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Mapping a bravenet.com domain to wordpress - getting peeved here

  1. niralle
    Member

    Hi, there. I'm trying to figure out how to correctly map the domain name I have on bravenet.com to wordpress.com. I've paid the $13 mapping fee, but to be frank, this isn't the most user-friendly setup you've got here. I know basic html code, and this is talking about DNS managment--I have no idea what this is.

    The instructions talk about updating my domain's name server on bravenet.com; what is that? On the "edit DNS" on my dashboard, there's just this big textblock for me to enter data--why don't you have a form set up where you can put in the individual pieces--MX, TXT, CNAME, SRV, etc--so users aren't scratching their heads, trying to figure out what should go where? And what am I supposed to do if my TXT records are over the character limit? The support page gives this summarized "create a CNAME on an alternate domain"...what the heck does that even mean??? There's no addition instructions, there's no link to a page that explains what to do...where is the support page for this???

    This whole process has become extremely frustrating, and this coming from someone who used to build websites on notepad before Dreamweaver and other web-building programs became available.

    I have read the your "Custom DNS" page and your "Map an Existing Domain" page several times, and it's just left me shaking my head. Can you please stop pretending I'm a programmer, and just dumb this down for me? Step-by-step, just tell me what to do, what to type and where to put it. Thank you.

    The blog I need help with is erinjensen.wordpress.com.

  2. niralle
    Member

    By the way, I don't need help with erinjensen.wordpress.com; that's another blog. I need help with erinjensendotcom.wordpress.com; that's the homepage you gave me because I wanted to make something that was custom.

  3. auxclass
    Member

    The basic domain mapping is straight forward - buy the domain mapping and use the instructions you found for an existing domain name and then change the name servers

    http://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/map-existing-domain/

    Custom DNS - MX and such are not needed for the basic domain mapping - that is only used if you have email on another system you want to use -

    what is the domain name you are trying to map? What is the blog at WordPress.COM you want to map the domain name to?

  4. niralle
    Member

    Thank you for the swift response. I do not use any email on bravenet.com, so I don't need that, but my problem isn't with the MX, it's the TXT--it's a mile long on bravenet, and the instructions on the "mapping an existing domain" don't clearly explain what to do if this happens. Don't I need the TXT?

    Thank you for the link, but I have already read through that.

    Currently, the site is listed under the wordpress site: http://www.erinjensendotcom.wordpress.com, (that's what WordPress gave it), but the custom website I want to map to is: http://www.erin-jensen.com.

    I did get the wordpress nameservers inputted into the bravenet.com site, but the other steps...I'm lost. What am I supposed to do about the TXT for the domain mapping? It's over 192 characters--I have no idea why--it just repeats the IP address a dozen times over, but I don't know what (if anything) I can cut from it to make it fit.

  5. niralle
    Member

    Okay, this is weird--the link on here to http://www.erin-jensen.com makes it go to my site, which is great, but when I type it in manually into the browser's address bar, it goes to bravenet.com and says the site is not configured. So confusing!

  6. auxclass
    Member

    Looks like things are going in the right direction - but it can take 24 to 72 hours for changes to reach the far corners of the internet - during that time getting to your site will be erratic as you never use the same route twice between you and your site - internet routes are changed constantly based on where traffic is heavy and light to balance the load - think of it like an infinite number of ways to get home all high speed roads - changes usually start after a few hours

    It looks like you need to update your primary domain

    http://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/#setting-the-primary-domain

    You also should not need the TXT records - did someone suggest you add them? If so what was their reason? You should not need any extra records

    Clicking on http://www.erin-jensen.com/ sends me to http://erinjensendotcom.wordpress.com/ - however please note that there are no "www" in any WordPress.COM address - it is an antique - http://erin-jensen.com/ - is the address to give people

    See the setting the primary blog for http://erin-jensen.com/ to be displayed in a browser window when you visit the site

    Note also that you will do all your writing and such on the base blog address http://erinjensendotcom.wordpress.com/

  7. niralle
    Member

    Thank you so much for your help. The page is not coming up for me right now, but like you said, it'll probably take a day or so before it's working correctly. And I just updated my primary domain to erin-jensen.com.

    See, this is where all the confusion started--on the domain page in my dashboard, there is a place to manage my DNS, but no link for the nameserver in that block, so when I first tried this, I believed the way I mapped my domain was through the DNS. It mentions the nameserver above the domains, but since there's no link by the domain name, I thought the nameserver and DNS were the same.

    Okay, if all I needed to do was update the nameserver on bravenet.com, then that's done and I'll leave the DNS stuff alone. Thank you so much for your help--I was about ready to rip my hair out.

  8. auxclass
    Member

    http://erin-jensen.com/ now shows in the browser address when I click on it

    yes the name servers can only be changed at the Registrar -

    Looks like things are working - just need a bit more time for the changes to migrate across the internet

    You be welcome

    Patience Grasshopper

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