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Murray432

: 2nd domain name pointing to 1st only works on some machines I have 2 domain names. example.com is associated with the site and server and works fine. I want to point example.net to the same

@Murray432

Posted in: #Dns #DnsServers #DomainRegistration #Domains #MultipleDomains

I have 2 domain names. example.com is associated with the site and server and works fine. I want to point example.net to the same site and server.

To do this I have example.net as a Domain Alias in my sites Plesk dashboard. I have also added the hosting servers IP as A Records in example.net's registrars control panel.

However, only some machines and devices reach the site when browsing to example.net.

Is there something I have to do with CNAME records? Currently they are blank for example.net.

I'm not sure what else I can do. Can someone point me in the right direction?

(PS I am a newb at DNS stuff, so simple layman's terms might be good thanks!)

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@Mendez628

Personally, I would point the A record to the same server. No need to touch the CNAME (in this case, or indeed, many cases). Very simply: CNAME is basically an alias, a forwarder. So, a request comes in to the registrar, hits the CNAME which looks up the relevant A record. Now a days, we just create more A records so we can avoid the CNAME look up, the result is the same (if not microseconds faster).

Also, do remember, that a site can take up to 72 hours for DNS changes to take place. I've made changes before and my work machine would not see the results, but, my home PC did (I used a different ISP to the company) meaning, until the company DNS caught up, I had to log on to my home PC to see the new website.

General comments now, which may not be useful for you but may be for other visitors:

Now, it depends on what content is being used? Will example.net and exmaple.com be showing the same website (and therefore the same content)? If so use 301 perm redirects or using canonical links can help the search engines knows that the data is the same for both sites, but which to favour.

If they are doing something such as showing variations, or locale specific, then you can show <link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/net" hreflang="en-gb" />.

However, if the content is the same, you need to ask yourself, what is the point? You already have example.com so why do you need to use example.net? If you are migrating from example.com to example.net then fine, it makes sense to use the redirect methods described above, but, if you are buying the domain names just so competitors can't buy similar domain names to you, then leave them, doing nothing! This way, people won't start linking to variations of your site which could cause issues at a later stage (it's easier to deal with 1 domain instead of several).

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@Michele947

From a SEO standpoint, running the same site on 2 different domains will not give you any potential advantage, Google avoids indexing copies of web pages. In fact, potential duplication issues might lead to penalties like Google Panda update.

On the other hand, if you would like users typing in example.net to reach the same site, you might want to do a domain forwarding. You can do this from your domain control panel. This will ensure that all users see the same site, and it's completely safe from a SEO standpoint.

As for your current configuration, Nameserver changes take about 48 hrs. to take effect globally. Just give it some time, should fix itself.

Thanks,
Krinal

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@Jamie184

Under normal circumstances, any domain name, regardless of what you do with it, should have an A record that ties the domain name to an IP address. Do not try and use a CNAME for this. Any sub-domain, and www is a sub-domain, should have an CNAME pointing to the parent domain or optionally an A record just like the parent domain. Using a CNAME is traditional and extremely common, but using an A record is more efficient. However, some DNS servers prefer a CNAME for this purpose.

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