew Gould

Thanks to you both.

When I went back to the checkout and to my PayPal account, it was clear to me that the payment had not gone through. It was my fault for not finishing the transaction properly. However, if the Smugmug Help on this had not been ambiguous, I would not have presumed that I had to be a Pro User.

I've fixed payment, and now when I try to past the new domain name in, instead of an error message, I get one that says that it takes 24 to 48 hours for the new address to be usable. I'm presuming, therefore that everything will be OK.

I suggest that Smugmug should update that Help page, as it is quite unclear -- and worrying -- as it as.

docwalker

I am very sorry about the confusion on this. I have been working with the help writers to make these pages better/clearer. There was never any intention to mislead, I can assure you.

"The issue is that it only creates a CNAME, not an A record. It also manages to drop all the other DNS info for the free email account, etc.."

There are a couple other issues with this that I am working on. Hopefully things can be resolved soon. We have to create a new template for GoDaddy to work from when setting up accounts.

Andrew Gould

Thanks again for the reply. Everything's alright now. My new address is working already.
It was just a shock to see a referencee to Pro users, when it didn't work at first!