Configuring domains on GoDaddy

Managing custom domains

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The following example explains the domain configuration procedure on GoDaddy.com.

The exact controls and terminology may differ at other domain registrars.

Screenshots in these instructions appear below the step they illustrate.

Pointing your domain

1. Log in to http://godaddy.com.
2. Open the domain manager for your domain name:
   1. Click the "My Account" tab near the top right.
   2. Click "Domains" on the right menu.
   3. Click the domain name you want to use in Drupal Gardens.
   4. Click "Manage Domain" in the pop-under that appears.

   

3. On the Domain Management page, click "Forward" and select "Forward Domain". Follow the instructions to forward your top-level domain, example.com to www.example.com.

   

   Note: This step may take a few minutes to reset.

4. After the process is complete, you'll see that your domain is now being forwarded to www.example.com under "Domain Information" on the main Domain Manager page.

   

5. Click "Launch" under "DNS Manager" on the Domain Management page.

   

6. If your domain name was previously pointed at another server or service, you may have to clear any changes to its "CNAME" records. GoDaddy provides a "Restore Defaults" link for this purpose.

   

7. For a GoDaddy-registered domain to be forwarded to another domain name, its "A Record" must point to the following IP address: 64.202.189.170
   1. Click any of the edit links that appear when you mouse over "A (Host)".

      

   2. Enter @ under "Host"
   3. Enter 64.202.189.170 under "Points to"

   

8. Point www.example.com to your Drupal Gardens website.
   1. Mouse over and click any of the edit links for "www" under "CNAMES (Aliases)".
   2. The entry for "Host" should remain www.
   3. Enter your Drupal Gardens domain name (example.drupalgardens.com) under "Points to".

   

   Note: It can take from 30 minutes up to several hours for domain forwarding changes to take effect.

9. After the changes above have been propagated, you can add your custom domain name to Drupal Gardens.

   Important: You must add the "www" version of your domain name to your Drupal Gardens domain since it is the "www" CNAME record that is pointing to Drupal Gardens, not your top-level domain name, which is forwarded to the "www" version:

   1. Log in to your Drupal Gardens website.
   2. Click "My sites" in the administration menu bar.

      

   3. Click your site's "Manage Domains" link.

      

   4. Enter your domain name prefixed with www - www.example.com into the "Add a domain" field.

      

   5. Note: If your domain's CNAME record has not been created properly or if it has not yet fully propagated, you will not be able to add it to your Drupal Gardens site. Wait some time and try again.

Pointing your subdomain

You can also point a "subdomain" of your domain name to your Drupal Gardens site. For example, you could run example.com on any web platform or service and a subdomain on Drupal Gardens or even multiple Drupal Gardens websites as subdomains of a single domain name.

1. Create a subdomain and CNAME alias.
   1. Go to your GoDaddy domains page and click its "Domain Manager" link as described above.
   2. Launch the DNS manager for that domain as described above.
   3. Click "Quick add" at the bottom of the CNAME list.
   4. Enter the subdomain under "Host".
   5. Enter your Drupal Gardens site name under "Points to".
   6. Click "Save Zone File" at the upper right.

   In this example, if your domain name were drupal-space.com, planets.drupal-space.com would now point to example.drupalgardens.com.

   

2. Add your subdomain to Drupal Gardens. Since the subdomain itself is pointing to your Drupal Gardens site, add it as-is to your Drupal Gardens site in the domain manager ("planets.drupal-space.com" in this example, without "www").

Tip: Do not use GoDaddy Forwarding or Masking

Do not use GoDaddy's forwarding or masking service. The procedure defined in the GoDaddy help center (http://help.godaddy.com/article/422) will impede Drupal Gardens from providing you proper custom domain rendering and could lead to malformed and/or non-functioning links and URLs across your Drupal Gardens site.

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