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Custom Domain Problems - June 2009

This evening, we have several reports of numerous suddenly broken custom domains. The BlogSpot URL, normally redirected to the "www" alias of the domain, is now directed to an "off site redirect" warning. The domain root, and the "www" alias, may or may not be working as usual.

With some versions of Internet Explorer or Safari browsers, which are known to have problems displaying interstitial warnings, you may see simply
... cannot display the web page.
or a similar notice, instead of the "off site redirect" warning.

Here's an example - "dianamuse.blogspot.com", now published to "www.swoond.com".

The DNS addresses are righteous.

swoond.com. 1800 IN A 216.239.32.21
swoond.com. 1800 IN A 216.239.34.21
swoond.com. 1800 IN A 216.239.36.21
swoond.com. 1800 IN A 216.239.38.21
www.swoond.com. 1800 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.


Righteous DNS or not, Houston, there is a problem!




An HTTP trace shows one problem. First, "dianamuse.blogspot.com".

Sending request:

GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: dianamuse.blogspot.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.10) Gecko/2009042316 Firefox/3.0.10
Connection: close

• Finding host IP address...
• Host IP address = 74.125.19.191
• Finding TCP protocol...
• Binding to local socket...
• Connecting to host...
• Sending request...
• Waiting for response...
Receiving Header:
HTTP/1.1·301·Moved·Permanently(CR)(LF)

<p·id="tag"><em>Push-Button·Publishing</em></p>(LF)
<span·class="r"></span></div></div></div>(LF)
<div·id="body"><div·id="main"><div·id="m2"><div·id="m3"><div·class="mainClm"><h1>You're·about·to·be·redirected</h1>(LF)
<p>The·blog·that·used·to·be·here·is·now·at··http://www.swoond.com/.(LF)
<br>(LF)
Do·you·wish·to·be·redirected?(LF)
<br><br>(LF)
<span·class="info">This·blog·is·not·hosted·by·Blogger·and·has·not·been·checked·for·spam,·viruses·and·other·forms·of·malware.</span></p>(LF)

Next, "www.swoond.com".

Sending request:

GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: www.swoond.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.10) Gecko/2009042316 Firefox/3.0.10
Connection: close

• Finding host IP address...
• Host IP address = 74.125.53.121
• Finding TCP protocol...
• Binding to local socket...
• Connecting to host...
• Sending request...
• Waiting for response...
Receiving Header:
HTTP/1.1·200·OK(CR)(LF)

<link·rel="alternate"·type="application/atom+xml"·title="s·w·o·o·n·d···(n(C3,A9)e··d·i·a·n·a·:·m·u·s·e·)·-·Atom"·href="http://www.swoond.com/feeds/posts/default"·/>(LF)
<link·rel="alternate"·type="application/rss+xml"·title="s·w·o·o·n·d···(n(C3,A9)e··d·i·a·n·a·:·m·u·s·e·)·-·RSS"·href="http://www.swoond.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss"·/>(LF)


(Update 6/22 16:00): The issue is now resolved.
Custom domain redirects are now fixed; thanks for your patience!


(Update 6/21): As this problem continues through its fifth day, we see a new symptom.

(Update 6/20): Blogger Employee Siobhan provides a second acknowledgement of the problem.
We are very sorry and I promise we are working hard on it. The issue should be fixed early this week.


(Update 6/19): Blogger Employee Gatsby again acknowledges the problem.
We've been tracking this issue since it was first noticed on Wednesday, and are working hard on the fix. For the latest updates on this problem, please check out our Known Issues blog.


(Update 9/18): As this problem stretches into its third day, bloggers are also starting to note broken feeds, since feeds based on the original BlogSpot URL are redirected, just as the base URL is done.

(Update 9/17 10:00): Blogger has acknowledged the problem.
Custom domain users are reporting that traffic to their blog's Blogspot URL is inserting a redirect warning notifying users that they are leaving Blogger. Previously, no warning was issued and visits to the Blogspot URL were automatically re-routed to the user's Custom Domain.


(Update 9/16 22:00): Blogger Support has been informed of this problem.

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Comments

Susan said…
I noticed that on my blog also. Which is one reason I like to read your posts - it's always amazing to hear that it's not just something weird going on individually here.
Prateek Singla said…
I am also getting same problem, and my visitors are affected sharply...
It is worst experience for Google, with me...
Thanks for all that you do. This is very helpful. I wish Blogger would just hire you. I'm having this same problem and it's killing my traffic.
Chef Fresco said…
Yep, same problem here. Totally random... somebody flipped the wrong switch. Please reply if you discover a work around.
I think I meet the same issue. My blog arcorama.blogspot.com is redirected since 2 years on www.arcorma.fr. Since one day, the URL of my feeeds (http://arcorama.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default) return an HTTP 301 error. Could anyone confirm that this problem is linked to the "custom domain Problems" ?

Thanks for your help.
Will's Dad said…
Thanks...same issue here.
Lynn Hemeon said…
Seems to be working OK now in FF but not in IE.
Jeff said…
Very much appreciated, I've been scouring the net for hours to get the answer to this and you've nailed it.

I can't believe I considered switching to .com for 2 years and I finally do so on the week where it breaks!
Lynn Hemeon said…
This must be a major problem. My site hasn't been working for over 24 hours.. I'm losing a lot of visits to my site.
Stephanie said…
Glad it's not just me. I've had comments all day on folks not being able to get to the blog.
Unknown said…
Is there any way to actually contact a real live person at Google and ask them what's up?

