The Real Blogger Status

Very few registrars allow multiple "CNAME" addresses, for a single DNS host. When I diagnose DNS address problems, I generally recommend Add the addresses highlighted in green . Remove the addresses highlighted in red . I find that it helps to have the old address visible, while the new address is being composed. This does not always produce the desired result, unfortunately.

We see some blog owners deciding to change their custom domain URLs - and discovering an unexpected limitation, in re indexing the blog, under the new URL I received email from Google, advising that my previous domain is pulling up a number of 404 errors. I've noticed that these are for individual blog posts. When you change one custom domain to another, you may not see the domain re indexed, transparently.

This weekend, a few owners of blogs published to custom domains are reporting problems viewing their blogs. We are seeing various reports, such as unhappily reporting CANNOT VIEW MY BLOG! If we view the blog ourselves - or maybe if the blog owner uses one or more proxy servers to view the blog, the blog will be seen with no problem. Apparently the blog is actually online, regardless of the original observation. Now what? In many cases, the blog in question uses GoDaddy hosted DNS, and a specific set of GoDaddy servers, to provide domain addresses to the blog readers.

I constantly advise Blogger blog owners to avoid forwarding, when setting up custom domain publishing . In the rare cases where forwarding is actually required , not every blog owner reports success. My blog now displays a non Google search page! or worse My blog now displays 404 Not Found What did I do wrong?? Depending upon what setup work was done by the blog / domain owner, and what effort is required by the registrar, one may expect to see, quite predictably, either of the above errors.

I constantly advise Blogger blog owners to avoid forwarding, when setting up custom domain publishing . In the rare cases where forwarding is actually required , not every blog owner reports success. My blog now displays a non Google search page! or worse My blog now displays 404 Not Found What did I do wrong?? Depending upon what setup work was done by the blog / domain owner, and what effort is required by the registrar, one may expect to see, quite predictably, either of the above errors.

Setting up a custom domain, and publishing a blog to a non BlogSpot URL, is a simple enough task - when we are able to use the "Buy a domain for your blog" wizard . Sometimes, after using "Buy a domain ...", we may still have to access the registrar's Domain Manager wizard - maybe to setup additional hosts, or to use the domain with non Blogger services . When we use "Buy a domain", along with setting up the domain for us, the Blogger / Google wizard sets up a new eNom or GoDaddy domain owner account. To let us later login to eNom or GoDaddy, the "Buy a domain" wizard saves the login information, for our new account - in a Google Apps desktop wizard. Here is yet one more reason why we absolutely must setup the provided Google Apps account , after receiving the Google Apps email. Be aware of the oddities of the Google One Login wizard, and Google Apps , when logging in.

One of the odder examples of naivete, seen occasionally in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? , involves the custom domain purchase. How do I buy a domain from Blogger? or alternately How do I have Google host my domain? The immediate answer, properly stated, is simple. You cannot buy a domain from Blogger. Neither Blogger, nor Google, is a registrar. The full answer, however, is a bit more complex.

When you purchase a domain - either as part of the "Buy a domain" wizard , or when you purchase directly from a registrar - you are free to use any registrar that you wish, for the purchase. The "Buy a domain" wizard (which should be your preferred method of purchase ) lets you use either eNom or GoDaddy - and which registrar you use is your choice - though the choice is not made obvious, by the wizard layout.

Blogger is now making it easier for people who purchase a domain, hosted by GoDaddy, and need your DNS setup to support custom domain publishing. Just go to the Blogger / GoDaddy "Update your DNS records" wizard, and provide your domain URL.

This weekend, a few owners of blogs published to custom domains are reporting problems viewing their blogs. We are seeing various reports, such as unhappily reporting I can't view my blog! If we view the blog ourselves, or maybe if the blog owner uses one or more proxy servers to view the blog, the blog will be seen with no problem. Apparently the blog is actually online, regardless of the original observation. Now what? In many cases, the blog in question uses GoDaddy hosted DNS, and a specific set of GoDaddy servers, to provide domain addresses to the blog readers.

In Custom Domain Setup Advice From GoDaddy Is Wrong , I described the recently updated instructions provided by GoDaddy, to their customers, in Mapping Your Domain Name to Work with Blogger - and I described the observed results. When investigated, an excerpted Dig log shows a common symptom. mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 64.202.189.170 www.mydomain.com. 3600 IN CNAME mydomain.com. What we see there is a forwarded domain - and as I have explained a few times, domain forwarding does not produce an effective and reliable custom domain .

We have recently seen a few blog owners, in the process of setting up their blogs for custom domain publishing, reporting various symptoms. I get a bX-rfwe0f error, when trying to use the Publishing tab on Blogger, after purchasing a new domain from GoDaddy. When investigated, an excerpted Dig log shows a common symptom. mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 64.202.189.170 www.mydomain.com. 3600 IN CNAME mydomain.com. Server "64.202.189.170" is not a Google custom domain DNS server - it's owned by GoDaddy, and it's used for DNS forwarding. pwfwd-v01.prod.mesa1.secureserver.net (64.202.189.170) 64.202.160.0 - 64.202.191.255 GoDaddy.com, Inc. GO-DADDY-SOFTWARE-INC (NET-64-202-160-0-1) 64.202.160.0 - 64.202.191.255

Occasionally, blog owners, confused and weary from uncertainty after trying to get their custom domain working, when not purchased from a suitable registrar , ask for a solution that they are just not going to get How do I transfer domain hosting to Blogger? This frequently comes even after we have stated, repeatedly, that Blogger does not register domains, and Blogger / Google does not provide DNS services . What Blogger does is provide a domain setup with eNom or GoDaddy, when the " Buy a domain " wizard is used for the purchase of that domain. Part of the domain setup includes adding standard DNS addresses - the well known 4 x "A" + "CNAME" address configuration.

