Power and Pro users with Custom Domains take note!! - Changes needed

durazzi · August 27, 2008

So...jumping late here....I see that a change was imminent, and that perhaps something went fubar. Where can I find current, accurate instructions to do this for the first time? I've never had the custom domain name set up before, but was just now looking for the instructions to do this, so I don't have any of the old settings. TIA.

docwalker · August 27, 2008

The best place to start is here: http://www.smugmug.com/help/professional-accounts

Allen · August 28, 2008

nuena wrote:

Hello,

I have a pro account and I followed the steps above to correct the direct of my url to my custom Cname... the only problem is now the image I used in my header above my links is not showing up at all... also, I tried to view the image independently of my smugmug account on ie and firefox and the image url: http://www.nuena.com/images/banner.jpg is redirecting itself to my smugmug page... so I can't even see it -- but it is there!

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Kira

You don't use your file name for the photo.
Go to the banner photo in it's gallery and get the actual photo link. It will look like this.

Example. This photo, see photo number at the end after the #

http://nuena.smugmug.com/gallery/5021787_dWos2#301812147_6UKJ8

click share photo button and I copied this.

http://nuena.smugmug.com/photos/301812147_6UKJ8-M.jpg

Insert it in your banner CSS without the ' around it. This is a relative link, the http://nuena.smugmug.com part is optional.

#my_banner {
width: 750px;
height: 150px;
margin: 0 auto;
background: url(/photos/301812147_6UKJ8-M.jpg) no-repeat;
}

nuena · August 28, 2008

thanks everyone! i linked the image to one in my gallery -- before i had it linked to an image file in a subfolder on my domain..

dwterry · August 28, 2008

Interesting TraceRT Results
What do you think of these TraceRT Results?

tracert www.dterryphotography.com

Tracing route to domains.smugmug.com [208.79.45.23] over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms 1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 12 ms 8 ms 9 ms ge-5-26-ur01.saltlakecity.ut.utah.comcast.net [68.87.171.121]
4 11 ms 10 ms 9 ms te-9-4-ar01.saltlakecity.ut.utah.comcast.net [68.87.170.9]
5 29 ms 36 ms 31 ms COMCAST-IP-SERVICES.TenGigabitethernet1-4.ar5.SEA1.gblx.net [64.209.111.94]
6 29 ms 28 ms 62 ms TenGigabitethernet1-4.ar5.SEA1.gblx.net [64.209.111.93]
7 69 ms 57 ms 68 ms SMUGMUG.gigabitethernet3-35.ar2.SJC2.gblx.net [64.214.196.246]
8 60 ms 58 ms 59 ms www.smugmug.com [208.79.45.23]

tracert dwterry.smugmug.com

Tracing route to a539.b.akamai.net [64.86.183.19] over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 9 ms 9 ms 10 ms ge-5-26-ur01.saltlakecity.ut.utah.comcast.net [68.87.171.121]
4 11 ms 8 ms 9 ms te-9-4-ar01.saltlakecity.ut.utah.comcast.net [68.87.170.9]
5 29 ms 29 ms 28 ms COMCAST-IP-SERVICES-LLC.TenGigabitEthernet1-3.ar5.SEA1.gblx.net [64.212.32.158]
6 31 ms 28 ms 34 ms TenGigabitEthernet1-3.ar5.SEA1.gblx.net [64.212.32.157]
7 60 ms 72 ms 58 ms if-11-0-5.mcore4.PDI-PaloAlto.teleglobe.net [216.6.86.33]
8 174 ms 91 ms 89 ms if-4-0.mcore4.LAA-LosAngeles.teleglobe.net [216.6.86.10]
9 86 ms 118 ms 87 ms if-1-0-0-701.core1.DTX-Dallas.teleglobe.net [216.6.53.45]
10 64 ms 66 ms 66 ms if-1-0.core2.DTX-Dallas.teleglobe.net [66.198.2.1]
11 77 ms 71 ms 72 ms Vlan31.icore2.DTX-Dallas.teleglobe.net [66.198.2.38]
12 65 ms 66 ms 66 ms 64.86.183.19

With the talk of going to nickname.smugmug.com being faster (and closer to me) than going to my domain name, I thought it odd that my domain name trace route was 4 hops shorter with slightly faster overal ping times (I got about 60ms pings to my domain name versus 67ms pings going to the akamai server).

Is that to be expected?

docwalker · August 29, 2008

I am not blaming Comcast directly for this, but it would not surprise me at all if they sent your traffic across the US before hitting the local Akamai server.

I see mine all the time taking the scenic route.

sproutsoft · August 29, 2008

Andy wrote:

Folks - we have NOT sent around notification yet and we won't let sites stop working

Okay, you've known since Monday that a "surprising number" of paying customers have encountered issues with your DNS and IP changes due to their following old instructions that directed them to use CNAME to username.smugmug.com --- and STILL no e-mail? We only found out today that our sites were coming up missing.

We're fixed now, but having just paid up for a third year of Pro I'm left wondering if we shouldn't have shopped around some more.

