DNS issues with Weebly and new kiwi.nz domain

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tkayed

21 posts

Geek

#141134 2-Mar-2014 13:02

I am a website designer who usually works with a proper developer so to avoid these types of problems, but a client recently asked me to build them a Weebly website - which I thought may be a nice options for clients with limited budgets. My experience with the build itself was quite good, but publishing the site has proved difficult.

hypnobirthing.kiwi.nz (works)
www.hypnobirthing.kiwi.nz (loads as Site Not Published)

I originally setup the domain name (1st Domains) with 1 x A-record and 1 x CNAME for the www as per most of my websites, but after 3 hours only the root domain worked, and not the www. After a bit of research, I realised that Weebly requires 2 x A-records with their IP address (root name and www) and so quickly made the change. After 48 hours the www version still was not working and so I contact Weebly support, who confirmed 2 x A-records was correct, and to wait 72 hours.

After 80 hours still no joy. I contacted 1st Domains, who tested and verified that all was resolving. They believe it is a Weebly issue. Weebly eventually responded that they do not deal with subdomains with A-records, and to change it back to root name as A-record and www as CNAME, my original setup. Another 3 days and the same result. They then asked me to do a 301 redirect, but I cannot do this for only the www subdomain with 1st Domains.

On Friday they advised there is an issue with .kiwi.nz domains, and ask that I setup 3 x A-records: root, www and * wildcard. This also did not work. This morning they advice that I change my registrar with one that allows redirects on subdomains (they suggested Cloudns.net which I am not comfortable with).

So my questions are:

Is there a NZ Registrar that allows redirects on subdomains - I have accounts with 1st Domains, domains4less and TCPP, but from what I can see none allows this?
has anyone else had trouble with .kiwi.nz domains?
is 301 redirect the correct answer? or is there something I am missing?

It has been 9 days since we pushed the site live. I would simply change the domain name at this point if the client had not already have invested in print & promotional materials. As Weebly is US based and does not have 24/7 support, and I think there are other issues they are dealing with (including a sliced Atlantic fiber cable and issues with updates they recently pushed) they often take several days to get back to me - super frustrating as this has delayed the troubleshooting process immensely.

FYI - The Weebly site is a paid subcription, not a free site. I have uploaded a screenshot of the current dns records settings.

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BDFL - Memuneh
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#997532 2-Mar-2014 13:22

Why the "*" record?

kenkeniff

628 posts

Ultimate Geek

#997533 2-Mar-2014 13:28

301 redirects happen at a host-level not a DNS level so not all domain registrars would provide this.

Not sure why Weebly won't register the WWW sub-domain as it looks to be an issue on their end.

If you get stuck flick me a PM and I can give you an IP to point your WWW sub-domain at which I can 301 redirect to your root-level domain in the mean time until you figure something out.

Also: you don't have MX (email) Records configured on that domain, is that intentional?

mattwnz

20141 posts

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#997534 2-Mar-2014 13:28

You would be better to use the hosts nameservers I think, rather than an a record IP which may change in the future. You should write a combined email lto both providers to sort it out between them. Eg get weekly to communicate directly with your domain provider to sort it out.

hairy1

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#997541 2-Mar-2014 13:45

Point your www to non-www with a cname like this. See how that goes until you get the webbly thing sorted out....

My views (except when I am looking out their windows) are not those of my employer.

tkayed

21 posts

Geek

#997544 2-Mar-2014 13:51

the "*" was what Weebly asked me to do:

1. A record for host www pointed to 199.34.228.45
2. A record for host @ pointed to 199.34.228.45
3. A record for host * pointed to 199.34.228.45

Let me state that I am only a semi-geek! I've setup dns zones in the past without issue, but this is a curly one for me - and after combing the web for answers as well as my registrar, I am still stuck. It seems like this is a Weebly issue, but until Friday they would not verify that.

@Mattwnz - Weebly does not host nameservers, but request that nameservers are kept with registrar.

@kenkeniff - when you say host issue, are you implying that I get dns hosting from another source and leave domain at 1st Domains? That was my last message from Weebly. If so, how do I do this?

kenkeniff

628 posts

Ultimate Geek

#997545 2-Mar-2014 13:51

hairy1: Point your www to non-www with a cname like this. See how that goes until you get the webbly thing sorted out....

