wiki:add_new_domain_to_existing_account

Version 11 (modified by HistoriCUSS, 10 years ago) (diff)

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How do I add a new domain to an existing account?

This how-to explains how to add a second domain to an existing web site.

If you are interested in adding a completely new web site, then please refer to the FAQ on creating a new hosting order.

You may be interested in reading our DNS Primer for a more general overview of how DNS works.

This guide explains how to configure a domain name to work on the May First/People Link servers.

In this guide, we will assume your existing domain name is mayfirst.org. After launching your site, you realize that you would also like to use the domain mayfirst.info.

The first step is to configure the May First/People DNS servers to respond to queries about your new domain name. You can do that by:

  • Logging into the Members Control Panel
  • Selecting DNS from the Services drop down menu.
  • Click Add a New Item.
  • For DNS type, select "NS (NS + A + SOA Record)"
  • For Domain name (e.g. www.mygroup.org), enter the domain name you want (in this example mayfirst.info, you do not need to enter all the variations of your domain name - such as wwww.mayfirst.info - just the last two parts)
  • Leave the IP address blank
  • For Time To Live, change from the default number to: 259200
  • Leave Start/Stop time blank (it will take place immediately)
  • For Server Name, enter a.ns.mayfirst.org
  • Leave the remaining fields blank or with their default values

Then, repeat this process, entering the identical values except for Server Name - enter b.ns.mayfirst.org on the second go around.

This step adds two records to our domain name server - saying that the two authoritative domain servers for the domain mayfirst.info are: a.ns.mayfirst.org and b.ns.mayfirst.org.

For every domain name you want the DNS records should include values something like these:

DNS Type        Domain name        Time to live         Server Name
ns              example.org        259200               a.ns.mayfirst.org
ns              example.org        259200               b.ns.mayfirst.org

Next, you will want to add records that tell our domain name servers which IP address should be used for the various versions of the domain name you want to use. These are called "A" records. To add an A record:

  • Click Add a New Item.
  • For DNS type, select A
  • For Domain name (e.g. www.mygroup.org), enter the domain name you want (now you will need to enter a separate record for the variations of your domain name - such as mayfirst.info, www.mayfirst.info, etc.)
  • For IP address, enter the IP address of your primary host (it should be listed in the top right corner of the Members Control Panel.
  • Leave the remaining fields blank or with their default values

Repeat this process for each domain name variation. You will probably want one record for the base domain name (may1st.info) and one for www.may1st.info.

The next step depends on what you want to do with your domain name. You may either

The final (and critical step) is to configure your new domain to use May First/People Link name servers.

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