DNS Settings for Digital Ocean Droplet - Root Domain?

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In a discussion titled “DNS Settings for Digital Ocean Droplet - Root Domain?” under the Installation category, BCHK sought help configuring DNS so that the bare domain (e.g., rapamycin.news) resolves properly, as only the www subdomain was working. IAmGav advised adding an A record for the root domain pointing to the droplet’s IP, noting that the existing CNAME record for the root domain should be removed first. BCHK followed this advice and confirmed the changes were live after IAmGav shared a screenshot. However, BCHK initially still saw an error in Chrome, which IAmGav resolved by suggesting to clear the browser cache — a fix that worked BCHK confirmed. JammyDodger and pfaffman offered additional advice, including setting up Let’s Encrypt certificates for non-www domains or using forcewww.com for redirection. BCHK concluded that pointing both www and root domains to the same IP is sufficient for now, given infrequent IP changes. The issue was resolved via DNS record adjustment and cache clearing.

1

This isn’t a Discourse issue per se, but perhaps people who have set up digital ocean droplets can comment.

I’m trying to get the basic domain to resolve properly. The “www” domain is fine and has been operating for the past 4 months - but then I recently noticed that the bare “rapa…news” domain is not resolving.

Here is what my settings look like right now. What do I need to do to get the bare domain (sans www) to resolve properly?

The settings as they are configured fight now - are not working…

Any help greatly appreciated!

Screen Shot 2022-02-20 at 1.49.11 PM
Screen Shot 2022-02-20 at 1.49.11 PM1920×1140 116 KB

2

You need to setup an A record for rapamycin.news as well, pointing to the IP address

3

Do I delete that Name record (rapamycin.news to www.rapamycin.news) that doesn’t seem to be doing anything?

4

Ah - I couldn’t add the new A record without first deleting that CNAME record. Thanks - I hope it works! Will update in a few hours.

5

the changes are live

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image768×718 38 KB

6

Why don’t I get it when I try to access the site via my chrome browser - this is what I see:

Screen Shot 2022-02-20 at 2.21.48 PM
Screen Shot 2022-02-20 at 2.21.48 PM1858×1112 92 KB

7

clear your browser cache

8

If clearing your browser cache doesn’t work, it may be because you need a letsencrypt certificate to cover the non-www version.

There’s a bit of info on how to do that in this topic:

Or I think you can use something like this instead:

9

Clearing the browser worked! Thanks so much. Problem solved!

10

The easy solution is forcewww.com.

A harder solution is Setting up Let’s Encrypt with Multiple Domains.

11

Thanks Jay. Having them both pointing to the same IP address seems fine for now. I don’t anticipate the IP address changing very often, and can easily update both records when I need to.