The Real Blogger Status

One of the advantages of custom domain publishing, and the domain root to published URL redirection, used to be transparent redirection of the URLs. As Blogger blog owners become more sophisticated with their blogs, and custom home pages (aka "landing pages"), become more popular, we have blog owners with concerns about home page access and domain root redirection. We are also seeing concern with direct access to specific posts - with posts advertised, using the domain root URL. In some cases, redirection only shows the reader the blog home page, as the first view of the blog - even with a specific post being linked in the advertised URL.

When you setup a custom domain, for a Blogger blog, the DNS addresses are the most important issue. A close second in importance, to righteous DNS addressing , is redirecting the domain root to the published URL. We see frequent problem reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . Why does my domain only work, with the "www" in the address? The domain root provides a backup to the published URL, in many domain setups. If the domain root is not redirected, and DNS for the "www" or other published alias is down, the domain is down.

Some blog owners publish both a blog and a website - and combine the two in the domain root / www host address pair. This technique, while apparently reasonable, will eventually lead to confusion from the blog readers - and / or anguish by the blog owners. Some readers, using a browser or DNS client that aliases the domain root and "www" host , will find that the website will come up, when the blog is referenced, or vice versa. And some blog owners may find, once more, another case of "Another blog ..." / Key already exists ..." , when examining or publishing to the domain. In neither case will the blog owners or readers be pleased.

This month, we're seeing an interesting collection of problem reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , about custom domain setup. Why is my blog offline - occasionally? And Why do some (just some!) of my readers tell me they can't see my blog? Investigating the problem, we see that the domain is, indeed online - some of the time. Investigating the DNS addressing, robustly, we find an all too frequently seen set of name servers: mydomain.com. 14400 IN A 216.239.32.21 www.mydomain.com. 14400 IN CNAME ghs.google.com. What we see here is a domain, setup by someone who thought that one server would be 'good enough' to get by .

I've been using affinity analysis , and differential analysis , as tools for diagnosing intermittent problems with custom domain published blogs , for several years. Some people may be using a browser which is more forgiving of DNS problems than others - and people who use the right browser, when accessing a domain with righteous DNS addresses , should expect to generally get more consistent service. But that's only a small part of the story.

One of the most consistently seen complaints, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , involves blog owners who can't get their blogs working, using custom domain publishing. Thanks to undertrained tech support staff , a common feature at too many registrars, the most common cause of custom domain problems involves failure to use "CNAME" referral - or "CNAME" referral targeting the wrong destination. Both use of forwarding, and "CNAME" referral to the domain root, is seen too often. www.mydomain.com. 1800 IN A 64.202.189.170 or maybe www.mydomain.com. 1800 IN CNAME mydomain.com Please, don't use either of the above address models! Unfortunately, even with the blog properly published to the "www" alias - and with the "www" alias using "CNAME" referral, targeting "ghs.google.com" - we still see problems. With neither of the above mistakes made.

Recently, Google Apps added a setting to the domain administrator desktop GUI, which controls the redirect of the domain root (aka "naked domain"). We initially observed this setting, as an option in working around the problem of setting the domain root redirect , in the Blogger Publishing "Advanced Settings" wizard. It's also possible that this setting should be used in recycling the domain settings , when faced with the "dreaded "Another blog ..." error. Use of the Google Apps Domain Redirect setting is not complicated. It starts with setup of the domain administrator account. For any newly purchased domain - as well as for domains purchased directly from a registrar , it's a fairly simple matter to setup a Google Apps domain administrator account - then to set (or reset) the redirect.

Now that the custom domain publishing feature is back online again, there remains one feature of custom domain publishing to be restored to the Blogger dashboard. The very popular Blogger dashboard option to redirect the domain root (aka "naked domain"), to the "www" alias, may not be reliable - or even available . Too many people report I can't redirect the naked domain - I can select the option, but the next time I look, the box will be un checked. and My "www" alias works just fine - but the domain root now returns a "404". Fortunately, there are alternative solutions to provide the naked domain redirect.

We are seeing reports from relieved bloggers that their custom domain published blogs are now accessible, from both the domain root ("naked domain") and from the "www" alias. The earlier error, " Blogs may not be hosted at naked domains ", appears to be resolved, for at least properly configured DNS addresses . Now, other matters, such as FTP Publishing with inoperative feeds , await the attention of Blogger Support. >> Top

When you setup a Blog*Spot blog, and publish to "myblog.blogspot.com", Blogger automatically defines "www.myblog.blogspot.com" and redirects it for you, to "myblog.blogspot.com". This is a traditional convenience for your readers, and lets them address the blog as either "myblog.blogspot.com" or "www.myblog.blogspot.com". It's not a built in privilege for all web sites, and neither is the ability to address a non BlogSpot blog as either "www.mydomain.com" or "mydomain.com". A few bloggers don't understand the necessity for the schizophrenic URLs . My readers only need to use "www.mydomain.com". or I don't care about "www.blog.mydomain.com", I only need "blog.mydomain.com" to work. It's possible that, in a differently designed database, "www.mydomain.com" and "mydomain.com" would be two separate, and distinctly unique addresses, capable of working on ...

As a possible supplement (and maybe an eventual replacement) for the old monolithic error Another blog is already hosted at this address we now have Blogs may not be hosted at naked domains

A Blogger / Google Custom Domain is reasonably simple to setup . You get simplicity, when you understand that custom domain design uses three rigidly defined models , in the DNS addressing. A lot of the trouble, that many blog owners experience, comes from doing it their own way. Sometimes, we make our own mistakes , in setting up our domain. It should work this way, so this is how I'm going to do it. In other times, advice from your DNS host / registrar may contribute to the problem. The tech support wizard at my registrar's help desk told me to configure it this way! Sometimes, we make our own mistakes and take advice from a third party . The tech support wizard at my registrar's help desk told me this is all that I need!! Some people overlook the possibility that recommended custom domain configuration could change . My blog was working fine this way, last year!

Last month, I reported an oddity in custom domain publishing - the observation that, for some domains, the selection Redirect mydomain.com to www.mydomain.com. was apparently treated as selected, even if not so, by some custom domain scripts. A number of bloggers reported seeing "Server Not Found Error 404" for custom domains that had been operational for some time, and subsequently revealed that they were only publishing to "www.mydomain.com", with no DNS address definition for "mydomain.com". In the latter cases, my advice would be Add a DNS address definition for "mydomain.com" (or "www.mydomain.com", as necessary). Wait for the appropriate TTL latency period to expire. Publish the blog back to BlogSpot, then forward to "www.mydomain.com" again.

We've been getting a lot of reports of some well known problems recently, from blogs published to Google Custom Domains. Another blog is already hosted at this address. and Server Not Found Error 404 No, Chuck, tell us something that we didn't know. When I analyse a custom domain problem, I always start with a DNS analysis, expressed using an excerpted Dig log . Typically, I'll see Symmetrical Main Domain mydomain.com. 900 IN CNAME ghs.google.com. www.mydomain.com. 900 IN CNAME ghs.google.com. or Asymmetrical Main Domain (aka " Google Apps " configuration) mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 64.233.179.121 mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 72.14.207.121 www.mydomain.com. 900 IN CNAME ghs.google.com. This weekend, though, we're seeing a variant on the latter configuration, reported as usual in anxious queries For 3 days I received a message that the blog was redirecting. Then I got error 404 for a day and decided to switch to blogspot and back to my custom domain. Got an error t...