Monday, October 15, 2012

New Blogger Custom Domain and CNAME Setup Guide (English)

As you can see my blog moved to new domain. The process wasn't smooth enough, so I want to share with you with how to avoid 2 major pitfalls.

First of all, after you are buying new domain name and before you are moving your blog their you have to register Google Apps for this domain. If your purchased domain name was previously used, it can contain some garbage (it is actually Google data base corruption). In order to fix it see NOTE *1*.

Second pitfall is even more tricky. When you are going to the Blogspot/Blogger interface in order to switch the domain name you should be extremely careful. You should:

Write your domain name with "www."
You will get "Blogs may not be hosted at naked domains.". See Note *2*.

Click on Switch to advanced settings first, before you are entering domain name.

Before clicking on settings instructions you should enter new domain name
These instruction is generated for new domain name. So you must provide the details before clicking. Otherwise, you blog will fail to move to new domain name.

When copying CNAME don't copy . at the end
See Note *3*
On this step Blogspot/Blogger ask you to change some properties that is accessible through DNS in order to verify that you are actually controlling this domain.


There is more below.
Ниже есть продолжение.


NOTE *1*:
Once logged in to Google Apps, look at your Google Apps dashboard, and find the AdServices, Sites, or Start Page service. Click on AdServices, Sites, or Start Page, and you will see the appropriate Service Settings screen.
http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2009/11/deactivation-of-google-sites-service.html


Note *2*
What is a naked domain?

A naked domain is simply a domain name without the 'www' prefix. For example, google.com (naked) instead of www.google.com (non-naked.)

To simplify custom domain configuration on your blog, Blogger only accepts non-naked domains in our sign-up process. If you try to enter a naked domain in the advanced settings of the Settings | Publishing tab, you will run into an error stating that Blogs may not be hosted at naked domains.

To fix this, simply enter the non-naked version of your domain and save your settings.

Note *3*

For the second CNAME, enter "AAAAAAAAAAAAA" as the Name and
"gv-BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB.domainverify.googlehosted.com." as the
http://www.blogger.com/custom-domain-instructions.g

You should use gv-BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB.domainverify.googlehosted.com without "." at the end (.com and not .com.)

* GENERAL NOTE *

I decided to add the custom domain to the blog's settings but to my surprise, the settings FAILED to save.

I noticed this error message "We are not able to resolve www.*******.com. It might take up to 24 hours for new domains to start working. Please try again later" on the page and right under the error message, I saw an instruction that I should enter two CNAMEs in my DNS settings.

I followed the instruction and within a short time, the blogspot address started redirecting perfectly to the custom domain. In fact, the naked domain also started redirecting to the "www" without me ticking the redirection option in Blogger Settings.

...you have to follow the steps below to add the second CNAME to your DNS:

1. Enter your custom domain into the appropriate field located on the Blogger's Settings (Publishing) page
2. Click the [u]"settings instructions"[/u] link below the field. (It is important that you only click the settings instructions link after you enter your domain, as the unique record is generated based on the entered URL.)
3. You’ll be directed to a page which will have your two unique records displayed. Copy the information for use in the next step.
4. Depending on your domain register, follow the relevant instructions for creating a new CNAME just as you did for ghs.google.com, but now instead using the unique info from step 3.#

Find the control panel on your domain registrar’s website, and locate your DNS (Domain Name System) settings. In order to link your blog to your custom domain, follow the instructions below to enter your "CNAME" and "A-records."

CNAME
Add two CNAME records. For the first CNAME, where it says Name, Label or Host enter "www" and where it says Destination, Target or Points To enter "ghs.google.com" . For the second CNAME, enter "AAAAAAAAAAAA" as the Name and
"gv-BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB.domainverify.googlehosted.com." as the Destination. See our detailed instructions on providing CNAMEs for various registrars. If yours isn't listed, or if you run into other difficulties, contact your registrar directly and they can help you out.
http://www.blogger.com/custom-domain-instructions.g

5. After updating your CNAME info, head back to Blogger and click Save to finalize your custom domain setup. If Saving does not work, then you’ll have to wait a little while and try again. Saving won’t be possible until the DNS changes have fully updated, and some registrars may take up to an hour or more before that happens.

Please note also that some registrars may take up to 24 hours to update changes to DNS so the blog may not be served immediately on your domain.
http://www.ogbongeblog.com/2012/09/new-blogger-custom-domain-and-cname.html

1 comment:

  1. Поздравляю с переходом на свой домейн!

    ReplyDelete