DNS issues with Weebly and new kiwi.nz domain

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563 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 997641 2-Mar-2014 17:13

tkayed:
kenkeniff: Do they give you an option in their control panel to add more domains or sub-domains to your site?

no. only the site address, which is hypnobirthing.kiwi.nz

kenkeniff: In that case your best bet is to find a DNS host that does URL forwarding for individual sub-domains and setup the ones you need as previously described (so you don't need to rely on the random Geekzoner's servers being up 24/7).

do you or anyone else recommend or even know of any NZ-based services that I can use for the DNS host? And if so, does that mean I need to point nameservers and then setup DNS zones with that provider, correct?

Yes correct, don't use any dns hosts like that myself so can't say.

Maybe find out if all your subdomains pointed at Weebly are supposed to just work anyway as they still maybe able to diagnose their issue using www-test...

tkayed

21 posts

Geek

# 997647 2-Mar-2014 17:25

well they are supposed to work, but they are saying it is an issue with .kiwi.nz - which is a subdomain, and they don't deal with subdomains the same as top-level domains. AND they usually don't have a problem with .co.nz domains, put apparently plenty of people do have this issue with subdomains (paraphrased from Weebly).

This was my post to their facebook page after getting no response from my original support ticket: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10203445288599381&set=o.5855802471&type=1

I have since been dealing specifically with one of their support persons via email.

weebly: "It does seem like its coming from the new kiwi domains from what we have seen here so far. The co.nz, etc domains are working without this redirect for most users."

and in response to my question about .co.nz domains:

weebly: "We have countless Weebly users that are utilizing these domains some don't need the redirect while others do. These domains are treated like subdomains. If it ended in .za instead of kiwi.za you would already be working."

If there are plenty of people with this issue, I can't find any sources on the web.

mattwnz

15019 posts

Uber Geek

# 997651 2-Mar-2014 17:31

tkayed: well they are supposed to work, but they are saying it is an issue with .kiwi.nz - which is a subdomain, and they don't deal with subdomains the same as top-level domains. AND they usually don't have a problem with .co.nz domains, put apparently plenty of people do have this issue with subdomains (paraphrased from Weebly).

This was my post to their facebook page after getting no response from my original support ticket: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10203445288599381&set=o.5855802471&type=1

I have since been dealing specifically with one of their support persons via email.

weebly: "It does seem like its coming from the new kiwi domains from what we have seen here so far. The co.nz, etc domains are working without this redirect for most users."

and in response to my question about .co.nz domains:

weebly: "We have countless Weebly users that are utilizing these domains some don't need the redirect while others do. These domains are treated like subdomains. If it ended in .za instead of kiwi.za you would already be working."

If there are plenty of people with this issue, I can't find any sources on the web.

It sounds like they are telling you rubbish, or the people you are communicating with don't know their stuff. They may just be following a flowchart. You need to escalate it. .kiwi.nz is at the same level as .co.nz. Also on the same level as .com.au.

kenkeniff

563 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 997652 2-Mar-2014 17:34

Have you tried setting your domain to "www.hypnobirthing.kiwi.nz" in Weebly and seeing if that and "hypnobirthing.kiwi.nz" loads properly?

Remember to point your WWW A-record back to Weebly first.

tkayed

21 posts

Geek

# 997653 2-Mar-2014 17:38

mattwnz: It sounds like they are telling you rubbish, or the people you are communicating with don't know their stuff. They may just be following a flowchart. You need to escalate it. .kiwi.nz is at the same level as .co.nz. Also on the same level as .com.au.

That has been my opinion as well, but as someone without a strong footing in IT it's been hard for me to argue the point.

Me: "A CNAME record should definitely work. ".kiwi.nz" domains should be no different than ".co.nz" or ".govt.nz" so shouldn't require any special treatment. BUT ".kiwi.nz" is part of a new series of domain names recently put forward here in NZ by InternetNZ and ICANN - could that be the problem at the Weebly end? It has been suggested that it is a DNS server issues, but I have several domains with 1stDomains and they all work fine with A-record (root) and CNAME (www) setups."

