Setting up Domain Name for a Portfolio
Once you have
selected a domain for your new portfolio
you will see the following screen.
At this point, your portfolio is configured at Dub
with your domain, but you still have to make a change to your
domain at your domain registrar. This change essentially
points your domain to your portfolio.
Below, we explain two different methods of doing this.
What's with http://mydomaincom.dub.io
in the above screenshot?
Notice how in screenshot 1, it says the portfolio
is also available at a URL that was provided by
Dub.
Each time you create a portfolio, Dub gives you
another URL for your portfolio, which is Dub's
sub-domain. This sub-domain is useful if there is ever an error in
setting up your domain and you still want to visit your portfolio.
It also comes handy when setting up your domain name
via a CNAME record, which we will explain below.
Adding a CNAME record
Most of the time, when you buy a domain name, your domain registrar
will provide a basic DNS server with pre-defined
settings for your domain.
In order to point your domain to Dub's portfolio,
we can add a CNAME record.
A CNAME record stands for canonical name
and essentially it says when a user types in abc.com, forward that user to
def.com in the background without changing the address abc.com in the
browser's address bar.
And that's exactly what we are going to do here. We are going to tell
your domain registrar that when a user types in
mydomain.com,
forward that user to the sub-domain
mydomaincom.dub.io
provided by Dub seamlessly.
In the following example, we are going to show you how to do this
in GoDaddy, but other domain registrars should be quite similar.
1. Log-in to your domain registrar's control panel and go to DNS settings
for your domain
2. Find "Records" section
3. Add a new CNAME record
Host is usually the prefix to your domain that you want to use for parking.
If you specified the prefix in the
previous step, then please add the prefix here.
Otherwise, you can leave it blank or type in "*" or "@" to indicate that
your root domain is to be redirected.
In the "points to" section, type in the sub-domain for your
portfolio provided by Dub. Lastly, set
the TTL (time-to-live) to an integer value (e.g. 3600) for the change to be applied
quickly.
For some domains, you may already have a CNAME record with the
same "Host" value. In that case, please delete it before adding your
new CNAME.
Save the changes. This change will take some time (up tp 48 hours) to take effect.
While this change is being applied,
you should be able to access your pages
via default Dub's sub-domain provided.
Changing Name Servers
In order for a domain to display a website, it needs a DNS server
which translates the address to a location of a website.
When you buy a new domain name, by default, it will use a DNS server
provided by your domain registrar.
When you configure your domain using CNAME as explained above,
you are essentially using your domain registrar's DNS server.
However, you can choose to use another DNS server by changing the
name server settings.
1. Log-in to your domain registrar's control panel and go to DNS settings
for your domain
2. Look for "Nameserver" settings
3. Change Nameserver settings
Change the name servers to the below two name servers and save.
ns1.dub.io
ns2.dub.io
This change will take some time (up tp 48 hours) to take effect.
While this change is being applied,
you should be able to access your pages
via default Dub's sub-domain provided.
Which method should I choose?
Though both methods work and are relatively simple, they do work
slightly differently. For many people, just changing the name servers
can be seen as a simpler approach, since you can 'set it and forget it'.
However, for some, you may wish to have a full control over your DNS
settings. For example, you may need to set up Mail Server settings,
in which case, you will probably need to use CNAME.
If you're using the existing DNS records provided by your
domain registrar, we recommend you to use the CNAME record approach,
whereas if you want to just quickly park your domain,
changing name server should be more simple and straight forward.
Next : Provide parking site profile