The Task Of Forwarding A Domain Requires Experience, Persistence, And Research

I constantly advise Blogger blog owners to avoid forwarding, when setting up custom domain publishing.

In the rare cases where forwarding is actually required, not every blog owner reports success.

My blog now displays a non Google search page!

or worse

My blog now displays

404 Not Found

What did I do wrong??

Depending upon what setup work was done by the blog / domain owner, and what effort is required by the registrar, one may expect to see, quite predictably, either of the above errors.

When you just publish your blog to the primary domain, you're using the Blogger Publishing wizard.

When you forward a secondary domain to the primary domain, you're using the DNS Manager wizard provided by the registrar, for that secondary domain. Frequently, this is a 2 step process.

1. You use the DNS Manager for the secondary domain, and designate the primary domain as the forwarding target for this domain.
2. You setup a DNS address for the secondary domain URL, and target the redirection server - as provided by the DNS host.

Some wizards will handle both steps for you automatically, while others will require that you do both steps separately. I have had both experiences, when forwarding different domains using the GoDaddy DNS manager. You may need to experiment, here - or ask an experienced technician at the registrar, for advice.

If your registrar requires that you perform both steps separately, and you only do the first, your domain gets redirected to the redirection server. If you don't define a redirection target, you have a parked domain, similar to an expired domain - and your domain will serve the ads display page provided by the registrar.

If your registrar requires that you perform both steps separately, and you only do the second, your domain will be properly redirected from the redirection server - but the redirection server will not be defined, for your domain. If the redirection server isn't defined, the domain will be "404".

If your registrar does not provide explicit instructions - or if you use the domain manager wizard and get either of the above results, it may be time to contact a customer service representative. Using a third party registrar, or a third party DNS hosting service, you may have to improvise.

Forwarding a domain - when you must serve two domains (or more) from one blog - is simply not a task for the inexperienced.

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eNom Hosted Custom Domains Again Showing Intermittent Connectivity Issues

This week, we have a few reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, about active and mature domains, suddenly stopped working.

I have used my domain with no problems, since last year. Today, it suddenly stopped working, and the browser reports

Oops! Google Chrome could not find www.mydomain.com.

I asked my friends about my domain - and they tell me that my blog is inaccessible to them, also. I didn't change any settings - and it was fine, until last night.

As we reported last year, the Google partner registrar eNom occasionally has a problem with their DNS server complement. Right now, one of their DNS servers appears consistently bad.

Using a comprehensive Dig tool, we can observe a given domain, and compare the DNS addresses being served by all authoritative name servers for a given domain, in a single transaction.

Here's a hypothetical example, of what we're seeing right now, for several eNom hosted domains.

mycustomdomain.com@dns1.name-services.com.:

mycustomdomain.com.  1800 IN A 216.239.36.21
mycustomdomain.com.  1800 IN A 216.239.34.21
mycustomdomain.com.  1800 IN A 216.239.38.21
mycustomdomain.com.  1800 IN A 216.239.32.21

mycustomdomain.com@dns2.name-services.com.:

mycustomdomain.com.  1800 IN A 216.239.36.21
mycustomdomain.com.  1800 IN A 216.239.34.21
mycustomdomain.com.  1800 IN A 216.239.32.21
mycustomdomain.com.  1800 IN A 216.239.38.21

mycustomdomain.com@dns3.name-services.com.:

mycustomdomain.com.  1800 IN A 216.239.36.21
mycustomdomain.com.  1800 IN A 216.239.32.21
mycustomdomain.com.  1800 IN A 216.239.34.21
mycustomdomain.com.  1800 IN A 216.239.38.21

mycustomdomain.com@dns4.name-services.com.:

mycustomdomain.com.  1800 IN A 216.239.36.21
mycustomdomain.com.  1800 IN A 216.239.34.21
mycustomdomain.com.  1800 IN A 216.239.32.21
mycustomdomain.com.  1800 IN A 216.239.38.21

mycustomdomain.com@dns5.name-services.com.:

org.   3601 IN
 SOA dns1.name-services.com. info.name-services.com. 2010 10800 3600 604800 3600


www.mycustomdomain.com@dns1.name-services.com.:

www.mycustomdomain.com.  1800 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

www.mycustomdomain.com@dns2.name-services.com.:

www.mycustomdomain.com.  1800 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

www.mycustomdomain.com@dns3.name-services.com.:

www.mycustomdomain.com.  1800 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

www.mycustomdomain.com@dns4.name-services.com.:

www.mycustomdomain.com.  1800 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

www.mycustomdomain.com@dns5.name-services.com.:

org.   3601 IN
 SOA dns1.name-services.com. info.name-services.com. 2010 10800 3600 604800 3600

Right now, it appears that server "dns5" is consistently broken.