Weebly: "While I can't speak to ICANN or the newness of a domain series, using a CNAME as your WWW alias will work - however the A record should as well. At this point you definitely need to speak to your registrar and have them troubleshoot why your WWW version is not talking to your website."

tkayed

21 posts

Geek

# 997656 2-Mar-2014 17:42

kenkeniff: Have you tried setting your domain to "www.hypnobirthing.kiwi.nz" in Weebly and seeing if that and "hypnobirthing.kiwi.nz" loads properly?

Remember to point your WWW A-record back to Weebly first.

did that over a week ago. same result, with only the "www.hypnobirthing.kiwi.nz" working and the root domain loading as Site Not Published. At all times whichever name is not assigned the Weebly IP will always get to the Weebly Site Not Published page.

mattwnz

15019 posts

Uber Geek

# 997659 2-Mar-2014 17:45

tkayed:
mattwnz: It sounds like they are telling you rubbish, or the people you are communicating with don't know their stuff. They may just be following a flowchart. You need to escalate it. .kiwi.nz is at the same level as .co.nz. Also on the same level as .com.au.

That has been my opinion as well, but as someone without a strong footing in IT it's been hard for me to argue the point.

Me: "A CNAME record should definitely work. ".kiwi.nz" domains should be no different than ".co.nz" or ".govt.nz" so shouldn't require any special treatment. BUT ".kiwi.nz" is part of a new series of domain names recently put forward here in NZ by InternetNZ and ICANN - could that be the problem at the Weebly end? It has been suggested that it is a DNS server issues, but I have several domains with 1stDomains and they all work fine with A-record (root) and CNAME (www) setups."

Weebly: "While I can't speak to ICANN or the newness of a domain series, using a CNAME as your WWW alias will work - however the A record should as well. At this point you definitely need to speak to your registrar and have them troubleshoot why your WWW version is not talking to your website."

Sounds like they are giving you the run around, and you are probably not dealing with the right people to solve it, as they are probably just following flowcharts.
Ask weebly technicians to investigate why it isn't working . If I do a traceroute on the www version it traces to 192.185.186.227 . If I do a trace on the non www version it traces to pages-custom-5.weebly.com . So it looks like the servers at 192.185.186.227 aren't setup for your domain. .kiwi.nz domains have been around for quite a while, so won't have anything to do with it.

kenkeniff

563 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 997660 2-Mar-2014 17:47

mattwnz: It sounds like they are telling you rubbish, or the people you are communicating with don't know their stuff. They may just be following a flowchart. You need to escalate it. .kiwi.nz is at the same level as .co.nz. Also on the same level as .com.au.

.co.nz has been around a lot longer; as I mentioned I wouldn't be surprised if Weebly are incorrectly parsing the .kiwi.nz domains when they're trying to match them to a root domain on file.

I'm 70% sure this will be a bug in their platform as it's happening at that level.

tkayed

21 posts

Geek

# 997663 2-Mar-2014 17:49

mattwnz: If I do a traceroute on the www version it traces to 192.185.186.227 . If I do a trace on the non www version it traces to pages-custom-5.weebly.com . So it looks like the servers at 192.185.186.227 aren't setup for your domain. .kiwi.nz domains have been around for quite a while, so won't have anything to do with it.

this is a workaround graciously provided to me by a geekzone member to get the www version up - a geekzone band-aid so to speak!

Still need to hit Weebly up with some hard facts and press them to sort it out - but what do I say to get results instead of handing it back to my court with 301 redirects?

geocom

541 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

# 997664 2-Mar-2014 17:49

tkayed:
mattwnz: It sounds like they are telling you rubbish, or the people you are communicating with don't know their stuff. They may just be following a flowchart. You need to escalate it. .kiwi.nz is at the same level as .co.nz. Also on the same level as .com.au.

That has been my opinion as well, but as someone without a strong footing in IT it's been hard for me to argue the point.

Me: "A CNAME record should definitely work. ".kiwi.nz" domains should be no different than ".co.nz" or ".govt.nz" so shouldn't require any special treatment. BUT ".kiwi.nz" is part of a new series of domain names recently put forward here in NZ by InternetNZ and ICANN - could that be the problem at the Weebly end? It has been suggested that it is a DNS server issues, but I have several domains with 1stDomains and they all work fine with A-record (root) and CNAME (www) setups."

