How to Configure your Domain Name

Introduction

This part of our DNS Documentation is a guide for the most common and most useful domain name tasks and configurations. If you can't find the information that you need here, please see our Frequently Asked Questions page.

• How to Create Email Addresses Using your Domain
• Using Microsoft FrontPage with your Domain
• Managing Multiple Domain Names
• How to Create/Manage Subdomain (Such as products.your-domain.com)
• Registering Non-InterNIC Domain Names
• Moving Domain Names to WebCom
• Having Email Handled by Another Provider.
• Having WebCom Host your Web Site, While Another Provider Hosts the Domain
• Additional Information

WebCom gives you the ability to host multiple domain names in the same account. (See the rates page for information on fees for domain name registration and hosting of additional domain names.) By default, all domain names point to the www directory of the account. WebCom's Domain Name Services allow you to configure your domains so that they point to different directories of your account, and therefore different web sites.

To change the directory that your domain points to, use the Configure Domain/Subdomain option of the Domain Name Services Menu. You can point your domain to any directory that is under the www directory of your account. (See Fig1. below.) When your domain is pointed to a directory, our server will serve the pages from that directory when the domain is accessed. If you wish, more than one domain can be configured to point to the same directory (and therefore the same files).

Note for Microsoft FrontPage Users: If you use FrontPage to manage your site, please see our FrontPage Subwebs Documentation for information information about configuring your domains.

In essence, all domains function through their subdomains. For example, if you have the domain name, "bunnysbeachballs.com", people visit your site via the web by going to www.bunnysbeachballs.com, via FTP by going to ftp.bunnysbeachballs.com, and so on. WebCom allows you to create additional subdomains, and configure what part of your WebCom account (and associated webpages) that they point to.

If you have a WebCom hosted domain name, you can create additional hostnames, (subdomains such as products.your-domain.com), that your visitors can use to access different parts of your web site. Subdomains can be created using the Create Subdomain service option, and configured to point to a different directory using the Configure Domain/Subdomain service option.

Subdomains are an extension of an existing domain name. This means that you cannot have the subdomain products.your-domain.com unless you already have the domain "your-domain.com" registered and active in your WebCom account. This also means that if you cancel your domain, or if your domain ever becomes inactive for whatever reason, those subdomains will also become inactive.

Moving domain names is covered fully on our Move Domain Name page, but we wanted to mention it here briefly, because it is a very common procedure that is held up more often than it should be for reasons that can be avoided. Here are some tips that will help you to prevent the most common complications:

• Make sure that you use the correct organization name. When you fill out the form to move a domain name one of the fields that you are required to fill is the name of the organization. You must use the name that the InterNIC currently has for the domain, or else the move will not be processed. To find out what the InterNIC currently has on record for this domain, please use the Check InterNIC Information form.
• Domain Name Moves need to be approved by the contacts for the domain name. Before the InterNIC will update their databases to fulfill the requested change, they send an email, called a "Notify", to the Administrative and Technical Contacts for the domain, asking them to acknowledge the move. If they do not acknowledge the move, the InterNIC will not finish the process. To find out who the contacts are for the domain, use the Check InterNIC Information form. If for whatever reason you cannot acknowledge the email from the InterNIC you will need to contact the InterNIC ((703) 742-4777) directly, and arrange an alternate way of acknowledging the move. When contacting the InterNIC, you will need to know the tracking number (NIC-handle) for the move, which can be found using the View Status of Domain Name option.

You can configure your WebCom domain so that WebCom handles the hosting of the web pages, while email is handled by another server on the Internet. This is usually requested by companies that have their own email server on the Internet, or need email services offered by a specific ISP. For full details on this, please see our help pages about using the Transfer Email Service option.

The most important part of this arrangement, is relationship you have with your ISP, or the administrator of your email server. They need to know that email for this domain should be accepted by their email system, and they need to configure the email server(s) to handle that email properly. Once the domain is configured at WebCom to route email to another provider, any problems that you encounter with the email for that domain will need to be addressed by that provider.

Another common configuration for domains, is to have the domain hosted by another DNS provider, but the web pages hosted by WebCom. In this scenario, it is another provider that provides for email service and any other sundry aspects of a domain. By changing the configuration for the domain, accesses to www.your-domain.com can be directed to WebCom's web server. In order for our server to recognize accesses for that domain, virtual hosting must be activated for that domain, using the Activate Remote Hosting form.

The important part of this arrangement, is getting your ISP to configure your domain to point to WebCom. For more information about this, please see our Remote Hosting documentation.

These are only the most common configuration arrangements and options used by WebCom customers. If you would like to do something with your domain that is not explicitly covered here, please see our Frequently Asked Questions section of this documentation, or look through the list of Domain Name Services. If none of the information here answers your questions about using your domain, feel free to contact WebCom Technical Support.