- Ryan / sproutphoto

Andy · August 30, 2008

sproutsoft wrote:

Okay, you've known since Monday that a "surprising number" of paying customers have encountered issues with your DNS and IP changes due to their following old instructions that directed them to use CNAME to username.smugmug.com --- and STILL no e-mail? We only found out today that our sites were coming up missing.

We're fixed now, but having just paid up for a third year of Pro I'm left wondering if we shouldn't have shopped around some more.

- Ryan / sproutphoto

Hi Ryan, ouch - our instructions have always been to set the CNAME to www.smugmug.com - not nickname.smugmug.com - I'm really sorry that your site got caught up, but I'm happy that it's all sorted now.

If you have more questions please do write me at our help desk.

Thanks.

jamesh · September 1, 2008

Please can you check my changes?
Hi

I've made the changes - please can you tell me if it looks correct in the screen grab?

Thanks

docwalker · September 2, 2008

Jamesh, your image appears blank to me. You might want to check that.

jamesh · September 2, 2008

docwalker wrote:

Jamesh, your image appears blank to me. You might want to check that.

It's is working now anyway so I presume it was correct, thanks.

nipprdog · September 2, 2008

I just made the changes, and can still access my site.

Speedie · September 3, 2008

Have the emails for this change been sent out yet? I haven't had one and just noticed this thread by chance. Is there a cutoff date that the change must be done by?

Andy · September 3, 2008

Speedie wrote:

Have the emails for this change been sent out yet? I haven't had one and just noticed this thread by chance. Is there a cutoff date that the change must be done by?

No email yet. Yes there'll be a cutoff. It's not yet.

Make the change now, it's easy as pie

Holler if you need help.

rkswart · September 7, 2008

Just found out.
Sept. 7th and a wedding customer just told me today my site is not accessible. Bad way to find out. I didn't get an email. I have 1&1 internet. I just set the cname to domains.smugmug.com and I have my custom hostname as www.rksphotography.com.

My 1&1 page says still updating. I can't get it to come up yet but is this all I need to do?

A bit miffed.

Ryan

Sent a message to help desk as well. Thanks.

Andy wrote:

No email yet. Yes there'll be a cutoff. It's not yet.

Make the change now, it's easy as pie

Holler if you need help.

Marc Langille · September 7, 2008

Whew...
Almost missed this one! I've made the changes, and tested via the old school method: an nslookup against my domain name:

nslookup www.marclangille.com
Server: cdns2.cox.net
Address: 68.105.28.12

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: domains.smugmug.com
Address: 208.79.45.23
Aliases: www.marclangille.com

Good to go!!! Thanks so much for the information Doc and Andy!

Cheers,
Marc

Andy · September 7, 2008

rkswart wrote:

Sept. 7th and a wedding customer just told me today my site is not accessible. Bad way to find out. I didn't get an email. I have 1&1 internet. I just set the cname to domains.smugmug.com and I have my custom hostname as www.rksphotography.com.

My 1&1 page says still updating. I can't get it to come up yet but is this all I need to do?

A bit miffed.

Ryan

Sent a message to help desk as well. Thanks.

Ouch! Sorry you are miffed -- no email sent yet, because we've not made the official change. Your domain didn't work becuase you had it set incorrectly to nickname.smugmug.com. Here's more info:

Thank you for contacting SmugMug. I'm sorry about your domain troubles. It seems as if you have pointed your domain with a CNAME to NICKNAME.smugmug.com . This may have worked in the past, but it's not something we instructed you to do. Please change your CNAME record to domains.smugmug.com instead. That'll fix your domain. In the past we asked you to point your CNAME to www.smugmug.com, but this will stop working soon. You will also want to change the IP address for any A record you have pointed at SmugMug (the old IP is 63.81.134.23) as that will also be changing soon.

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.

Do not use your full domain in the CNAME unless the domain host tells you to. If you do, you will end up with
www.yourdomain.com.yourdomain.com or something similar.

Do not put in the yournickname.smugmug.com address as the destination no matter how tempting that may be. Do not use forwarding or redirects either. None of these will work correctly.
You may find that you will need to edit or delete any existing www or @ records if there are any for your site. It will take 24-48 hours for the changes to propagate around the internet.

If you have not already done so, go to your SmugMug control panel and enter the custom domain on the settings tab. That is all there is too it. If you have problems, please let me know.

I'm sure you got the same answer from the hd, too - if you need any help in changing to domains.smugmug.com just let us know, okay?

Thanks!

OH PS: http://www.rksphotography.com/ works fine here in NY.

rkswart · September 7, 2008

Thanks, Must have updated correctly. Works here now too.

Andy wrote:

Ouch! Sorry you are miffed -- no email sent yet, because we've not made the official change. Your domain didn't work becuase you had it set incorrectly to nickname.smugmug.com. Here's more info:

I'm sure you got the same answer from the hd, too - if you need any help in changing to domains.smugmug.com just let us know, okay?

Thanks!

OH PS: http://www.rksphotography.com/ works fine here in NY.

saronann · September 8, 2008

Andy wrote:

I'm sure you got the same answer from the hd, too - if you need any help in changing to domains.smugmug.com just let us know, okay?

