Help with GoDaddy Domain Hosting - VB Nameservers

[Flash04jv]

I know you guys dislike Godaddy as a web host, but we are using them as our domain host because it is cheap and easy for us with little to zero IT knowledge to use. And far better support than our previous domain and web host. We currently are using VB Cloud for the same IT knowledge reason, so Vbulletin is our web host, not Godaddy. So this would be a good question for someone with experience on Godaddy Domain hosting.

Anyway. I have been trying desperately to make our site work without the www in front of it. Our site is www.nefga.org If you search nefga.org you will see this: This webpage is not available. ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED Which is no good.

This was working fine before we switched to VB Cloud this last summer. I am asking VB now in a ticket but it usually takes forever to hear from them. Hoping someone out here may have some advice for me. I have called GoDaddy many times now and they are great help. But they tell me our nameservers are not theirs, they are my web host, which is VBulletin. And they think I should be able to make the DNS Zone File changes on VBulletin, but I do not think that is even possible.

At one time I used GoDaddys parked NameServers and was able to access the DNS Zone File tab. Then I followed the steps that VBulletin sent me to make our site work with the wwws. I entered the custom name, which looks similar to this 23h23487fs-008731.vbulletin.net, and pointed it to the A Host. I guess that was a bad idea because our IP address changed and the site went down. I then put our nameservers back to the custom ones the guy at GoDaddy gave me when we did our transfer to keep our site from going down during the transfer. And now when I try to use the Godaddy parked namerservers again our site goes down after about 24 hours. So then another 24 hours to bring it back once I change the nameservers to the ones the godaddy rep gave me. Really don't like it when our site goes down.

So, anyone have some steps for me to follow to make the wwws go away? I would try domain forwarding on GoDaddy but I can't get in there to do that without the right Nameservers to open up my DNS Zone tab.

[Mark.B]

vBulletin Cloud does not use nameservers or A records. You need to set a CNAME record.
Instructions for doing this are specific to each customer. You should have received an email when you set up your account with all the details.
See here for the general instructions, but you'll need the information from your email:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/node/4014725

If you don't have the enmail, please raise a support ticket and we'll provide the information required.

[Flash04jv]

Ok. So the nameserver is just what GoDaddys needs to have parked on their side to open the DNS Zone manager. That will allow me to set up the CNAME as the link shows, I hope. I'll give them a call and let them know, should help them help me.

I'll look for that email, we have switched to gmail so it may be tough to track down.

I'd really like to see a screen shot of someone's GoDaddy DNS manager to compare to. So I know I have it correct. Once screen shot would have this all figured out, at least I would know what the CNAME and A host fields should look like. Since there is no A host you say, that makes me unsure now. That A Host field had the points to IP in there. Seems like I'd need that to be there and no empty.

[Flash04jv]

Got a response back from VB for the ticket. I'm going to call GoDaddy tonight. This info should help them understand how us being on VB Cloud works.

[Flash04jv]

Our site just randomly went down a couple hours ago. I called GoDaddy and they said our page shows a parked domain link, and something must have changed on VBulletin. Any Ideas for me?

[Mark.B]

Your CNAME record is not set correctly.

Please make sure you have followed the instructions here:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/node/4014725

Your CNAME record should look similar to this:
a2398af32123.vbulletin.net

If you use this checker:

http://mxtoolbox.com/CNAMELookup.aspx

The "canonical name" field should show the URL similar to the sample above. Instead it shows your domain name.

[Flash04jv]

Ok, I see what you are saying I think. I am this far, does this look at all correct? Covered some of the numbers because I'm unsure if it matters. The MXtoolbox is still the same since I changed it, shows nefga.org as the canonical name...

[Flash04jv]

Is this how this should look?

[Mark.B]

No...the 'numbers' part (a2398af32123whatever.vbulletin.net) should be in the 'points to' field, and the 'host' field should say 'www'.

Even when right, it won't show on MXToolbox immediately, usually needs an hour or two to update.

[Flash04jv]

So like this? Do I need to delete the A Host Record?

And under CNAME can I delete the ftp and email lines?


The canonical field changed, so that seems good.

[Flash04jv]

Cool, our site came back shortly after my post last night. The site doesn't work yet without the www's. But that seems to be something I will need to come up with to make work. Hoping I can set up forwarding and have it taken care of.

I'd like to remove everything in the DNS tab I don't need. So it sounds like I can delete the a host record. And the ftp and email CNAME records. Is this correct?