Frequently Asked Questions

The NearlyFreeSpeech.NET FAQ (*)

Getting Started (*)

Q. Why does my domain not point to my site yet? (Or: What is an alias and why do I need one?)

If your domain is registered and has DNS service, but your domain name does not point to your site, the most likely cause is that your site is missing an alias.

An "alias" tells our systems what name(s) are associated with a web site. An alias will commonly include "www." (e.g. www.example.com) or be just a domain name (e.g. example.com). In most cases, you'll want both.

  1. Visit the Sites panel.
  2. In the "Short Name" column, click on the name of the site you just created.
  3. If you don't see the alias you want to use already listed under "Site Names & Aliases," click the "Add a New Alias" button at the bottom of that same box.
  4. Follow the instructions.

While changes often take only minutes to take effect, they depend on the propagation of DNS updates, which can sometimes take an hour or more.

See also the complete "Domain Name Service (DNS)" and "Domain Registration" sections of our FAQ for other related issues that could keep your domain from pointing to your site.

DNS considerations: Please be aware that if you are using our DNS service, adding an alias will result in the automatic addition of a CNAME record to your domain's DNS. If you later want to point the same hostname (www.example.com) elsewhere via a new DNS record, delete the alias you created here first so that the CNAME record our system added to your DNS will also be removed; otherwise, you won't be able to add a new DNS record for that hostname.

If you already have a correct alias added to your site and you have set up our DNS, but it is not working, it is also possible that you have incorrect name servers listed on your registration. See this FAQ entry for more information.