My zone records report:

<table cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" width="600"><tbody><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); font-weight: bold; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">@ 208.79.45.23</td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); font-weight: bold; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" nowrap="nowrap">
</td> <td style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: red;">ERROR - Hosted Domain: Need to correct or add A record Fix</td></tr></tbody></table>
The proposed fix from Smugmug domains is to add an A record with a different IP number.

After reading this announcement (this is the first time I have heard of it as I just stumbled over the thread in the forum), I am not sure why GoDaddy Smugmug Domains is reporting this error and whether or not to confirm the recommended change.

I am in the process of setting up my Pro site on Smugmug.

Can you help?

docwalker · September 8, 2008

Saronann, I will be happy to help. But, I need more info. Please email me in the help desk with Subject Attn: Doc so that I see it.

I need your domain name

GoDaddy Customer Number and password.

SmugMug Nickname

I will make the changes and set things up for you.

WinsomeWorks · September 9, 2008

I went to GoDaddy to try to make the changes required. But it seemed this had already been done. I had a hard time finding anyplace to make the changes, as the screen shown at the bottom of your sticky never showed up. I did eventually find something, but it was very confusing as it didn't look like anything I was shown or told about here. But anyhow, when I found the spot for CName, etc. it was already set (I think!) to what you now require. The numbers were correct too -- 208.79.45.23 Is there any possibility that this could have been changed without my going in and doing it? If so, I'm grateful, but don't know how it might have happened. Thanks.

docwalker · September 9, 2008

Some users that purchased their domains through smugmugdomains.com may have had their domain setup or changed to the correct settings automatically. I had GoDaddy change the template a few weeks ago.

--Doc

saronann · September 10, 2008

Have sent you info requested

docwalker wrote:

Saronann, I will be happy to help. But, I need more info. Please email me in the help desk with Subject Attn: Doc so that I see it.

I need your domain name

GoDaddy Customer Number and password.

SmugMug Nickname

I will make the changes and set things up for you.

I sent the information to you Tuesday 9 Sept. as a reply to your email. I didn't know at the time that I was supposed to make the subject to Attn: Doc, so it isn't. Let me know if you did not receive it. Thanks for the help!

docwalker · September 10, 2008

I did receive it and you should have a reply. I will be happy to help but as indicated, your set up is a little different than most. But we can make it work.

DRMiller · September 13, 2008

Help I don't know how I killed my website but i did!
Help, I have really killed my website and I cannot restore it as it was a few weeks ago. No I cant see anything but the slide show on the first place and nothing else. Can any one help me get any help anywhere?

My site is www.rossmillerphotography.com.

docwalker · September 13, 2008

Ross,

I don't think your problem is directly related to this thread. But that is ok. I think I can help.

You have inserted some CSS that blocks the galleries from appearing on your homepage. They are now shown here: http://www.rossmillerphotography.com/galleries

I changed the click URL on the slideshow so that if you click on it, it will take you to the galleries page.

The section of code that is causing you problems is this one in the CSS:

.homepage #galleriesBox,
.homepage #categoriesBox,
.homepage #featuredBox {
display: none;
}

You can remove that until you get a Navbar built or another method to getting to the galleries section.

You might want to create a seperate post in the customization forum asking for help. The folks there will be happy to helps.

--Doc

kaymag · September 15, 2008

Just wanted to check...
Could someone double check me to make sure everything looks right?

I've noticed just recently that my website is loading very very slow.... especially the portraits tab. It always seems to work, but has been going very slow. I've even had a few customers email me lately saying they cannot access at all.

My problem is that I have been having some DSL issues as of late as well and am not sure if it is still related to that or it's another change I need to make! The whole router/ internet thing has been giving me FITS lately!! I sure wish they would have already had these things when I was in college!!

Thanks!
Steve

Speedie · September 15, 2008

It took around 30 seconds to load here (I'm in the UK). There again I just tried my Smugmug site and it took longer than usual (around 20 sec.) I suspect sluggish Smugservers.

docwalker · September 15, 2008

Kaymag, I am not sure that your problem is directly related to this either. But I did take a look at your domain and I do see something that is not set correctly.

The www CNAME is pointed correct. But, the kaymagphotography.com is not correct as it is pointed like this:

kaymagphotography.com. 14400 IN A 216.21.239.197

When I visit the domain, the CNAME works exactly as it should. The A record brings up your kaymagphotography.smugmug.com so that indicates it is set wrong. You need to edit that A record and point it at 208.79.45.23

As for the speed issues, once you make these changes we can test that. Most likely it is not related. But this does need to be fixed.

docwalker · September 15, 2008

Speedie, I took a look at your domain as well and I do not see anything out of the ordinary. You do not have an A record, but that is ok as you do not appear to be using the non-www version of your domain. So yours does not appear domain related.

Your site loaded fine for me this morning. If you have speed issues again, can you please run a speed test and a traceroute for us?

http://smugmug.speedtest.net/ Click the Yellow San Jose Pyramid.

The Traceroute is here: http://www.smugmug.com/homepage/traceroute.mg

These tests can help us determine where the problem is.

Power and Pro users with Custom Domains take note!! - Changes needed

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