Added by Andy Williams, last edited by Doc Walker on Mar 31, 2009  (view change)

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Custom domain name setup


A note from Doc:   I am editing this post so that folks with questions will see this. At no point have we said that your custom domain needs to change. Your business cards and other printed material are still every bit as accurate as they were before. The changes are made under the hood at your domain host. Your visitor will still use your custom domain to access your site. The only change is to how the domain points to SmugMug. So please... do not panic. I will help you get things setup correctly.

Also, there was some confusion early about A records. Please do not delete them. You do need to edit the A records to use the new IP address if they are used to point at SmugMug. The confusion comes because in order to get the speed boost, you must use the CNAMED custom domain in your SmugMug control panel. For most everyone that will be the www version of your custom domain. (people using subdomains will want to use the CNAME if at all possible) The A record will redirect automatically if setup correctly to the CNAME and that will give you the speed boost. I know that is probably clear as mud for some people. You do not need to understand how it works. Just trust me that it will. 

For existing SmugMug custom domain users:

In the past, SmugMug users were instructed to set up their custom domains using a CNAME. We also had A record instructions, but with a warning that the A record may change in the future. That time has come and we are actually changing both the CNAME and A records.

You will need to edit your existing setup so that your domains CNAME points to domains.smugmug.com instead of to www.smugmug.com. It must be exactly domains.smugmug.com do not put anything else in. DO NOT point your domain at yournickname.smugmug.com no matter how tempted you may be. It will not work.

If you have an A record pointed at your site, it will now need to point to 208.79.45.23 . We have instructions that will apply to most users on our wiki. PLEASE NOTE that using an A record will result it a much slower site than using a CNAME, since we're able to dramatically accelerate CNAME'd sites. Also, we may need to change IP addresses again sometime in SmugMug's future, so using a CNAME is both the safest and fastest option.

If you are using a subdomain such as photos.yourdomain.com, you may only have a CNAME or A record. You do not need both.

Also, DO NOT use domain forwarding or redirects. Those will also cause problems.

If you get stuck making the changes, we'll be happy to unstick you. Please send via email to the help desk the name of your domain host, your domain host customer number/login ID, and set a temporary password so that we can login. Send this mail ATTN: Doc in the subject line. We will go in and make the changes for you.

If done properly, your visitors should have uninterrupted access to your SmugMug site via your custom domain. In other words, they won't know anything has changed. In some rare cases, your domain may be taken down by your domain host for 24-48 hours while the DNS settings update. So please plan accordingly.

It's best to take care of this immediately

****smugmugdomains.com users please note that in the past your domain was setup automatically with an * hostname. You probably want to delete that record and create new records as shown here: []GoDaddy CNAME Setup

for more help and information:  http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=100417Dgrin Thread








Multiple Domains
SmugMug currently only supports 1 domain per account.   Please keep this in mind when registering multiple domains.   You can have one primary domain.  All of the others will have to "point" to the first.  
We have some instructions for setting that up here.

The main custom domain help page is located here.

Configuring:

  1. Log in to your account on your hosting service's website, and go to the DNS management page.
    Since CNAME records are special Domain Name Service (DNS) records, they may be in sections such as DNS Management,  Name Server Management, Zone Files, or a Cpanel. It's possible that you will have to enable advanced settings to create a CNAME record.
  2. Delete existing CNAME entries for the address you want to use with your SmugMug Site.
    Before entering a new CNAME record to point to SmugMug, you should first delete any existing entries for the same alias. If you plan to transfer an existing web address to SmugMug, you may want to backup at that address elsewhere first.
  3. Create new entries for your subdomain.  Enter your sudomain for the host. The destination would be domains.smugmug.com   If you want yourdomain.com to work without the subdomain, enter an A record using the method that your domain uset requires for a null subdomain.  Some examples are @, Null, Empty, or simply leave it blank.  The desitination would be 208.79.45.23
  4. Once you set up the domain host, enter your new domain in the control panel of your SmugMug site on the settings tab.   Click the change link beside the domains field.   Be sure to enter just the subdomain.yourdomain.com however you set it up.  Use lowercase, and do not include any other text or characters.

 Instructions for some of the more popular Domain Registrars:

GoDaddy

Joker  

Network Solutions

Register.com

Yahoo

Some of the others:   (provided as information only)

1&1     If you have trouble with your 1and1 setup, you need to contact them for support.   1and1 appears to not allow you to use a CNAME record and their email servers at the same time.

Do I have to use an A record or how do I not make my customers type in www?   In the past we advised to use a CNAME whenever possible.  This is because A records require the server IP address.   IP addresses do change over time.  But, more domain hosts now require you to use an A record to get yourddomain.com without the www.    So , yes if you want the no www version you must use the A record with our current IP address is 208.79.45.23   Please understand that IP addresses change and this may need to be updated in the future. 

