Title: multisite/multi domain names help
Last modified: November 7, 2018

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# multisite/multi domain names help

 *  [justingaleuk](https://wordpress.org/support/users/justingaleuk/)
 * (@justingaleuk)
 * [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-multi-domain-names-help/)
 * Hello
 * So I have a new website installed on a Plesk cloud server. the domain is companyname.
   co.uk
 * this company has multiple TownService.co.uk domain names, managed on an account
   with LCN.com (so different nameservers to the main site)
 * I have installed and configured wordpress multisite on Plesk and added a sub 
   domain of town.companyname.co.uk, set up the site etc and all works perfectly.
   now i want to redirect TownService.co.uk to town.companyname.co.uk so that all
   pages load in the address bar as townservice.co.uk. I’ve tried masking the URL
   townservice.co.uk but obviously that just shows TownService.co.uk in the address
   bar all the time.
 * how do i force WP to redirect all traffic requests to TownService.co.uk to show
   content hosted on the town.companyname.co.uk wp installation? if that makes sense.
 * Thanks in advanced

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

 *  [George Appiah](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gappiah/)
 * (@gappiah)
 * [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-multi-domain-names-help/#post-10857941)
 * >  added a sub domain of town.companyname.co.uk
 * I hope you did not create this sub-domain manually outside of WordPress.
 * > now i want to redirect TownService.co.uk to town.companyname.co.uk so that 
   > all pages load in the address bar as townservice.co.uk. I’ve tried masking 
   > the URL townservice.co.uk but obviously that just shows TownService.co.uk in
   > the address bar all the time.
 * You should point `townservice.co.uk` to the primary Multisite domain, `companyname.
   co.uk`
 * Then go into your Multisite settings and configure `townservice.co.uk` as the
   PRIMARY domain for `town.companyname.co.uk`
 * WordPress should take care of the rest if configured correctly. You don’t need
   to manually do any URL masking or fiddle with DNS for individual sub-domains.
 *  Thread Starter [justingaleuk](https://wordpress.org/support/users/justingaleuk/)
 * (@justingaleuk)
 * [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-multi-domain-names-help/#post-10859894)
 * Hey Georhe
 * Thanks for your reply. Do you have an email address I can ping you on? Have done
   as instructed but it’s not quite working.
 * Thanks
    Justin
 *  [George Appiah](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gappiah/)
 * (@gappiah)
 * [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-multi-domain-names-help/#post-10860595)
 * > Do you have an email address I can ping you on? Have done as instructed but
   > it’s not quite working.
 * Would have loved to jump in and help. Unfortunately, it’s against the [forums regulations](https://wordpress.org/support/guidelines/)
   to seek or offer direct support.
 * Are you able to post your actual URLs? I want to see if the “pointing” is done
   correctly or not.
 *  Thread Starter [justingaleuk](https://wordpress.org/support/users/justingaleuk/)
 * (@justingaleuk)
 * [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-multi-domain-names-help/#post-10868762)
 * Hi George
 * Oh ok, wasn’t aware of that. One URL is ipswichpat-testing.co.uk
 * I had setup a subdomain on the Plesk server, I’ve removed it and now enabled 
   the wildcard subdomain. added ipswich as ipswich.swptltd.co.uk and then changed
   the site url to ipswichpat-testing.co.uk in the My Sites Dashboard.
 * Any ideas? Thanks.
 *  [George Appiah](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gappiah/)
 * (@gappiah)
 * [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-multi-domain-names-help/#post-10868845)
 * Hi Justin,
 * OK, so your PRIMARY Multisite domain is `swptltd.co.uk`
 * Before even worrying about the domain mapping, the sub-domain `ipswich.swptltd.
   co.uk` should work. But I couldn’t get it to open. (Note that even after setting
   up the domain mapping correctly, the original subdomain should still work: it
   should just forward to the mapped domain. But yours doesn’t work at all)
 * Now with mapping `ipswichpat-testing.co.uk`, note that BEFORE you even start 
   mapping this domain to the sub-domain, visiting `ipswichpat-testing.co.uk` in
   the browser should take you to the primary multisite domain `swptltd.co.uk`
 * I don’t know what Plesk calls this, but on a cPanel system, you’d be **“PARKING”**`
   ipswichpat-testing.co.uk` on top of `swptltd.co.uk` such that visiting the former
   takes you to the latter.
 * If you’re manually doing this from a DNS manager, you’d CNAME `ipswichpat-testing.
   co.uk` to point to `swptltd.co.uk`. (You could also do an A-record mapping, but
   that can get tricky if you have other sites on the same server).
 * So, here are your steps…
    1. Get the sub-domain `ipswich.swptltd.co.uk` working first. This should work at
       all times, even after the mapping is done successfully.
    2. PARK `ipswichpat-testing.co.uk` on top of `swptltd.co.uk`, such that visiting
       the former takes you to the latter.
    3. Get into Multisite and add `ipswichpat-testing.co.uk` as a secondary domain 
       for `ipswich.swptltd.co.uk` (not that you’re not literally editing the subdomain
       URL and replacing it with the new domain… you’re adding the new domain… that’s
       why it’s called mapping). The two exist, but are mapped together and both lead
       to the same site)
    4. Still in Multisite, now set `ipswichpat-testing.co.uk` as the PRIMARY domain
       for `ipswich.swptltd.co.uk`
 * I’m online for the next 3 hours and waiting for your response to help you. It’s
   a shame that we can’t connect directly though 😀
 *  Thread Starter [justingaleuk](https://wordpress.org/support/users/justingaleuk/)
 * (@justingaleuk)
 * [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-multi-domain-names-help/#post-10869009)
