User:Melab-1/Archives/Reference Desk/Computing/December 26 2008/Number 1

http://mydomainname to ghs.google.com
In order to make my Google Site display when someone enters www.mydomainname.nl, I had to make a CNAME record in the DNS records directing to ghs.google.com. When someone enters mydomainname.nl however, they are directed to a page from my webhost (the browser adds http:// to make http://mydomainname.nl) - what CNAME record should I make to enable direction to ghs.google.com? Seans Potato Business 00:48, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
 * The answer is you can't create a CNAME record for your root domain . Technically it is possible but this would require the set-up at .nl be different. You'd need to use a transparent redirector to achieve what you want to do. You might want to look and see if your DNS service provides it. Some do. (Mine does.) There are also free services, without ads, but as you're using their servers it may not be a good idea if you need high uptime/mission critical work. Also you could run the redirector yourself. If Google Apps was set up to allow you to use A records instead of CNAME you could do it but for the free one, I'm pretty sure your not (from memory). Nil Einne (talk) 10:18, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
 * My domain registrar is starthosting.nl - I found redirect settings in their domain management features and set "default" to redirect to the www. subdomain of my domain. This had the desired effect but I don't know if there are any unanticipated repercussions. I think it's particularly confusing that the address is given as "default" and not "mydomainname.nl". Anyway thanks; it's working now. Seans Potato Business 05:54, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
 * I can't say for sure but I suspect the only issue is that you are likely relying on their services to handle the redirection, in other words as mentioned above if their redirection service goes down, anyone trying to access your domain through mydomainname.nl will get a server 'not responding message'. Also default may include wildcards for that domain, in other words if you try somesubdomainthatdoesntexist.mydomain.nl you will also be redirected to www. You could look at the NS records for you domain to get an idea of whats they're doing. If you want you could e-mail me your domain name and I could take a look but I only know as much as I leartn when setting up my domain for personal use and that was a while ago. Nil Einne (talk) 11:39, 28 December 2008 (UTC)