There are several different methods for the A record.  Depending on your domain host, you may need to use the @ sign, a null or empty field, the word empty, or some other indicator required by your domain provider.  Try the @ sign first as that is the most common.   

Once you have the domain set up, we have some great information to help you move forward:  So now that you have a custom domain, now what?

Having Trouble?

Here are some of our domain troubleshooting tips 

General tips and ideas for Custom domains
  • Once you have set up your custom domain, you may have to go back and update your navbar links to work with both the SmugMug URL and the custom domain.  To do this, we have a Dgrin thread that will help. 
  • Your new custom domain is like a new telephone number.  When you first get it, the only people that can call you are people you have given the number to.   Your new number is not in the phonebook yet and neither is your new domain name.  To get your new domain listed, it has to be picked up by Google.   You can help this process along by using the tips found in our Maximizing Your Findability page. 

Comments  (Hide Comments)

It would be nice if we actually received emails about changes like this. And nice if the instructions actually worked

Posted by Anonymous at Aug 30, 2008 22:53

We will be sending out a change notice soon.  This change will have a 30 day deadline.   The instructions provided should work for most domain host.   There are so many domain hosts that I cannot possibly write instructions for them all.   If you are having trouble, please send me an email on the help desk.  I will be happy to help get you set up.

Posted by Doc Walker at Sep 05, 2008 07:50

I was doing a Trial run of livebooks and I decided to go with smug mug, I already directed the CNAME, but now I can't seem to change the "name server" from livebooks to smug mug. The site where I got my domains (mydomain.com) led me to this page but now I come here asking what 2 name servers do I need for it to direct to Smug Mug.

Posted by Anonymous at Sep 17, 2008 13:36

The nameservers are whatever your domain provider tells you to use, they have to do with how your domain name is served out by that provider, not how SmugMug serves out your images.

Posted by Chris Abbey at Nov 07, 2008 23:52

I would just like to let any one who has host monster to know that apparently you have to send them an email via their help desk with the cname change  the arecord, they dont allow you to do it your self. i spent two hours trying to figure it out before i found out i couldnt, so ill try to spare the rest of you some grief

Posted by Anonymous at Oct 17, 2008 11:25

The CNAME has been changed and www.domain.smugmug.com comes up when I enter my URL...

But the change box in control panel won't take the new URL.? It say it does not resolve to smugmug...

Am I missing something???

Posted by Anonymous at Nov 24, 2008 02:29

The CNAME should point to domains.smugmug.com   not www.domains.smugmug.com 

Please enter that exactly as written.  It should and will work.   Also make certain that you are not using a forward.   Forwards will also cause the same problem you are seeing.

Posted by Doc Walker at Nov 24, 2008 06:29

Thanks, it goes to domains.smugmug....

Try it  www.mauisurfphotography.com/

Still won't take the change...

Posted by Anonymous at Nov 24, 2008 11:05

Your domain does not appear to be setup with a CNAME or A records according to the NSLookup I just ran.

You might want to contact me on the help desk instead of posting here.  I do not watch this space all the time.   You will get a response from the help desk much faster.

For anyone else having trouble with their domain contact me at help@smugmug.com  instead of posting here. 

Posted by Doc Walker at Nov 24, 2008 15:42

On a different note, I'm having trouble creating a domain at smugmugdomains.com. Really I'm stuck at not being able to login. I'm already a godaddy customer and I cannot login. The site is not specific as to what login info you are supposed to use, it would be good to make that clear. I'm pretty sure it's my godaddy login info I'm supposed to use, but it's not accepting it.

 Thoughts? Suggestions?

 I would just purchase through godaddy.com, but the .org domains are half as much at smugmugdomains.com

Posted by Anonymous at Jan 31, 2009 01:48

http://www.smugmugdomains.com/ and http://www.godaddy.com have separate logins. You'll need to create a new account at 'smugmugdomains.com' to continue in purchasing a domain name and registering it with GoDaddy.

Posted by Rich Wilson at Feb 01, 2009 09:02

Please contact us at the help@smugmug.com for help.  I do not see your posts here right away.   I want you to get help as quickly as possible.

Posted by Doc Walker at Feb 03, 2009 15:54

Sorry Doc
Don't remember who my host is. Don't remember pass words etc. Just plain dumb.
I hope you have made adjustments for situations like mine. And will still support my slower but still working method of access. Or are you holding a gun to my head. Saying switch or else.

Posted by Anonymous at Apr 03, 2009 07:33

I have set up a CNAME from photos.twobackpackers.com to twobackpackers.com when I go to twobackpackers.com/photos I am taken to twobackpackers.smugmug.com and in the address line it says twobackpackers.smugmug.com how do I make the address line read twobackpackers.com/photos?? Is this possible?

Posted by Anonymous at Jun 19, 2009 12:17