Domains and DNS: putting your site on your own address
Your domain is the address visitors type, such as yourcompany.com. DNS is the public directory that tells browsers where that address lives. Connecting a domain means adding a few DNS records.
The records you will see#
- CNAME: points a name such as
www.yourcompany.comat another name. Used for subdomains. - A and AAAA: point a name at IP addresses. Used for a root domain such as
yourcompany.com, and supported by every DNS provider. - TTL: how long other computers may remember a record before asking again, in seconds.
Connecting a domain in Weblooks#
Add the domain under Deploy, in Domains. Weblooks shows the exact records to add, with copy buttons, and you add them where your DNS is managed: usually the company you bought the domain from. Weblooks never changes your DNS for you.
The domain then moves from "Waiting for DNS" to "Issuing certificate" to "Live". The SSL certificate, the padlock in the browser, is handled for you. DNS changes can take a while to spread; Weblooks checks on its own, and you can ask it to check again. If your DNS is at Cloudflare, keep the record Proxied (the orange cloud).
Moving a site that is already live#
If the domain already serves a site, change it in this order:
- Lower the TTL of the records that will change to 300 seconds, then wait out the old TTL.
- Run the pre-flight in Domains. It checks the certificate through your real domain name without changing anything.
- Note the current records (Domains keeps a rollback snapshot), then change them at your DNS provider, including
www. - Verify the cutover, and check that email still works. Leave the MX records, which handle email, alone.