TOPIC:

Our FTH site is: 4413485.toastmastersclubs.org/ and, until today, it worked fine. I own the custom domain names www.waimeatoastmasters.com and .org

I had set up FTH admin for the waimeatoastmasters.org domain and had been able to navigate to the site by typing that www.waimeatoastmasters.org

Emails and everything worked until I messed with it from the registrar side of things. I think it was because I had a desire to create email addresses for both the .org and the .com so I had set up for the domains to be hosted on an account I have used for other domain names. FORGOT that FTH already hosts the .org domain.

Since it fouled everything up -- as in I could not navigate to our site using either domain name, I have since deleted the hosting for both of those domain names. I also went in and did my best to correct the DNS info and now have the 3 "A" and 1 "mx" set up as directed in the forum instructions linked to from the admin console.

Now, I can type www.waimeatoastmasters.org and it takes me to a dns search engine --

I have the registrar dns page open and can access the site admin console at the same time so I am hoping some kind soul will help me undo the mess I made.

Thanks for looking!
Kristin

beautifulbooks wrote:

Our FTH site is: 4413485.toastmastersclubs.org/ and, until today, it worked fine. I own the custom domain names www.waimeatoastmasters.com and .org

I had set up FTH admin for the waimeatoastmasters.org domain and had been able to navigate to the site by typing that www.waimeatoastmasters.org

Emails and everything worked until I messed with it from the registrar side of things. I think it was because I had a desire to create email addresses for both the .org and the .com so I had set up for the domains to be hosted on an account I have used for other domain names. FORGOT that FTH already hosts the .org domain.

Since it fouled everything up -- as in I could not navigate to our site using either domain name, I have since deleted the hosting for both of those domain names. I also went in and did my best to correct the DNS info and now have the 3 "A" and 1 "mx" set up as directed in the forum instructions linked to from the admin console.

Now, I can type www.waimeatoastmasters.org and it takes me to a dns search engine --

I have the registrar dns page open and can access the site admin console at the same time so I am hoping some kind soul will help me undo the mess I made.

Thanks for looking!
Kristin

I believe that it is fixed... Since you deleted the DNS, you needed to the website address you put in that area in the admin area... Try it now...

Linda

I took a look. I found that there is an alias set in the Basic Website Settings, but no custom domain.

I did a look up on the custom domain name, and found that the A records do not point to the FTH server IP address.

If you were to switch to using the custom domain name, you need to make sure that the DNS records are set up properly.

Refer to: support.toastmastersclubs.org/doc/item/dns-settings-overview

Hi Linda,

Thank you for your help. I just was chatting with a tech for the registrar and he had me delete all the A records except for the mail one and then go in and instruct the domain to forward to the 4413485.toastmastersclubs.org/ site but retain the name in the URL box.

I just did that and am guessing it will take a few minutes for it to update. Sigh...

I will come back here in a few minutes with an update.

Again thank you so very much!

Hi Steve and Linda,

Sorry -- I stepped away for a few and just came back. It looks like after my first post somebody, maybe Linda?, changed my admin console to an alias? because it worked but I know it is supposed to be a custom domain name so I have changed it back AND went to my registrar and put back the required A records and I just removed the proxy (URL forwarding) at the DNS record level.

Waiting a few minutes for it all to propagate and will test again.

Aloha... and thank you so much!

beautifulbooks wrote:

Hi Steve and Linda,

Sorry -- I stepped away for a few and just came back. It looks like after my first post somebody, maybe Linda?, changed my admin console to an alias? because it worked but I know it is supposed to be a custom domain name so I have changed it back AND went to my registrar and put back the required A records and I just removed the proxy (URL forwarding) at the DNS record level.

Waiting a few minutes for it all to propagate and will test again.

Aloha... and thank you so much!

I am sorry about that... I thought you said you cancelled the name... That is why I cancelled it...

Thank you for the response...

Linda

Hi Steve -- I am still figuring out how to post/reply in this forum. Old dog learning new tricks So, I think it is straightened out now and I am just trying to patiently wait for propagation. Do mind taking another look at the DNS records and see if it looks correct to you?

Many thanks!!!

Okay Steve and Linda,

So, now everything has propagated, (I think), and I can access the site using 4413485.toastmastersclubs.org/ but it turns out I am not yet able to change from "alias" to "custom domain" because it says the domain is still not pointing to 50.19.253.65

The last time I posted I thought I had made that alias to custom domain change but didn't realize even though I clicked to save the changes it actually did not because of the pointing issue.

When I look at the DNS records it looks "right" to me. If you have time would you please take a peek? When I asked from help earlier today from my registrar they did not understand why I needed the A records beyond just the mail and they instructed me to just add the A and MX records for the mail and then just point my domain to the 4413485.toastmastersclubs.org/ site and leave it at that. But, the FTH instructions clearly tell me otherwise.

I am so sorry I messed it up because everything was working perfectly yesterday!

Aloha...

Forwarding of custom domain names is not supported by FreeToastHost. What the registrar tech told you is a bad approach and is unlikely to work. We have been coaching clubs how to set these up for some time... we know the proper approach.

You need to do the DNS set up as we spell it out the docs.

Remove any domain forwards from the registrar set up.

Add the following 3 A records to the DNS settings:
A waimeatoastmasters.org 50.19.253.65
A www.waimeatoastmasters.org 50.19.253.65
A mail.waimeatoastmasters.org 50.19.253.65

This will get you set up fro www.waimeatoastmasters.org

If you wish to also use waimeatoastmasters.com, then you will also need DNS records for that.

