Can nearlyfreespeech.net and Google Sites play nicely?
September 13, 2010 3:19 AM Subscribe
The name is at nearlyfreespeech.net. The content is on Google Sites. Let’s try to bridge that divide.
I registered my preferred domain name for a CV/resume type of site at nearlyfreespeech.net a year or two ago and set it up with an htdocs file which redirects people to my Google Profile. Since then, the Google Profile has become Buzzified and I want out. I’ve now built a far more comprehensive CV on Google Sites and want the domain name to point at that instead.
I could just edit the htdocs file to redirect people to sites.google.com/site/myname, but I’d rather have www.myname.com up in the address bar instead. Bearing in mind that I don’t know my CNAMEs from my PHXs and wouldn’t recognise a DNS if it bit me, how do I go about doing this?
I registered my preferred domain name for a CV/resume type of site at nearlyfreespeech.net a year or two ago and set it up with an htdocs file which redirects people to my Google Profile. Since then, the Google Profile has become Buzzified and I want out. I’ve now built a far more comprehensive CV on Google Sites and want the domain name to point at that instead.
I could just edit the htdocs file to redirect people to sites.google.com/site/myname, but I’d rather have www.myname.com up in the address bar instead. Bearing in mind that I don’t know my CNAMEs from my PHXs and wouldn’t recognise a DNS if it bit me, how do I go about doing this?
Best answer: Let's say your domain is "example.com". That is an DNS A record, you also likely have an CNAME record that says "www.example.com" is the same as "example.com".
First, "example.com" can be directly pointed to your Google Sites hosted CV. That's because DNS A records must point towards an IP address, but Google Apps isn't set up to allow that. So, you'll need to use "www.example.com" or "cv.example.com" or "resume.example.com" to point towards your Google Sites hosted CV.
On your nearlyfreespeech.net admin site, change the DNS CNAME record for "www.example.com" from pointing to "example.com", and make it point it to "ghs.google.com". If you want to use something other than "www", say "cv.example.com", you'll need to create a new CNAME for "cv" and point it towards "ghs.google.com". I don't have an account with nearlyfreespeech.net, so I can't say exactly how you do that. It may take up to 12 hours for DNS changes to become live.
Next, in Google Apps dashboard, click on "Sites" and on the subsequent page, choose "Change URL". It will give you a place to put "www" or "cv" or "resume" or whatever you picked above. If you have multiple sites on Google Sites, you can do the same by selecting the "Web Address Mapping" tab, instead of the change URL link, and creating a mapping for "www.example.com" to the CV wiki.
Finally, if you want "example.com" to load your CV also, use an htdocs file or other redirect method on the nearlyfreespeech.net server space to redirect visitors from "example.com" to "www.example.com" (or whatever you decided your CV site would be callled).
posted by McGuillicuddy at 4:13 AM on September 13, 2010 [2 favorites]
First, "example.com" can be directly pointed to your Google Sites hosted CV. That's because DNS A records must point towards an IP address, but Google Apps isn't set up to allow that. So, you'll need to use "www.example.com" or "cv.example.com" or "resume.example.com" to point towards your Google Sites hosted CV.
On your nearlyfreespeech.net admin site, change the DNS CNAME record for "www.example.com" from pointing to "example.com", and make it point it to "ghs.google.com". If you want to use something other than "www", say "cv.example.com", you'll need to create a new CNAME for "cv" and point it towards "ghs.google.com". I don't have an account with nearlyfreespeech.net, so I can't say exactly how you do that. It may take up to 12 hours for DNS changes to become live.
Next, in Google Apps dashboard, click on "Sites" and on the subsequent page, choose "Change URL". It will give you a place to put "www" or "cv" or "resume" or whatever you picked above. If you have multiple sites on Google Sites, you can do the same by selecting the "Web Address Mapping" tab, instead of the change URL link, and creating a mapping for "www.example.com" to the CV wiki.
Finally, if you want "example.com" to load your CV also, use an htdocs file or other redirect method on the nearlyfreespeech.net server space to redirect visitors from "example.com" to "www.example.com" (or whatever you decided your CV site would be callled).
posted by McGuillicuddy at 4:13 AM on September 13, 2010 [2 favorites]
First, "example.com" can not be directly pointed to your Google Sites hosted CV
posted by McGuillicuddy at 4:13 AM on September 13, 2010
posted by McGuillicuddy at 4:13 AM on September 13, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks, McGuillicuddy. I’ve gone through the process you described and hopefully it’ll be up and running in the next 12 hours. Slight hiccup in that I’m using Google Sites rather than Google Apps, but I think I found the right setting.
posted by him at 7:24 AM on September 13, 2010
posted by him at 7:24 AM on September 13, 2010
« Older Can't sleep. How to fight through tomorrow. | Two separate online email accounts have been... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by oxit at 3:29 AM on September 13, 2010