Domain mapping (namecheap and wpengine)

  • thisismyalias

    (@thisismyalias)


    11 years, 5 months ago

    I hope it’s okay to post this here. I don’t know where else to post it. I have talked to Namecheap and WPEngine several times, with no clear answer. Perhaps I’m being the dense one…

    In the past I never worried about cnames or A records. Visitors could get to my site with or without the www, and I never had to do anything to make that happen. WPEngine’s documentation (which isn’t good, and appears to be out of date with their current operations) says that they prefer users to use cnames over A records. To use a cname I can’t use a naked domain, which is fine because I prefer the www sub domain. I’m averse to using an A record because I don’t want to worry about changing IP addresses with Namecheap if WPEngine changes.

    With WPEngine your site is hosted at [your-account-name].wpengine.com. I believe I need to direct the www version of my domain to my WPEngine account using a cname record type. If this is true, then my confusion is how do I setup the www sub domain? Any domain purchased is the naked domain, and I can’t use the naked domain for a cname record (nor do I want to use the naked domain as my primary address).

    At Namecheap I have the @ row set to the www version of my domain and the record type of URL Redirect 301. The www row is set to my wpengine account with a record type of CNAME (alias). Everything appears to be working, but I’m not sure if it truly is, and if it’s properly setup for best practices (e.g. SEO).

    Thank you.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Moderator Jan Dembowski

    (@jdembowski)

    Forum Moderator and Brute Squad

    11 years, 5 months ago

    I’ve moved this to How-To and Troubleshooting ’cause it’s more appropriate there.

    At Namecheap I have the @ row set to the www version of my domain and the record type of URL Redirect 301.

    I use Namecheap (I like them too) but for the @ record don’t use that URL Redirect 301. It’s really a hack and not good DNS. It works but it works for specific records and not so much for the @ one. Ish.

    Can you get an A record for your host? If not then can you make a specific CNAME like so?

    your.host.name. CNAME [your-account-name].wpengine.com.

    Don’t forget the periods at the end of the DNS names and set the TTL for 300 seconds for now. That way you will not have to wait too long for the TTL to expire.

    See if that works and let us know here.

    Thread Starter thisismyalias

    (@thisismyalias)

    11 years, 5 months ago

    I changed the URL Redirect from 301 to just URL Redirect as you suggested. It works either way. I’ve stayed away from A records in this particular matter based off my interpretation of WPEngine’s documentation (their documentation conflicts itself a lot of the time though).

    I have it working, but I don’t know if it’s the correct and best way. For now I have to live with it though.

    Thank you.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

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