Redirecting www.mydomain.com to mydomain.com

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Dynamic

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#310698 14-Nov-2023 13:17

Hi Folks

I'm after a sanity check here. We have a client with their domain mydomain.com that has been working fine for years and we manage the domain and DNS for our client. They have a new web developer who has set up a new web site. I don't know who the host is, but a tracert shows the final node being xxx.hosting-cloud.net

The web developer has asked us to put in a DNS-level redirect from www.mydomain.com to mydomain.com as the SSL cert only works for mydomain.com. I have seen a couple of registrars have a URL redirection facility, but this looks to rely on the A record pointing to the registrar's basic web server that then does the redirect. That is, the redirect is not actually done at DNS level and it's just for convenience and/or luck that the registrar has that facility.

I think we should be pushing back and saying this is something he needs to do at the hosting level, though I don't have a lot of experience with this. I would welcome professional opinions please.

Cheers

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#3159456 14-Nov-2023 13:22

They need to sort out their cert so its for the whole domain, otherwise it will error when it hits the www. server before it gets the redirect.

Also they should sort out hsts while they are at it.

Richard rich.ms

marpada

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#3159457 14-Nov-2023 13:27

There is no such thing as DNS-level redirect, HTTP and DNS are different protocols.

On DNS you usually set a CNAME from www to the apex so they point to the same server(s), but the http redirect needs to be added in the webserver configuration, there are thousands of tutorials that show how to it in nginx, Apache or their webserver of choice.

amanzi

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#3159460 14-Nov-2023 13:33

You could achieve what the developer is asking by using Cloudflare and doing the redirect there. You'd end up with another SSL cert on the Cloudflare side where the redirect would happen, and then Cloudflare would direct the traffic to the webserver which would only respond to mydomain.com. I think that would work.

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#3159461 14-Nov-2023 13:35

richms and marpada have it right.

Web people so often don't understand DNS!

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richms

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#3159468 14-Nov-2023 14:06

BlakJak:

Web people so often don't understand DNS!

FTFY

FFFFFF the &*^^&ING editor stripped out my strikethru. Will bold the other bits then.

Richard rich.ms

hamish225

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#3159479 14-Nov-2023 15:14

You can make www.yourdomain.nz a CNAME record for yourdomain.nz. No URL redirection or flash cloudflare magic DNS required.

As other people have mentioned though the host should request an SSL cert for the www subdomain too and this will work via the www cname record :)

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#3159482 14-Nov-2023 15:31

hamish225:

You can make www.yourdomain.nz a CNAME record for yourdomain.nz. No URL redirection or flash cloudflare magic DNS required.

As other people have mentioned though the host should request an SSL cert for the www subdomain too and this will work via the www cname record :)

Ideally, there would be a single SSL certificate for the site, with whatever CN they feel is appropriate; but all potential alternative names listed as Subject Alternative Names on the CSR that was signed by their CA.

So, CN=yourdomain.nz; but SubjectAltNames for both yourdomain.nz & www.yourdomain.nz; this will enable the CNAME redirect to work without SSL complaining about cert names.

muppet

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#3159488 14-Nov-2023 15:40

Tell the web developer that www is no longer an RFC recommendation and that the latest RFC suggests using uuuuuu as in uuuuuu.mydomain.com: "double-u double-u double-u"

I have more helpful advice if you require it.

jarledb

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#3159492 14-Nov-2023 15:53

muppet:

Tell the web developer that www is no longer an RFC recommendation and that the latest RFC suggests using uuuuuu as in uuuuuu.mydomain.com: "double-u double-u double-u"

I have more helpful advice if you require it.

Yeah, the username tracks.

As to the OPs problem: The right fix here is to install a certificate that covers the domain and the hostname www (lots of people still use that). And then redirect on the host to the main domain.

So this is the web developers problem to fix, not a DNS problem / solution.

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bigalow

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#3159493 14-Nov-2023 15:54

Dynamic:

Hi Folks

I'm after a sanity check here. We have a client with their domain mydomain.com that has been working fine for years and we manage the domain and DNS for our client. They have a new web developer who has set up a new web site. I don't know who the host is, but a tracert shows the final node being xxx.hosting-cloud.net

The web developer has asked us to put in a DNS-level redirect from www.mydomain.com to mydomain.com as the SSL cert only works for mydomain.com. I have seen a couple of registrars have a URL redirection facility, but this looks to rely on the A record pointing to the registrar's basic web server that then does the redirect. That is, the redirect is not actually done at DNS level and it's just for convenience and/or luck that the registrar has that facility.

I think we should be pushing back and saying this is something he needs to do at the hosting level, though I don't have a lot of experience with this. I would welcome professional opinions please.

Cheers

SSL cert only works for mydomain.com ???

what are they talking about ?

all certs use www.mydomain.com and mydomain.com

amanzi

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#3159494 14-Nov-2023 15:56

hamish225:

You can make www.yourdomain.nz a CNAME record for yourdomain.nz. No URL redirection or flash cloudflare magic DNS required.

As other people have mentioned though the host should request an SSL cert for the www subdomain too and this will work via the www cname record :)

You don't really want to host the same content on two different URLs. Just creating the CNAME record won't redirect the www URL to the non-www URL.

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amanzi

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#3159500 14-Nov-2023 16:03

bigalow:

SSL cert only works for mydomain.com ???

what are they talking about ?

all certs use www.mydomain.com and mydomain.com

Errr... no.

muppet

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#3159508 14-Nov-2023 16:48

jarledb:

muppet:

Tell the web developer that www is no longer an RFC recommendation and that the latest RFC suggests using uuuuuu as in uuuuuu.mydomain.com: "double-u double-u double-u"

I have more helpful advice if you require it.

Yeah, the username tracks.

100% - that's why I chose it. Still I find it hilarious that this thread is just the same answer over and over and over. And over. Oops missed one.

One more for good measure huh?

@OP the answer is to have a certificate that's valid for both www.mydomain.com and mydomain.com and then redirect from www to the non-www site.