Web Domain help needed

jeepinmatt

jeepinmatt

Old, fat, and grumpy.
Moderator
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Location
Stanley, NC
I have a domain through ionos.com, and I put together a website through sites.google.com, but I cannot get it to linkup and work correctly. Between NX Domain error, SSL Protocol Error, and then back around to where I started after I reset everything, I'm at my wits end.
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If someone more smarterer about the finer points of the netterwebz can PM me, I'd appreciate it. The site is working fine on the Google side, and all the DNS stuff was correct per the instructions, domain ownership verified, etc, but just can't get the last step for it to actually direct and link up the Google site with the Ionos domain.
 
Not joking - have you tried asking Claude AI
 
Those ionos guys call me about once a quarter wanting to know if I'm happy with my current provider. We used them about 15 years ago when they were called 1&1 for domain names. Switched to Namecheap.

I'm assuming you have Ionos providing DNS with a cname record or something pointed at Google? Google probably forces TLS on their side, do you have a valid certificate?
 
Try ChatGPT. It’s been a big help for me lately.

I just bought several domains through Wordpress a couple days ago. Various versions of ErikTesterman.com/etc for my growing author business.

Wordpress did the SSL and such for me at no added cost.

But I do have a premium subscription with them for my site. But I don’t think that matters, they should sell and set up domains regardless of subscription cause it’s easy money for them.

Anyways, maybe check that out. The three site domains I bought were less than $15.

If I weren’t on my cell at work I’d dig deeper. If you need more help tonight after work I’ll get to it.
 
shawn said:
Those ionos guys call me about once a quarter wanting to know if I'm happy with my current provider. We used them about 15 years ago when they were called 1&1 for domain names. Switched to Namecheap.

I'm assuming you have Ionos providing DNS with a cname record or something pointed at Google? Google probably forces TLS on their side, do you have a valid certificate?
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Yep, Ionos DNS, Cname to the correct Google server, TXT record for ownership verification, valid SSL through Ionos.
 
Atla said:
Try ChatGPT. It’s been a big help for me lately.

I just bought several domains through Wordpress a couple days ago. Various versions of ErikTesterman.com/etc for my growing author business.

Wordpress did the SSL and such for me at no added cost.

But I do have a premium subscription with them for my site. But I don’t think that matters, they should sell and set up domains regardless of subscription cause it’s easy money for them.

Anyways, maybe check that out. The three site domains I bought were less than $15.

If I weren’t on my cell at work I’d dig deeper. If you need more help tonight after work I’ll get to it.
Click to expand...
Did you build your site through them also? I'm sure the integrations are much better/easier if everything is from the same provider. I tried to build my site through Ionos, but their site builder was awful.
 
jeepinmatt said:
Did you build your site through them also? I'm sure the integrations are much better/easier if everything is from the same provider. I tried to build my site through Ionos, but their site builder was awful.
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Yes. I’ve done everything through them. They’ve been great to work with, except I’m eyeballing going from the Premium Package to the Business Pacakage for more plug in support. But that’s more cost.

I created my site back in 2018, so this week has been a learning curve on rebranding and how to redesign once I get my SSL set up. (Took 24 hours and went through last night) ChatGPT has been a huge help going down that rabbit hole.

Anyways. Is there a benefit to not using one place to create everything versus what you are doing?
 
Atla said:
Yes. I’ve done everything through them. They’ve been great to work with, except I’m eyeballing going from the Premium Package to the Business Pacakage for more plug in support. But that’s more cost.

I created my site back in 2018, so this week has been a learning curve on rebranding and how to redesign once I get my SSL set up. (Took 24 hours and went through last night) ChatGPT has been a huge help going down that rabbit hole.

Anyways. Is there a benefit to not using one place to create everything versus what you are doing?
Click to expand...
Domain is already registered with Ionos and I don't want to deal with moving it, but Ionos site builder sucks. Google doesn't do domains directly, its all through Squarespace. I didn't like Squarespace's site builder either (not saying its bad, I just couldn't get it to do what I wanted), but then found the Google site builder and found it intuitive and capable of what I needed. It should be simple to just make the connection and be done, but that's where everything is hungup.
 
jeepinmatt said:
Domain is already registered with Ionos and I don't want to deal with moving it, but Ionos site builder sucks. Google doesn't do domains directly, its all through Squarespace. I didn't like Squarespace's site builder either (not saying its bad, I just couldn't get it to do what I wanted), but then found the Google site builder and found it intuitive and capable of what I needed. It should be simple to just make the connection and be done, but that's where everything is hungup.
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I say pee on it and take your domain somewhere else. you can move them easily between providers I believe, just from what I recall looking at Wordpress you can move it to them.

The domain is no good if you can’t do anything with it.
 
Well, good news, I reset everything, did it all over again, came back 2hrs later and it is now working! (Kind of). The issue seems to be with the landing page that either Ionos or Google is generating. It should just be www.pro-tractor.com, but that is somehow sending to pro-tractor.com/defaultsite . If you put in www.pro-tractor.com, that sends you to a 404 landing page on my site and then you can at least navigate to home:
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If you just do pro-tractor.com without the www, it sends you to an Ionos landing page which is a dead end:
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At least things are moving in the right direction now. Maybe its something in the cache on my end, but I'm betting its some old hidden path or redirect on Ionos.
 
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Do you have cname records for am-tractor and www.am-tractor? Might could write a html page that's just a 301 for the default-site page. I think that's part of Google sites' structure.
 
Scratch that, the www url works fine for me. The non-www doesn't resolve. You need a CNAME record for that one, or rewrite with a wildcard.
 
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