OP states he's tried that. I also tried pointing a CNAME at his root domain (which should work in most cases with other hosts) but Weebly caught it and returned a 404.

tkayed

21 posts

Geek

#997546 2-Mar-2014 13:52

@ hairy1 - these were my setting for 7 days without any joy. I changed them to 3 x A-records Friday avo - per Weebly support instructions.

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hairy1

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#997547 2-Mar-2014 13:52

Oops. Sorry didn't read the entire first post!

My views (except when I am looking out their windows) are not those of my employer.

mattwnz

20141 posts

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#997548 2-Mar-2014 13:58

I had this same problem with another software as a service provider who didn't offer nameservers. You would think they would offer nameservers, I set them up with another hosting account which had more dns control and then pointed the domain from there and used a CNAME. The free ones you get with a domain name can be limiting with some providers. If is something though that your provider should be helping you with, and I would get both to communicate directly with one another to solve it.

tkayed

21 posts

Geek

#997549 2-Mar-2014 13:59

This is the post from Weebly support about an hour ago:

You do not have to transfer your domain to Cloudns.net. You're only going to use them for dns services. Sorry if that was a bit confusing. I know this dns stuff can be quite confusing.

However, Cloudns is one of many free dns services. I highly recommend that you try searching for others. You certainly don't have to use them. It was just a suggestion.

When searching for a registrar request that you need to create subdomains using a 301 redirect.

mattwnz

20141 posts

Uber Geek

#997550 2-Mar-2014 14:00

tkayed: This is the post from Weebly support about an hour ago:

You do not have to transfer your domain to Cloudns.net. You're only going to use them for dns services. Sorry if that was a bit confusing. I know this dns stuff can be quite confusing.

However, Cloudns is one of many free dns services. I highly recommend that you try searching for others. You certainly don't have to use them. It was just a suggestion.

When searching for a registrar request that you need to create subdomains using a 301 redirect.

How about giving them you domain login so they can make the change for you? Although obviously be careful who you give it to and change your password afterwards.

tkayed

21 posts

Geek

#997554 2-Mar-2014 14:06

I've already talked to my domain registrar on Thursday and again on Friday about making the changes, and they say they cannot do 301 redirects on the subdomain, only for the entire site. So I'm not sure if Weebly support can get any further than that???

1st Domains say that it is not a DNS issues, that it is fully tested and resolving at their end and with xtra (??).

Like I said, I am only a semi-geek. I can do testing at places like intoDNS, but it doesn't really mean much to me. :-[

geocom

594 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

#997555 2-Mar-2014 14:06

Its an issue on Weebly's side. They or you have not set up an alias on the Apache config.

Your DNS is fine given that you can get the 404 page it is getting to the server. Check your setup on weebly and see if you can add an alias.

Without the alias set up apache will default to the top most record. Which in this case must be the 404 page.

Geoff E

kenkeniff

628 posts

Ultimate Geek

#997556 2-Mar-2014 14:07

tkayed: ...

@kenkeniff - when you say host issue, are you implying that I get dns hosting from another source and leave domain at 1st Domains? That was my last message from Weebly. If so, how do I do this?

"Domain forwarding" aka (web redirection, URL redirection, web forwarding etc) doesn't happen at a DNS level, hence their no DNS record that you can set to do it.

It's done by a web server (Apache etc), in PHP it would look something like this:

<?php
header('Location: http://www.example.com/');
exit;
?>

And hence you need to point your WWW record to a web server that will perform the redirect for you.

Some Domain Registrars do provide DNS hosting services, and some DNS hosts do provide a "Domain forwarding" service as described by auto-configuring the appropriate DNS record along with a server redirect.

Weebly are suggesting you move your DNS hosting (point your NS records) to Cloudns because they are one of those DNS hosts that provide a domain forwarding service.

This will result in visitors that navigate to www.yoursite.kiwi being redirected to yoursite.kiwi as opposed to a working CNAME what would have www.yousite.kiwi just work.

kenkeniff

628 posts

Ultimate Geek

#997558 2-Mar-2014 14:12

geocom: Its an issue on Weebly's side. They or you have not set up an alias on the Apache config.

Your DNS is fine given that you can get the 404 page it is getting to the server. Check your setup on weebly and see if you can add an alias.

Without the alias set up apache will default to the top most record. Which in this case must be the 404 page.

It sounds like Weebly are aware of this problem and have tried to set it up 'properly' given the suggestion to use a 301 redirect instead.

I'd imagine they're using some hard-coded list of domain suffixes to match sub-domains to their root domains on account and freaking out when it sees a .kiwi.nz perhaps.

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