Wildcard subdomains

[Sergissimo]

Hi,

Is it possible to use wildcard subdomains on your shared hosting? I'd like to install Wordpress MU and let my users register their blogs in the format of userblog.mydomain.com instead of mydomain.com/userblog.

I will be happy to know about this feature before I purchase

Thanks a lot in advance!

Kind regards,
Sergey.

[quietFinn]

Yes that is possible, contact HG support and ask them to enable wildcard DNS for your domain.

[Sergissimo]

Thanks a lot for this info!

Cheers,
Sergey.

[GatorJoshL]

Good morning,

All you need to do is in your cpanel add a subdomain named *

And have it point to your public_html. This sets up wildcard dns. From there the .htaccess file that wordpress MU uses to rewrite subdomains.

Thanks,

Josh Loe

[Sergissimo]

Even more thanks!!!

Regards,
Sergey.

[RainbowViper]

*Bright light appears above my head*

Well, I learn something new every day. And apologies that this is a bit offtopic, but....

Does anyone have a link that directly (and clearly!) explains how to effectively "use" that wildcard Domain?

I have a forum that I could (I think) setup to allow that wildcard format, but need to know more first. From the wording of the OP's question, I'm assuming Wordpress has the functionality "built in", whereas my Forum does not.

Thanks in advance.

[GatorJoshL]

Originally Posted by RainbowViper

*Bright light appears above my head*

Well, I learn something new every day. And apologies that this is a bit offtopic, but....

Does anyone have a link that directly (and clearly!) explains how to effectively "use" that wildcard Domain?

I have a forum that I could (I think) setup to allow that wildcard format, but need to know more first. From the wording of the OP's question, I'm assuming Wordpress has the functionality "built in", whereas my Forum does not.

Thanks in advance.

WordPress uses custom ReWrites to say this subdomain goes here, all WildCard does is say everything.domain.com goes to public_html. When the domain is queried WordPress's Rewrite rules says 'hey its looking for this'.

Its a custom setup and not many forums actually support it, but i'm sure a quick search of their site or google will turn up something for you.

Josh Loe

[RainbowViper]

Thanks, JoshL, that helps and answers a couple of my questions.

But I have to ask (given what I've read so far) whether that is ALL I need to do to enable wildcards for my primary domain. Or any of my Addon or Parked domains,for that matter.

What I've seen indicates that httpd.conf has to be edited, and the DNS zone for the Domain in question has to have the entry:

* (TTL-VALUE) IN A (Server IP Address)

Is httpd.conf already enabled on Shared Servers? And does cPanel effectively add that A record correctly, simply by creating a * subdomain?

Thanks in advance.

[GvilleRick]

When you add a subdomain in cPanel it does create the A record in the DNS Zone and does add the information to the httpd.conf. On older versions of cPanel it would not allow you to use * as the subdomain or point to a separate location other than the folder with the same name as the subdomain. cPanel 11 does add the flexibility to add redirects in a different manner so I suspect it would add the correct information in httpd.conf. When I get home and have access to my server I may try it out. You may need to be sure you have the X3 theme for cPanel.

[RainbowViper]

Thank you, Rick!

I do have x3 (and cPanel 11) already.

[GvilleRick]

I just tried it on an account on my dedicated and it worked fine. I just entered * as the subdomain and it put /public_html/ automatically in the document root field.

I decided to run another test and added a subdomain called new2. It also worked fine and did not break the wildcard subdomain. I know with cPanel 10 the wildcard entry had to be the last one in your DNS Zone and in httpd.conf which meant that if you added a subdomain after the wildcard was set up then the wildcard no longer worked. Good to see that cPanel is handling it pretty well now.

[RainbowViper]

Thanks again for the info. I appreciate it. I'll file that away.

[phlux0r]

Would the wildcard DNS trick work if I wanted to use a subdomain I created on my main Baby Croc shared account?

For example, I create a subdomain: blogs.my-domain.com, can I set it up so that:
user1.blogs.my-domain.com etc... works?

In addition, the other normal sub-domains I have should remain functional as per normal. Ie. I have: mysite.my-domain.com etc... as separate sites.

Is this possible?

Thanks.

[navjotjsingh]

Originally Posted by phlux0r

Would the wildcard DNS trick work if I wanted to use a subdomain I created on my main Baby Croc shared account?

For example, I create a subdomain: blogs.my-domain.com, can I set it up so that:
user1.blogs.my-domain.com etc... works?

In addition, the other normal sub-domains I have should remain functional as per normal. Ie. I have: mysite.my-domain.com etc... as separate sites.

Is this possible?

Thanks.

I want to ask the same question. I created the *.subdomain.domain.com and redirected to public_html but it is not working.

[usa2k]

You can see my Subdomain experience with HG and Drupal Framework at this link:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r223...bdomain-Module

Simply adding *.domain.com does not seem to do it all on another recently added URL of mine that is under construction.

I have a ticket in to see if I can get it straightened out.
I referenced my ticket from back in May that previously worked great.

[Taubin]

This may be a really stupid question, but, is there a way to do this without having it redirect the cpanel.domain.com?

When I added the * sub, it redirected my cpanel.domain.com to the homepage lol

Thanks in advance

[Taubin]

I guess there's not a way eh?

[GvilleRick]

I don't know of a way to do it in cPanel. With a dedicated server it would be possible to do so manually.

[Taubin]

I'll dig around on google and see what I can find. I appreciate the response Rick

[fadiz]

Originally Posted by GatorJoshL

Good morning,

All you need to do is in your cpanel add a subdomain named *

And have it point to your public_html. This sets up wildcard dns. From there the .htaccess file that wordpress MU uses to rewrite subdomains.

Thanks,

Josh Loe

I've tried it and it is not working. I've spoken to Sean and Laurie from online chat support and both said it cannot be done.

So I'm confused. Can it, or can it not be done? Is the issue is that it needs time to propogate even with wild cards and i need to wait a while first or is it really not working

[quietFinn]

Originally Posted by fadiz

I've tried it and it is not working.

And "it is not working" means what?

You were able to create sundomain "*" but it is not working? What happens?

Or if you are not able to create the subdomain, what happens when you try?

[fadiz]

Not working as in I am able to add the * fine under the subdomains, however if I navigate to anything.domain.com I get the following:

This problem can be caused by a variety of issues, including:

• Internet connectivity has been lost.
• The website is temporarily unavailable.
• The Domain Name Server (DNS) is not reachable.
• The Domain Name Server (DNS) does not have a listing for the website's domain.
• There might be a typing error in the address.
• If this is an HTTPS (secure) address, click Tools, click Internet Options, click Advanced, and check to be sure the SSL and TLS protocols are enabled under the security section

[GvilleRick]

It should work using the method described in this thread. Failure can be due to commands in the .htaccess file or other problems. We might be able to help more if we had the domain name so that we can see if it resolves for us.

If you continue to have problems getting it to work I would suggest opening a ticket with support rather than using Live Chat. The techs would be able to add the wildcard subdomain manually if it is not working with the cPanel method.