It's possible that this problem will affect more eNom customers, as the day progresses, cached DNS addresses expire, and readers of various eNom hosted domains request DNS addresses. I hope that eNom Customer Service can react to this problem more promptly than they have reacted to the immediately previous problem.

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Accessing The Registrar's Domain Manager, After Using "Buy a domain"

Setting up a custom domain, and publishing a blog to a non BlogSpot URL, is a simple enough task - when we are able to use the "Buy a domain for your blog" wizard. Sometimes, after using "Buy a domain ...", we may still have to access the registrar's Domain Manager wizard.

When we use "Buy a domain", along with setting up the domain for us, the Blogger / Google wizard sets up a new eNom or GoDaddy domain owner account. To let us later login to eNom or GoDaddy, the "Buy a domain" wizard saves the login information, for our new account - in a Google Apps desktop wizard. Here is yet one more reason why we absolutely must setup the provided Google Apps account, after receiving the Google Apps email.

The process of managing a domain, when setup using "Buy a domain", is not too complicated.

1. Setup a new Google Apps account. Since free Google Apps accounts are no longer offered, you'll have to setup a Trial - or limited function - account.
2. Login to Google Apps.
3. Retrieve the Google Apps registrar login information, from "Advanced DNS settings".
4. Login to the registrar (eNom or GoDaddy).

The domain owner registrar login information is right there, in "Advanced DNS settings".


The domain owner login information is in the Google Apps desktop.

1. Go to "Domain settings" - "Domain names" - "Advanced DNS settings".
2. Open a new browser tab or window, clicking on "Sign in to DNS console".
3. Copy the Sign-in name, and the Password, to the appropriate boxes on the sign-in dialogue, and click "Login".
4. This will put you into the Domain Manager wizard, for the new domain.

If you already had an eNom or GoDaddy account, that will be a separate account - but with this new account maintained for you, by Google. Just keep your new Google Apps account accessible and active, keep the domain registration up to date - and you'll have no problem accessing the Domain Manager wizard, and managing the domain, whenever you need.

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Use Third Party DNS Servers, For Domains Registered By 1And1, And Similar Registrars

Not all registrars are able to support the new Blogger domain ownership verification requirement.

Some registrars won't allow a second "CNAME" in the same subdomain - and others can't handle the excessively long target address. Ever since Blogger added domain ownership verification, we've been seeing complaints from some blog owners, who have purchased domains directly from registrars who can't provide the required DNS addresses on their servers.

Even though not all registrars have DNS servers that will provide the right DNS address entries, most registrars will allow us to use third party DNS servers. The use of publicly available DNS servers, which can provide the required DNS addresses, will eliminate the need to transfer domain registration - when the registrar is unable to provide the right DNS addresses, using their own servers.

If you're trying to setup your domain, purchased from 1And1 or a similar registrar, you need only to setup a suitable third party DNS server.

Use of a third party DNS host will also help victims of the eNom DNS Infrastructure problem - and those who purchased Name Registration, directly from the registrar.

Marc Ridey, of Blogger Engineering, provides How to setup your Blogger blog with a custom domain from 1and1.com, and adds three simple steps to the normal third party registrar domain setup process.

1. Setup a (free) ClouDNS account.
2. Setup your normal DNS addresses (including the required domain ownership verification "CNAME") in ClouDNS, using the ClouDNS Domain Manager wizard.
3. Setup your domain, using your registrar's domain manager wizard, pointing to the ClouDNS DNS servers.

When you update DNS addresses, such as adding additional hosts, and ownership verification, you use the ClouDNS Domain Manager wizard.

If you are using your third party registrar because you have non Blogger services (a web site, email, files, or other service) hosted by the registrar, please note the warning by Marc!

Warning: If you are using 1and1 hosting services to display a website as well as a Blogger blog, these instructions will disable the website. Please post a comment with your website address and I'll check how these instructions must be updated. If you're using eMail, remember to complete the optional eMail step.

Note that ClouDNS, when setup, may offer the option to redirect the domain root (aka "naked domain") to the "www" alias (or whatever DNS address you may setup). For best results, ignore that option, and use the Blogger or Google Apps redirect. There are still only three acceptable DNS models - use of ClouDNS, or any similar third party DNS host, will not change that.

This may not be an ideal solution for the problem - it introduces a bit of complexity into the domain setup process - but it will allow owners of newly purchased domains from 1And1, Network Solutions, and others to get their domains verified, and get their blogs online again. And, since this starts with blog owners who elected to purchase their domain directly from a registrar - and setup the domain themselves - maybe it's not too much, technically.

