CNAME instead of NAMESERVER

Discussion in 'DNS/Domain names' started by teom, Aug 9, 2012.

  1. Hi,
    Currently my registar is godaddy and I have a hosting account with Winhost.
    If I understand correctly, if I add the name servers to my domain on godaddy, the DSN is handled by Winhost.

    Is it possible to keep the DNS on GoDaddy and use CNAME instead to point to my site hosted at Winhost?

    The reason for these; I have several entries for google apps, azure, etc.

    Thanks.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 14, 2015
  2. Possible, yes, but not as simple as adding a CNAME.

    A CNAME is an alias that directs the DNS system to an A record which in turn points to an IP address (currently that IP address probably points to a GoDaddy web server if your site is/was there).

    It would be a lot easier - in my opinion, anyway - to set your domain's name servers to point to us then add the Google/Azure CNAMEs to the DNS here.
     
    Last edited: Oct 14, 2015
  3. Hi, I do have the same setup as the original poster and I like to keep it this way. My main domain "mydomain.com" is hosted in and pointing to a site in Azure but I want to setup a CNAME "subName.mydomain.com" that points to my site on Winhost.

    I created the CNAME entry in my Azure DNS and made it point to the Secondary Web URL that Winhost provides. When I try to browse to to my "subName.mydomain.com" I receive an error:
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Web Page is Unavailable
    We are very sorry.

    The web page you are trying to reach is unavailable.

    Please contact the Website Administrator.

    We apologize for the inconvenience.
     
  4. Elshadriel

    Elshadriel Winhost Staff

    Nope, won't work because there is additional domain name resolution within IIS using host headers. What you need to do is add a DNS entry for the sub-domain to point to the IP address of the server. You also need to change the primary domain name on the account to the sub-domain name. It also works if you add the sub-domain using the Sub-domain tool in the Control Panel or by adding it as a Domain Pointer. All 3 methods add the necessary entry in IIS so that it will resolve correctly.
     
    Michael likes this.
  5. Yup, this worked! I added the sub-domain using the sub-domain tool in the Winhost control panel and created an A record for the subdomain to point to the IP address on my DNS manager.
     
    Michael and Elshadriel like this.

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