Registrars, the companies which lease your domains to you on a year by year basis, are not non profit organisations. If you let the registration on your domain expire, your registrar has to have an alternate plan for making money from your domain. Your readers, looking for your blog, will provide them their needed income. If you don't renew the registration for your domain promptly, most registrars will change your domain DNS setup, and point it to a "parked domain" server. Any of your would be readers will see a screen full of ads, instead of your blog. That's your registrar, making money from your unrenewed domain.

Occasionally, we see queries from blog owners, considering moving their custom domain published blogs to new hosts. I bought my domain through Blogger, and now I need to move it to my own hosting. Can someone please advise me. I know that I need to change the name servers somewhere. Here we have a somewhat vague question, that can have several results. You need to be aware of three essential services , that are involved in any blog or website. Be aware of the differences between Domain Registration, DNS Hosting, and Content Hosting, and decide what, specifically, you need to do. Keep the custom domain published Blogger blog, and add a new blog or website to the domain . Keep the custom domain published blog, but host the domain with a different registrar. Move DNS and registration only. Move the blog from Blogger to another host. Move content, DNS, and registration. Move the domain, to host DNS using a third party service . Consider these alternatives carefully, they may affect ...

If your blog is published to a Google custom domain, you may be happily updating your blog one day, and get a panicked email from a friend What happened to your blog? I'm seeing a GoDaddy advertisement! or I'm getting 404 Not Found when I try to view your blog! What's the problem now? and if that's the case for you, then you need to act, now. Not long ago, I got an odd email. Hi Chuck, I'm Nagarajan from India. I bought your domain Nitecruzr.Net through a GoDaddy auction. I just want to make sure that whether you sold your domain to GoDaddy, or by any chance it went for auction ? Also, I would like to know about your willingness to get back your domain Nitecruzr.Net. Long story short, I had thought that I placed the renewal last month, and omitted to verify that the payment went through. And I was very lucky that Jasa Nagarajan, who buys and sells domains, had noticed the auction, and that he picked up the domain.

Setting up a Google Custom Domain, and publishing your blog to a non-BlogSpot URL, is an exciting prospect for many bloggers. Part of the excitement, after using the " Buy A Domain For Your Blog " wizard, or from Google Apps , includes receipt of an email from Google Apps, giving instructions on logging in to Google Apps, and giving us access to the DNS Manager wizard for the domain registrar (eNom or GoDaddy). And providing positive proof that he / she is now the owner of the domain. Recently, we've been seeing reports from unhappy bloggers who report I have only received the mail of confirmation of the purchase and of spending the $10 USD, but nothing else. This discovery is made generally when the blogger reports a problem with the domain, and when advised to correct it using the Domain DNS wizard, replies that he has no access to the DNS wizard, and in some cases, no access to Google Apps either. In other cases, the blogger may have access to Google Apps, and an ac...

If you have a custom domain that was setup for you by Google Apps, or through the " Buy A Domain For Your Blog " wizard, or if you setup your domain to use the Google Apps standard configuration , you probably reference a Google server that doesn't exist any more. The Google server "66.249.81.121" was taken offline some time ago , yet many custom domains still have this configuration. mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 64.233.179.121 mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 66.249.81.121 mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 72.14.207.121 www.mydomain.com. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com. Reliance upon "66.249.81.121" contributes to at least some of the cases of "Server Not Found Error 404" observed recently. If your custom domain contains a reference to that server, your domain will probably show these symptoms eventually. If your domain is already showing this symptom, that may be why you're here. Removing the entry in question isn't difficult. Start from the GoDaddy Dom...

If you have a non-Blogger web site, and want to publish a blog to the web site domain, it's easy enough to add the blog as a custom domain entry , and keep the web site. Some folks have a domain, and they don't care about the web site or other current features - they just want Google hosting, and they want to get away from their current host. That's not a difficult task either.

Publishing a Blogger blog by FTP, to a third party server, presents a challenge, may I risk making an understatement. Bloggers choosing to host their blogs externally have traditionally been subject to numerous experiences , not all good. One of the least enjoyed is possibly seeing the advice Your publish is taking longer than expected. To continue waiting for it to finish, click here. It appears that a recent server change (some time in the last 3 to 6 months) at GoDaddy may be at least partially responsible for some of the FTP Publishing experiences, such as the latter advice. GoDaddy appears to have 3 server configurations right now. Linux, "hosting configuration 1.0", PHP 4.x. Linux, "hosting configuration 2.0", PHP 5.x. Windows, ASP.Net 1.1, IIS 6.0 . In at least one case, service moved from Linux configuration 1.0 to configuration 2.0 appears to be related to the symptom discussed above. According to the Original Poster in the thread linked above, service ...