How can I check if a custom domain is set up correctly?
When you get a ticket about a custom domain that isn’t working, one quick way to see if they’ve set up their domain properly is to check their DNS records.
To do that within The Admin dashboard, use the Lookup Domain DNS tool:
There are two cases to check for: Using the root domain, or using a subdomain.
Using the Root Domain
To use the root domain, `bestcoolproducts.com`, their A record must point to a ClickMagick IP with no hostname, represented by the `@` sign:
`A @ bestcoolproducts.com 50.97.212.250`
If they want to use their root domain as a tracking domain, they must use one of these two IP addresses (doesn’t matter which one):
`50.97.212.250`, or
`50.97.244.203`
For rotator domains, they must use
`50.97.212.251`, or
`50.23.66.138`
Again it doesn’t matter which one they choose.
Caution: They absolutely cannot have duplicate A Records with the `@` sign or they will get unreliable results. Clicks will be redirected to the different IP addresses seemingly at random. Have users delete any erroneous duplicates.
Note: Normally, if the `www` subdomain points to ClickMagick, the A Record would also point to ClickMagick so that `bestcoolproducts.com` and `www.bestcoolproducts.com` would behave identically. While normal, this is not a requirement.
We’ve seen users point `bestcoolproducts.com` at their blog while simulaneously configuring `www.bestcoolproducts.com` as a tracking domain...
Something else we’ve seen is having `bestcoolproducts.com` configured as a tracking domain, while `www.bestcoolproducts.com` is configured as a rotator domain. Try keeping that straight!
If you see these types of unusual settings, you can confirm with the user that it’s what they intend, but the settings aren’t incorrect in any way.
Using Subdomains
If they want to use a subdomain, such as `www` or `track` (or `rot`, or whatever) the CNAME record should point to `www.clkmg.com` for a tracking domain or to `www.clkmr.com` for a rotator domain:
`CNAME www bestcoolproducts.com www.clkmg.com`
`CNAME rot bestcoolproducts.com www.clkmr.com`
Here again, you can’t have duplicate `CNAME` records with the same hostname.
Duplicate CNAME entries should be deleted.
Note: Sometimes you will see experienced users set up their subdomains using A Records, like this:
`A www bestcoolproducts.com 50.97.212.250
A rot bestcoolproducts.com 50.97.212.251`
That’s perfectly fine too. A Records use IP addresses; CNAME Records use textual domain names. Of course, you can’t have both an A Record and a CNAME Record with the same hostname:
`A www bestcoolproducts.com 50.97.212.250
CNAME www bestcoolproducts.com www.clkmr.com`
That’s a conflict. One of them needs to be deleted.
Caution: Setting the CNAME Record up without a hostname is NEVER valid:
`CNAME @ bestcoolproducts.com www.clkmg.com`
Setting the CNAME Record to the `@` sign may appear to work on the surface, but it breaks in a whole bunch of subtle ways.
Historical Note: A lot of users think that `domain.com` and `www.domain.com` are one-and-the-same thing, that they’re interchangeable, when, in fact, they are two completely different domains and can be configured totally differently.
In the early days of the Internet, programmers would store their HTML files in their root directory (e.g., `domain.com`) but that got messy when they wanted to put other, more important stuff in their root directory.
One day someone thought, “We’re calling this new thing the World Wide Web, so why don’t we just use a `www.` subdomain and stick all our World Wide Web files there so we leave our root domain alone?” And that’s how usage of the `www.` subdomain for website files was born.
Then came along hosting providers where domains were used only for website files and they saw no reason to put all the World Wide Web files in a different directory, so they stored them in the root directory and just pointed the `www.` subdomain right back at the root. And voilà, that’s how the root domain and the `www.` subdomain became entwined in peoples’ minds as one and the same.
Today, website files are stored in all sorts of places on web servers, but the illusion that the root domain and `www.` subdomain are the same is still maintained through DNS and other settings. Because that’s what people expect...