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You Cannot Buy A Domain From Blogger

One of the odder examples of naivete, seen occasionally in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, involves the custom domain purchase.

How do I buy a domain from Blogger?

or alternately

How do I have Google host my domain?

The immediate answer, properly stated, is simple.

You cannot buy a domain from Blogger. Neither Blogger, nor Google, is a registrar.

The full answer, however, is a bit more complex.

Blogger / Google provides the "Buy a domain for your blog" wizard, which simplifies the purchase and setup of non BlogSpot URLs, for our Blogger blogs - when we are able to make certain concessions in the purchase process. The "Buy a domain" wizard is simple, with some subtle restrictions.

• The "Buy a domain" wizard should not be interrupted, as it cannot be restarted.
• A major bank issued credit card, in working order, is required.
• Only specific generic Top Level domains are offered.
  • .biz
  • .com
  • .info
  • .net
  • .org
  No country Top Level domains are offered.
• The "Buy a domain" wizard uses partner registrars eNom and GoDaddy, selectable at purchase.
• If you already have an account with eNom or GoDaddy, you will end up with a second account. There is no opportunity to purchase using an existing account.
• "Buy a domain", when used, produces one and only one of the three standard domain models.

If you are able to live with the restrictions - and you are the one asking the original question

How do I buy a domain from Blogger?

chances are that you, Blogger / Google, and your readers will all be better off with you using "Buy a domain". Just please, plan the blog migration, before starting.

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eNom: Fix Your DNS Servers!

For over 2 months, we've been seeing reports from blog owners who published their blogs to custom domains, with domain DNS hosted by eNom, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

I bought my domain name through Blogger,last week. It is being hosted by eNom. Ever since I bought it some of my followers, and sometimes myself, can't access my site. There is either a DNS search or a "Ooops, Google Chrome can't find..."

I tried contacting eNom, and they said they can see my site and that all of my settings are correct. They say it must be Google's problem.

The keyword here is "sometimes".

Ever since I bought it some of my followers, and sometimes myself, can't access my site.

A simple Dig, for the domain in question, will frequently show normal results. The usual DNS configuration, for a domain purchased using "Buy a domain", will be asymmetrical aka "Google Apps".

enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN A 216.239.32.21
enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN A 216.239.34.21
enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN A 216.239.36.21
enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN A 216.239.38.21
www.enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

The problem, which not so many people appreciate, is that eNom uses multiple DNS servers, possibly geographically separated. This is normal DNS hosting technique, and guarantees redundancy if one data center goes offline.

However, for redundancy to work, all DNS servers have to be kept consistently synchronised. If we examine the 5 eNom DNS servers individually, we will frequently see discrepancies.

enomhosteddomain.com @ dns1.name-services.com.:

enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN A 216.239.32.21
enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN A 216.239.34.21
enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN A 216.239.36.21
enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN A 216.239.38.21
enomhosteddomain.com. 3600 IN NS dns1.name-services.com.
enomhosteddomain.com. 3600 IN NS dns2.name-services.com.
enomhosteddomain.com. 3600 IN NS dns3.name-services.com.
enomhosteddomain.com. 3600 IN NS dns4.name-services.com.
enomhosteddomain.com. 3600 IN NS dns5.name-services.com.

enomhosteddomain.com @ dns2.name-services.com.:

enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN A 216.239.34.21
enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN A 216.239.38.21
enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN A 216.239.32.21
enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN A 216.239.36.21

enomhosteddomain.com @ dns3.name-services.com.:

com.   3601 IN SOA dns1.name-services.com. info.name-services.com. 2010 10001 1801 604801 181

enomhosteddomain.com @ dns4.name-services.com.:

enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN A 216.239.32.21
enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN A 216.239.36.21
enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN A 216.239.34.21
enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN A 216.239.38.21

enomhosteddomain.com @ dns5.name-services.com.:

enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN A 216.239.32.21
enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN A 216.239.34.21
enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN A 216.239.36.21
enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN A 216.239.38.21
enomhosteddomain.com. 3600 IN NS dns1.name-services.com.
enomhosteddomain.com. 3600 IN NS dns2.name-services.com.
enomhosteddomain.com. 3600 IN NS dns3.name-services.com.
enomhosteddomain.com. 3600 IN NS dns4.name-services.com.
enomhosteddomain.com. 3600 IN NS dns5.name-services.com.


www.enomhosteddomain.com @ dns1.name-services.com.:

www.enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

www.enomhosteddomain.com @ dns2.name-services.com.:

www.enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

www.enomhosteddomain.com @ dns3.name-services.com.:

com.   3601 IN SOA dns1.name-services.com. info.name-services.com. 2010 10001 1801 604801 181

www.enomhosteddomain.com @ dns4.name-services.com.:

www.enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

www.enomhosteddomain.com @ dns5.name-services.com.:

www.enomhosteddomain.com. 1800 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

This is one of the more subtle discrepancies, which I have observed, in the past couple months - only DNS Server #3 is out of synch, in this case. But that's enough, to make the domain unreliable.