They should be liable for any perceived loss of profit in connection to lost traffic because of their redirect issue.

I would like to start a class action suit against Google if this keeps up another 24 hours. I'm not ranting, I'm sure that anyone with ads or products on their site stands a goos chance of proving liable for loss here.

I mean they don't contact their customers when something like this happens and they don't post an explanation anywhere on the web, and we all suffer in limbo.

I want to sue. Anyone else interested in not putting up with this kind of crap like a weak coward email me at author@baphomet2013.info
Lynn Hemeon said…
Actually I'm getting really pissed. Going on 3 days now. I doubt they even know about it or they are out on their yachts and will look at it when they get back.
Bombchell said…
This is so annoying. But somehow my blog is not showing up in readers anymore.

I wish I started with wordpress instead.
Rick said…
Almost like Jeff, I just changed to a custom domain last week (and with Nitecruzr's help got my DNS straightened out a couple of days ago) - only to have this happen.

At least I know it isn't just that people suddenly don't like my blog anymore ...
doowylloh said…
I was supposed to “officially” launch my blog this week. I've lined up affiliate programs and advertisers. Just as I was about to broadcast the sites existence on various other blogs and websites blogger crashes. The unofficial launch has had about 100 visitors per day with the majority visit length in the 5-20 minutes range. I still have the visitors, but visit length is at a whooping 5-30 seconds for the majority. Thanks blogger. I'll see everyone over at squarespace.

I can't imagine what would have happened if I officially launched. No one would have ever returned to the site.

Does anyone know when this will be fixed?
doowylloh said…
I'm also getting a new message:

"The DNS record for your domain is not set up correctly yet. If you just purchased this domain the set up process may take up to a day. Learn more."

Is everyone else getting this under their setting?
Deeba PAB said…
i havethe same problem & it's about a week old. I'm amazed that it hasn't been sorted out as yet. My visiting stats have fallen drastically
Nitecruzr said…
doowylloh,

Your message is normal, for blogs with incorrect DNS addresses.

Deeba and doowylloh,

Please start new and separate threads in Blogger Help Forum, and identify your blogs, giving both BlogSpot and domain URLs.
doowylloh said…
Hey Chuck,

Regarding your comment, "Your message is normal, for blogs with incorrect DNS addresses."

The thing is, the message wasn't there before. It's brand spanking new. For the last two months, while I was setting up the blog, everything was fine.

--- J
Kate said…
Oh wow; glad to know I'm not the only one. I just recently changed to a custom domain and was wondering what the heck was going on.

Is this also why my Feedburner subscriber count suddenly dropped from 70 to 15? Or is that some other wacky thing that I need to figure out?

~Kate
Nitecruzr said…
Kate,

Yes it's very likely that this problem has affected your FeedBurner counts too.
Nitecruzr said…
Doowylloh,

If you're getting a new message, then open a new thread of your own in Blogger Help Forum, and provide details, and we'll check you out. State the BlogSpot and domain URLs, please.
Admin said…
am facing the same prob, and am also noticing a NEW warning msg at Blogger Publishing page: [The DNS record for your domain is not set up correctly yet. If you just purchased this domain the set up process may take up to a day].

things have been always working fine but now the redirection is broken (though i didn't change settings)!

my url is [http://www.RaniTheBrainy.com] registered at Godaady.com!

any updates or workarounds found?
Rick said…
I am getting the same message as Doowylloh and others. Just last Wednesday you (Nitecruzr) helped me set up a righteous DNS. For one day the Advanced Tab reflected it by saying I was okay - then on Friday was back to saying my DNS setup was wrong. A look at my GoDaddy DNS setup still shows righteousness (so far as I can tell).

I haven't reposted to the Blogger Help Forum yet, because I'm waiting to see if a fix of the redirect bug will also fix the message I'm getting. I'm posting here informationally, to confirm that even users with apparently righteous DNS are now getting the error message.
Lynn Hemeon said…
For God's sake people ,don't change any of your settings.. It has nothing to do with our sites.. It is a blogger problem. A rep from Google told me it will be fixed early in the week.
doowylloh said…
Monday: 4:00pm PST

All is back to normal on my blog!!!

The message: "The DNS record for your domain is not set up correctly yet. If you just purchased this domain the set up process may take up to a day. Learn more..." has vanished.

According to blogger it's set up properly.

I'm so happy this has been resolved.

The good news is that I found this great website because of it.

--- J
Unknown said…
We are having this problem right now.

www.wedding-luv.com is not working and blog.hand-craftedcreations.com is not working along with many other custom domain redirects...

seems this problem is not solved yet. Help :(
Nitecruzr said…
Victoria Joanne,

All custom domain problems are not caused by this problem. You need to post in Blogger Help Forum, with details (both BlogSpot and domain URLs).
guillermo said…
hey there guillermo from
www.alainfinkielkrautrock.blogspot.com
i think we have the same problem, what can we do ??
Nitecruzr said…
Guillermo - and everybody else,

You report your problem in GBF: Something Is Broken, and state both BlogSpot and domain URLs. The online forums are much easier to use, then Blogger Blog Commenting, for interactive problem solving.
Miss Bobo said…
having the same problem here and its redirecting me to a weird website. thank you for posting it.

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