Weebly: "While I can't speak to ICANN or the newness of a domain series, using a CNAME as your WWW alias will work - however the A record should as well. At this point you definitely need to speak to your registrar and have them troubleshoot why your WWW version is not talking to your website."

Given that the redirect works it is quite clearly not a DNS issue. If it was then the redirect would also not work.

It can only be an issue with their apache config or in their software. If they are unwilling or unable to fix it then there is not a lot you can do.

If you really want to stick with them then you either have to stick with the redirect or register another domain that they believe will work and forward the kiwi.nz domain to that.

Geoff E

LennonNZ

2377 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

# 997667 2-Mar-2014 17:57

.kiwi.nz is still treated differently than .co.nz still in a lot of places.

How I know this? As I own www.kiwi.nz.

If you check http://www.kiwi.nz your'll see Alexa says there is 900 links to it.. (but there really isn't) and it has a rank in NZ Rank of 1,622 . Lots of places still think kiwi.nz is a 2LD.

Any kind of SEO etc for .kiwi.nz domain names is useless. Saying that the DNC has told all the correct places in the correct way that XXX.kiwi.nz is a valid domain but some services even after 1.5 years it still isn't right.

domain_name: www.kiwi.nz
query_status: 200 Active
domain_dateregistered: 2012-09-11T10:00:03+12:00 <-- When .kiwi.nz domains where available..

mattwnz

15019 posts

Uber Geek

# 997672 2-Mar-2014 18:05

kenkeniff:
mattwnz: It sounds like they are telling you rubbish, or the people you are communicating with don't know their stuff. They may just be following a flowchart. You need to escalate it. .kiwi.nz is at the same level as .co.nz. Also on the same level as .com.au.

.co.nz has been around a lot longer; as I mentioned I wouldn't be surprised if Weebly are incorrectly parsing the .kiwi.nz domains when they're trying to match them to a root domain on file.

I'm 70% sure this will be a bug in their platform as it's happening at that level.

I wouldn't be surprised either, especially as they are an otherseas based company. However they shouldn't be telling the OP to go back to the registrar, because they can easily test that it is setup correctly. They should be escalating it. It would be far easier if they just gave the OP some nameservers to use.
If the host isn't going to fix it, or to investigate the probelm properly, there isn't much the OP can do to get it fully working as it should, except change provider. But as it is a rented website, they won't allow you to transfer it to another host.

jarledb

Webhead
2264 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

# 997708 2-Mar-2014 18:45

To me (like someone else has mentioned too I think), the problem seems to be the setup of the website on Weebly and not anything to do with DNS.

Weebly should be able to set up aliases that point to the web site so that www either shows the same site or redirects to the domain name site.

Jarle on Twitter - Senson NZ - WordPress experts

tkayed

21 posts

Geek

# 997720 2-Mar-2014 19:06

well I've drafted an email back to Weebly support to try and escalate the issue based on consensus here that it is a Weebly config problem - I expect a reply in 2 days. :-S

meanwhile I will try to find someone that supports redirects to subdomains, or encourage my client to register a new domain and we do a URL redirect. sigh. It was supposed to be so easy...

tkayed

21 posts

Geek

# 997891 3-Mar-2014 00:19

So, I bit the bullet as I have no faith that Weebly will solve this anytime soon, and did the following:

- purchased the domain: hypnobirthinghb.co.nz
- pointed it to the Weebly website, waited one hour until I got the Weebly Site Not Published page
- renamed the website "www.hypnobirthinghb.co.nz" and re-published
- verified that both "www.hypnobirthinghb.co.nz" and "hypnobirthinghb.co.nz" loaded correctly.
- created a URL redirect from the domain: "hypnobirthing.kiwi.nz" to "http://www.hypnobirthinghb.co.nz"
- sat another 1 hour for the changes to take place.

Finally, all is (somewhat) right with the world!

It's a bandaid solution but it works. Hopefully it won't effect any future seo or get penalised by google. I will keep you posted on whether Weebly eventually sorts anything out for the kiwi.nz domains.

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