The problem is intermittent. All of a sudden my site loads, but 10 minutes ago it didn't.

That's one eNom customer, out of over a dozen, which I have documented. And that's one eNom customer, who should be complaining, to someone above eNom Customer Service.

eNom: fix your servers!

---

(Update 2012/07/03): Suspicion that the problem is related to Anycast DNS led me to a bud, who is a fellow TC, and a network expert in India, and who provided an intriguing blog post, neatly diagnosing the underlying problem. It appears that eNom server monitoring policies may be a bit superficial.

---

---

Use these links, for convenient reference:

• Discrepancy suspected.
• Discrepancy confirmed.

---

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Custom Domain Diagnoses - Identify DNS Address Inconsistencies

One of the more intriguing causes of intermittent custom domain problems starts with inconsistent DNS server configuration. Recently, eNom, one of the "partners" in "Buy a domain", has been serving inconsistent DNS configurations, from time to time - including one very blatant episode the afternoon of 6/18/2012, which was reported by several dozen angry blog owners.

Detecting, and diagnosing, the inconsistencies is typically a complicated process.

1. Identify the domain authority servers, typically using a Who Is lookup.
2. Dig each domain address (typically "naked domain" and "www" aliases), from each of the identified domain authority servers.
3. Extract and aggregate each Dig log.
4. Compare aggregated Dig snippets.

This was not a task for the faint of heart, or tech challenged, blog owner.

Recently, I was given a handy tool which does all of this, in one quick GUI transaction.

The Dig Web Interface, yet another free online tool, provides us the ability to diagnose inconsistent DNS servers - such as the problem eNom seems to have, in a 30 second transaction.

1. Provide the "naked domain" and "www" aliases.
2. Select "A" for "Type" ("A" / "CNAME" / "NS" lookups).
3. Select "Authoritative" for "Nameservers".
4. Hit "Dig".

Finally, just copy the log produced, for examination.

It's not a fancy tool, but it does the job - very well. Here, we see the log for this domain, "nitecruzr.net".

nitecruzr.net@ns11.domaincontrol.com.:
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN A 216.239.36.21
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN A 216.239.32.21
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN A 216.239.34.21
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN A 216.239.38.21
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN NS ns54.domaincontrol.com.
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN NS ns53.domaincontrol.com.
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN NS ns12.domaincontrol.com.
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN NS ns11.domaincontrol.com.


nitecruzr.net@ns12.domaincontrol.com.:
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN A 216.239.36.21
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN A 216.239.32.21
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN A 216.239.34.21
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN A 216.239.38.21
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN NS ns54.domaincontrol.com.
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN NS ns53.domaincontrol.com.
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN NS ns12.domaincontrol.com.
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN NS ns11.domaincontrol.com.


nitecruzr.net@ns53.domaincontrol.com.:
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN A 216.239.36.21
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN A 216.239.34.21
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN A 216.239.38.21
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN A 216.239.32.21
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN NS ns54.domaincontrol.com.
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN NS ns53.domaincontrol.com.
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN NS ns12.domaincontrol.com.
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN NS ns11.domaincontrol.com.


nitecruzr.net@ns54.domaincontrol.com.:
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN A 216.239.36.21
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN A 216.239.34.21
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN A 216.239.38.21
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN A 216.239.32.21
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN NS ns54.domaincontrol.com.
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN NS ns53.domaincontrol.com.
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN NS ns12.domaincontrol.com.
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN NS ns11.domaincontrol.com.


www.nitecruzr.net@ns11.domaincontrol.com.:
www.nitecruzr.net. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.


www.nitecruzr.net@ns12.domaincontrol.com.:
www.nitecruzr.net. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.


www.nitecruzr.net@ns53.domaincontrol.com.:
www.nitecruzr.net. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.


www.nitecruzr.net@ns54.domaincontrol.com.:
www.nitecruzr.net. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

The log is not complicated, to parse. For each URL, each authority server is identified, and Dug. In the case of this domain, hosted on GoDaddy, we see each URL, Dug from each of 4 authority servers, one by one.

If a DNS inconsistency existed, the above log would show the differing DNS addresses - such as eNom hosted domains show, from time to time. Given this tool, it may be easier to look for DNS inconsistencies, when problems with custom domains are reported, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

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