URL without www

[ljianyih]

Hi,

We've recently bought a new vBulletin cloud forum Worlds of Sports, and the url displayed is www.worldsofsports.com , can we have the default domain name url to be worldsofsports.com without the www in front? Thanks for the help.

[Zachery]

No, the cloud software cannot be run on a root domain because of the way the internet works. You must have SOMETHING before the root domain: www.domain.com x.domain.com forum.domain.com, etc. You can't use http://domain.com

[ljianyih]

So does that means vBulletin Cloud doesn't have registered name servers for me to transfer my domain DNS to the VB cloud hosting (only CNAME)? What happens if someone types the domain name i.e. worldsofsports.com without the www in front? I've tried previously and it leads to page loading error, but after I access the domain with www for one time, the browser automatically added the www when I typed in the url without the www.

[mangoz]

This is a great point you bring up and I'm anxious to see the vbulletin response

They need the htaccess to be setup to force http://worldsofsports.com/ to http://www.worldsofsports.com/

Currently the 1st cannot be accessed. Vbulletins own support team states you should forward and force your users to one or the other. They really should have done this on the cloud setup!
Users aren't going to add the www themselves always

[Zachery]

Its not an htaccess thing. Its not something we support. We cannot run the cloud software on the root domain, it is a limitation of how our system is configured and a limitation of most cloud software installations.

Since we only run the vBulletin cloud software, letting us manage your DNS would not be ideal. We don't provide email services, or any DNS services.

Users on cloud are expected to add their own CNAME dns entires to the hostname they want. If they're unable to do that, we'll help them with that. We'll also attempt to provide instructions on how to redirect the root domain to their CNAME dns entry if they need to.

Just to be clear, you cannot run a CNAME on a root domain, its against the concept of how DNS servers/etc work. Since you cannot do this, we cannot support root domains. Its not that we can't have an entry for it (we could, but it wouldn't work, so we don't) its that the services that power the internet do not allow it.

Since we do not provide DNS services, we cannot make a root domain to non root domain redirect work.

http://stackoverflow.com/a/757972

http://superuser.com/a/264914

http://support.simpledns.com/kb/a94/...me-itself.aspx

[ljianyih]

Users on cloud are expected to add their own CNAME dns entires to the hostname they want. If they're unable to do that, we'll help them with that. We'll also attempt to provide instructions on how to redirect the root domain to their CNAME dns entry if they need to.

So If I want to redirect my domain name http://worldsofsports.com/ to http://www.worldsofsports.com/ (since it cannot be the other way round I guess) to avoid error page loading when users trying to access the domain without www, what should I do for now (the domain name is on namecheap)? Thanks.

[Wayne Luke]

So If I want to redirect my domain name http://worldsofsports.com/ to http://www.worldsofsports.com/ (since it cannot be the other way round I guess) to avoid error page loading when users trying to access the domain without www, what should I do for now (the domain name is on namecheap)? Thanks.

https://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/385/77/how-do-i-set-up-url-forwarding-for-a-domain

[ljianyih]

Thanks a lot for the help, it works well now.

[BritWorker]

Hi, Does anyone know how to do with on 123-reg?

There does not seem to be a way to set up a re-direct in this way.

Thanks.

[Wayne Luke]

Hi, Does anyone know how to do with on 123-reg?

There does not seem to be a way to set up a re-direct in this way.

Thanks.

https://www.123-reg.co.uk/support/answers/Domains-Archive/Domain-Configuration/how-do-i-set-up-a-cname-record-on-my-domain-name-1198/

[BritWorker]

Thanks for your reply, However I cannot see a way to set up a re-direct, this is what is there.

I have mail with 123 reg which is working fine. I have set the CNAME records as instructed in the Vbulliten email, and have tried adding "@" and "*" CHAME records pointing to the bulletin url but it did not work. if you go to brainworker.net without the www it says 404 Not found. Then I tried a re-direct but

123 allows you to re-direct but where should I redirect to? I have tried re-directing to the URL bulletin provided but it shows a blank page 404 Not Found.

Many thanks for your help.

[Wayne Luke]

Appears to be working now. CNAMES can take up to 48 hours to go live depending on the TTL and registrar.

[BritWorker]

Hi Wayne, Thanks for getting back to me.

Unfortunately no luck, most browsers add the www. for you, so its not that much of a problem, but certain devices don't.

[Wayne Luke]

You must have the www for Cloud. It isn't an option to use it without it. You can only redirect subdomains using CNAMEs and our system.