 * Hi George, thansk for the reply, am looking at your answer now and will update
   this shortly 🙂
 *  Thread Starter [justingaleuk](https://wordpress.org/support/users/justingaleuk/)
 * (@justingaleuk)
 * [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-multi-domain-names-help/#post-10869077)
 * hi george
 * please see this doc which shows domain and * sub domain setup, the a records 
   for the domain, the output thats added into the htaccess and wp-config files.
 * I’ve also got this upgrade network button as well
 * [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pg6WXiwDWET3bJzniEutzdqWXUMRKtIVqbZDk8vf-l8/edit?usp=sharing](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pg6WXiwDWET3bJzniEutzdqWXUMRKtIVqbZDk8vf-l8/edit?usp=sharing)
 *  Thread Starter [justingaleuk](https://wordpress.org/support/users/justingaleuk/)
 * (@justingaleuk)
 * [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-multi-domain-names-help/#post-10869088)
 * Just added a record screenshot for ipswich
 *  Thread Starter [justingaleuk](https://wordpress.org/support/users/justingaleuk/)
 * (@justingaleuk)
 * [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-multi-domain-names-help/#post-10869093)
 * the server is a cloud server with just swptltd.co.uk and *.swptltd.co.uk configured
 *  [George Appiah](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gappiah/)
 * (@gappiah)
 * [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-multi-domain-names-help/#post-10869338)
 * Hello Justin,
 * Just when I posted my response it occurred to me I was working with an assumption
   which may be different from your approach: I assumed you were using the MU Domain
   Mapping plugin!
 * But it appears you’re using the native domain mapping feature (without a plugin).
   That means steps 3&4 in my earlier response would not apply to you.
 * Unfortunately, I lost power just after posting (daily occurrence where I live)
   and I could not immediately correct my post.
 * I’m doing a full multisite setup with the native domain mapping feature and will
   let you know what I find.
 * Stay tuned!
 *  [George Appiah](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gappiah/)
 * (@gappiah)
 * [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-multi-domain-names-help/#post-10869643)
 * Hello Justin,
 * I’ve just finished two different multisite installations on two servers, and 
   I managed to get domain mapping working on both installations using the native
   domain mapping feature.
 * The first setup was on a cPanel based server. I followed pretty much the steps
   I described above, with minor deviations for the domain setup inside WordPress.
 * But I wanted to see how this would work in your environment (Plesk)…
 * So I went ahead and ordered a cloud server (you gotta love hourly billing!), 
   installed a trial version of Plesk control panel, and went through the entire
   WordPress + MUltisite + Domain Mapping installation and configuration a second
   time. Again, it worked outright.
 * Here’s a memory dump of what I did with the Plesk setup:
 * 1. I setup WordPress and activated sub-domain multisite my primary domain, **
   ghanalifeinsurance.com**
 * 2. I use CloudFlare to manage DNS for this domain. So I setup wildcard DNS (CNAME),
   pointing `*.ghanalifeinsurance.com` to `ghanalifeinsurance.com`
 * After this, visiting **anything.ghanalifeinsurance.com** took me to the default
   Plesk page.
 * ![](https://i0.wp.com/i.imgur.com/A7Q92PE.png?ssl=1)
 * 3. In Plesk, I setup wildcard subdomain for **ghanalifeinsurance.com** by entering`*`
   into the sub-domain box and keeping the default document root `/htdocs`
 * ![](https://i0.wp.com/i.imgur.com/1xH2mEf.png?ssl=1)
 * After this, entering `aything.ghanalifeinsurance.com` into the browser now took
   me to the multisite signup page with the message “registration disabled”.
 * ![](https://i0.wp.com/i.imgur.com/bx2UiE1.png?ssl=1)
 * 4. At this time I knew the setup was working perfectly. So I jumped into WordPress
   and created my first sub-domain site, `accra.ghanalifeinsurance.com`, wich worked
   instantly.
 * Now, on to the domain mapping!
 * 5. The domain I used was `fwhd.ga`, which also uses CloudFlare for DNS management.
   In CloudFlare, I pointed A-record for the domain to my Plesk server’s IP address.
   After this, visiting the domain **fwhd.ga** took me to the default Plesk webpage
   once again.
 * 6. I jumped into Plesk and added my domain **fwhd.ga** as an ALIAS on top of 
   the primary domain **ghanalifeinsurance.com**. After this, visiting **fwhd.ga**
   now took me to the **ghanalifeinsurance.com** multisite signup page, just like
   a random subdomain would.
 * 7. Finally, I jumped into Multisite swapped out the subdomain site address **
   accra.ghanalifeinsurance.com** for **fwhd.ga**. Immediately I was able to access
   this sub-domain site with the new domain **fwhd.ga**, and visiting the sub-domain**
   accra.ghanalifeinsurance.com** now takes me to the multisite signup page, as 
   if this subdomain site never existed at all.
 * Note that hosting companies sometimes customize control panel software, so my
   plain Plesk interface may be different from your own, but the principles and 
   procedures will be the same.
 * I hope that helps!
 * (Now off I go to shut down the server before I end up with a big bill)

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

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## Tags

 * [hosting](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/hosting/)
 * [multisite](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/multisite/)
 * [Plesk](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/plesk/)

 * In: [Networking WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/multisite/)
 * 11 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [George Appiah](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gappiah/)
 * Last activity: [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-multi-domain-names-help/#post-10869643)
 * Status: not resolved

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