How to make your website live on your domain name/website address

Owned by Nathan Birch (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Aug 05, 2024 by Elliott
4 min read

In order to make your website live you will need to do the following (Please note, by making these changes you are confirming that you are happy for you website to go live)

Login to your domain name system account (DNS) and make the following changes yourself, or pass these instructions onto your domain name registrar (DNS provider) or Internal IT company if they manage this on your behalf:

  1. Setup your subdomain (www) as a CNAME pointing to live.webdadi.net (check to see if there is a CNAME record already setup for the subdomain www and if there is, edit the existing record to point to live.webdadi.net rather than creating a new one)

  2. If you have a subdomain for commercial, agricultural, and/or international, additionally set these up as a CNAME pointing to live.webdadi.net. Remember to edit any existing subdomains rather than create new ones (if you are not using a commercial, agricultural, or international subdomain, please ignore step 2 and move to step 3)

  3. If you want to use your root domain (the non www. version of your website) please also setup as a CNAME pointing to live.webdadi.net. In addition, please submit the following online form so we can setup your root domain on our system (your root domain will not work unless you have filled out this form)

If your DNS provider doesn’t allow this, please read through our FAQs below (if you are not using your root domain, please ignore this step and move to step 4)

  1. Ensure you have no A records setup for any root domain or subdomain (therefore www, commercial, agricultural and international subdomains should not have any A records setup). If there is an A record for @ (your root domain) that says PARKED, this record entry is ok and you can leave it, but if the A @ record instead has an IP address assigned to it not PARKED, you must delete it.

  2. We recommend where possible to update your TTL settings to be 5 minutes or as frequent as possible. This setting outlines how quickly your changes take effect

FAQs

When should I make these changes?

You can make your website live at any time. However, we recommend you do not make these changes on a Friday or over the weekend. Webdadi’s office hours are Monday - Friday, 9am - 5:30pm, so we cannot help or support you outside of these hours.

It’s also best if you give us advanced warning before making these changes.

How long does it take?

Once you’ve made the changes, it can take some time depending on your domain name registrar's settings. DNS changes take time to propagate, meaning the changes have to take effect over a global network of servers which can take up to 24 hours.

Do you only support CNAMES?

Yes, Webdadi only support the use of CNAMES.

Why do you only support CNAMES?

It allows us to allows to give you advanced security through Cloudflare that does not come as standard with most website providers.

In addition, it is recommended that websites should have the primary hostname as www. as this is the designator for world wide web.

Why don’t you allow Root Domains to be pointed at an IP address?

Root domains require an A record targeted to a specific IP address. IPs should not be in the public domain, and we cannot guarantee an IPs security once it has been forwarded to third parties. This is a significant security threat, and there has been an increase in DDOS attacks specifically targeting IP addresses which we have taken steps to counter by only using CNAMES.

In brief, using CNAMES is more secure and allows us to give you better protection for your website.

What if I need to use a Root Domain and I can’t set this up via a CNAME record?

Please submit the following online form to let us know you’d like to use your root domain

You can then proceed with one of two options:

Option 1

You can transfer your domain to Cloud Flare from your current domain provider. Cloudflare support CNAME flattening which will allow live.webdadi.net to be added to the root domain. There may be additional costs to switch your domain to Cloudflare depending on the options you choose. You would need to get a quote directly from them as to the costs as they are a third party supplier. Other suppliers may also allow support this.

Option 2

Alternatively, you can keep your domain with your current domain provider and simply setup a free Cloudflare account purely for the purposes of CNAME flattening. The following guide explains how to do this Configuring DNS Records for a Website to use CNAME Flattening with your root domain and www subdomain using Cloudflare

The above options are for advanced users only and we recommend using a third party to manage your DNS. Please note, Webdadi do not manage your DNS. You should consult with your domain name provider and any third parties who run your DNS for further help, support and confirmation of successful setup.

How is a root domain different to a subdomain?

Your root domain is your URL address without the www. eg webdadi.com

A sub domain is anything which proceeds this, so www.

 

Keywords: DNS change, changing DNS, domain name settings, changing domain name settings