Hi Steve, I did this at least 20 minutes ago and when I type in the waimeatoastmasters.org it takes me to the dns search again. I re-checked my dns records and the 3 A records as well as the MX record are there. I don't know if there is something else wrong in the records?

I think the simplest for me to do with the .com is just to have it forward to the .org so I will just do that with the registrar site dns records. Unless you tell me different (I edited this to explain that I just want to use the .com as a "just in case they forget to type .org and type .com instead")

So, I guess what I am asking for is if you would be so kind as to look at the dns records as there must be a mistake somewhere???

I understand. However, I am not sure that if it will work if your club members use the com domain in email addresses. Not sure that those will get forwarded for email. In a nutshell, we do not recommend using domain forwards.

Here is what I see (click link):
www.digwebinterface.com/?hostnames=waime...ns=auth&nameservers=

I do not see any A records that point to the FTH server. Perhaps it is just a propagation delay, but dig is pretty much the authoritative tool for DNS record lookup.

Thanks Steve -- I rechecked the registrar and it shows the 3 A records and the MX record as already noted. The only other records which show something are the 3 name servers which have ns1, ns2 and ns3.omnis.com there.

I wish there were a way to speed up propagation so I know if it is fixed or not... sigh...

Thank you again!

Hi Steve,

It is still not working -- typing www.waimeatoastmasters.org takes me to a dns search. More than 3 hours ago I had double-checked the registrar dns records to make sure all the numbers matched what you instructed me to use and I also reduced the TTL to 3600 for those 4 records in the hopes it would help clear/update faster.

Still nothing ;( I am afraid to try anything else until I hear from you, if you would be so kind as to check the dns records again to see if the other records are correct?

Many thanks for your help!

Not seeing a change. Try again tomorrow.

It is Sunday the 12th, 3:30 pm HST and I still can not type in www.waimeatoastmasters.org and have it take me to our club website at 4413485.toastmastersclubs.org/

I have had, for more than 24 hours now, the 3 "A" records for waimeatoastmasters.org, www.waimea..., mail.waimea.... and the one "MX" record for mail as instructed. The only other dns records are 3 records for nameservers which are with omnis.com, the registrar.

Steve and Linda were kindly helping me yesterday but we were hoping it would all update/propagate overnight and work but it did not. I know everybody is busy -- I am just hoping someone can take a look at the dns records or check on the FTH side of things to find the cause of the failure.

Many thanks!!

Kristin

Your Registrar DNS is not broadcasting any A records for your domain.

You need to contact your registrar Omnis your domain has not been updated since - Updated Date: 2015-02-13

Thank you Brian!

So, surprise, surprise -- Omnis (registrar) was open for tech support today (Sunday!) and solved the problem!!! When I typed the "A" records I typed: waimeatoastmasters.org, www.waimeatoastmasters.org and mail.waimeatoastmasters.org with, of course, the IP address of 50.19.253.65 as the target for each one. He had me delete all three records and create new ones which were: @, www and mail respectively -- he said the way I HAD it was the equivalent of telling it if it encountered: www.waimeatoastmasters.org.waimeatoastmasters.org ---- which, of course, it would never do. They were not valid A records so that was why it looked like there had been no updates for those of you kind enough to help by researching the dns records externally.

Sigh.... as I said in the beginning, I know just enough to get myself into trouble!

So now I will wait a bit and check if it is working again.....

Thank you again to all of you who helped!

Kristin

Yes that looks better.

waimeatoastmasters.org. 21599 IN A 50.19.253.65
www.waimeatoastmasters.org. 21599 IN A 50.19.253.65
mail.waimeatoastmasters.org. 21599 IN A 50.19.253.65

waimeatoastmasters.org. 3599 IN MX 10 mail.waimeatoastmasters.org

You might be able to access it now using the domain name mail.waimeatoastmasters.org. 21599 IN A 50.19.253.65 as the names servers didn't change the update should be immediate.

Okay... but NEW PROBLEM.... now when I type it I just end up at the free Toast Host 2 Welcome page.....

More help please??

Thank you!

beautifulbooks wrote:

Okay... but NEW PROBLEM.... now when I type it I just end up at the free Toast Host 2 Welcome page.....

More help please??

Thank you!

Because you need to put the domain name back into the admin console.

Thank you Steve! Sigh... I forgot about that having been changed yesterday. Brain fog... I will try again tomorrow as when I tried to fix this it won't allow it, insisting that I still have not pointed the domain to 50.19.253.65. Hoping propagation magic happens tonight while I sleep

Many thanks for seeing me through this.

Hi Steve,

Thanks in advance IRONICALLY I still cannot get the FTH site admin console to allow me to change from an alias to a custom domain name (www.waimeatoastmasters.org), still giving me the error message stating that the domain is not pointing to 50.19.253.65 --- but, the domain is pointing to that IP address because if you type in www.waimeatoastmasters.org it takes you to the welcome page for www.toastmastersclubs.org :S And it has for hours....

I hope you can help -- if you can please go ahead and fix it as I will be gone for the next 2 days -- away from internet access -- yes, there are still places like that I promise I won't mind! Thank you, yet again!!!

Aloha,
Kristin

ok it works now

I entered the domain name saved and it took it right away.

www.waimeatoastmasters.org/ is now working correctly for me.

Email may not work for the domain, though... No A record to map mail.waimeatoastmasters.org to server IP.

The dig test we use will pass if there is at least one A record. As we recommend 3 A records, missing 2 A records will not fail the data validation.

In essence, in this case, just because the system does not flag an error does not guarantee that the custom domain stuff will work completely.