Creating a CNAME on Network Solutions

Question

Level 1

75 points

Creating a CNAME on Network Solutions

I am trying to create my first website with iWeb on me.com using a Domain Name I created at Network Solutions. And of course the instructions for iWeb don't quite match the forms at Network Solutions. I found how to create a personal domain name on my me.com account. It tells me to define web.me.com as the CNAME at my regristar's website. I found the account manager tool for CNAMEs at Network Solutions and am given two boxes to fill out: "alias" and "other host" The "other host" box has a radio button. Then there is another box with a radio button labeled "Refers to Host Name" and there are two choices: "www" or "@(none). I can check either the "Refers to Host Name" radio button or the "Other Host". I am guessing that I should check "Other host" and that is where I enter "web.me.com". Can some confirm?

2010 MacBook Pro 2.53 Ghz i5, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Jun 13, 2011 11:16 PM

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Answer 1

Ethmoid

Level 6

11,488 points

Jun 14, 2011 12:20 AM in response to Dan Bryant1

The 'alias' will be your domain name and the 'host' will be where you are hosting your site, which in your case is MobileMe, so yes, I think you should enter web.me.com here.

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Answer 2

Dan Bryant1 Author

Level 1

75 points

Jun 14, 2011 10:51 PM in response to Ethmoid

Thanks! That makes sense. Unfortunately it takes up to 24 hours they say for changes to take effect so I am waiting to see if it works.

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Answer 3

Dan Bryant1 Author

Level 1

75 points

Jun 16, 2011 8:49 PM in response to Ethmoid

entering my domain name in the alias field doesn't seem to work. When I save my changes, it shows that my alias is double (myalias.com.myalias.com). I sent them an inquiry and am waiting a reply.

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Answer 4

Ethmoid

Level 6

11,488 points

Jun 17, 2011 2:20 AM in response to Dan Bryant1

The alias field should have the 'www' and the '@' symbols with the CNAME being set for both that then forwards to your host web.me.com.

The @ represents your domain name which is http://domain.com and then the www represents your sub domain which is http://www.domain.com. For both these options to work both 'www' and '@' need to have CNAME's forwarded to web.me.com.

If there is no option to set a CNAME for both of these - (there should be though), then you need to set the CNAME for one, possibly the www and then use web forwarding to forward the @ to the www.

Set it up like this and see what happens.

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Answer 5

Dan Bryant1 Author

Level 1

75 points

Jun 17, 2011 7:36 AM in response to Ethmoid

I tried entering 'www' as the alias and it says "An A record already exists for the entered Alias."

One more piece of info: The first radio button now has four choices: @(none), my domain name, mail, smtp. But if I select that radio button, the button where I entered we.me.com becomes deselected. And now I have two more aliases that have been entered for me. One says "mail" and the other says "smtp". Likewise other host has been entered as mail.mydomainname and smtp.mydomainname. So it appears that whatever I enter in the alias box is going to then have my domain name after it.

I see that the A records shows www.mydomainname and then has an IP address which says "Under construction page".

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Answer 6

Ethmoid

Level 6

11,488 points

Jun 17, 2011 9:47 AM in response to Dan Bryant1

There should be a way of deleting the A record and replacing it with a CNAME instead. If you no longer then need the CNAME, you should be able to delete these and then revert to the original instead.

When MobileMe was first launched, I tried it for about a couple of months and used the CNAME forwarding option for my domain name. Under the DNS settings at my domain name registrar there was an option to delete completely the A records that were there and replace them with CNAME, so see if you can do that.

I delete my A records and instead set @ CNAME web.me.com and www CNAME web.me.com and this worked.

I would suggest that you contact your domain name registrar again as without seeing exactly what is there it is hard for someone to advise.

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Answer 7

Dan Bryant1 Author

Level 1

75 points

Jun 21, 2011 2:46 PM in response to Ethmoid

Finally talked to the folks at Network Solutions. After I deleted the A records, they had me create one for @(none) with an IP address. Then I reset the CNAME with the alias as "www" and the host as "web.me.com." Now when I got to the url for my domain name, I am told that I need to log in with a password at the .me site. (At least some progress.) But in iWeb I do not have any password set. I'll start a new question.

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