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Quick question about hostgator

by Drake Kerrigan
12 replies
I know many of you use hostgator, so I'm hoping you can help me. I just signed up, purchased another domain and transfered the DNS to hostgator. Through cpanel I set up an addon domain, xxxxx.com. At the moment the DNS is not propagated so I can't test, but the question is this:

If the addon domain is listed as xxxxx.com, will both xxxxx.com and www.xxxxx.com work, or do I need to set up a second for the www?

Also, for any who use namecheap and hostgator, what's the average amount of time it takes for the dns to actually propagate?
#hostgator #question #quick
  • Profile picture of the author Marketing Cheetah
    both x.com and www.x.com will work
    for me it takes 48 hours

    a small trick which works every time for me is that to change the dns first at namecheap, wait for 10 minutes and then add domain at hostgator. no need to wait 48 hours then. it works only if you just registered the domain and immediately updated the dns
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    • Profile picture of the author Drake Kerrigan
      Originally Posted by jugroo View Post

      both x.com and www.x.com will work
      for me it takes 48 hours

      a small trick which works every time for me is that to change the dns first at namecheap, wait for 10 minutes and then add domain at hostgator. no need to wait 48 hours then. it works only if you just registered the domain and immediately updated the dns
      Thanks for the answer. I did it slightly backwards. Got the domain, set up hostgator, then changed DNS. The sad thing is I can't really do much with it until it propagates. I can access it via http://ip/~domain but I just get text only because the theme stuff it trying to pull from the domain, which of course isn't working yet lol.

      Hurry up and wait, looks like
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      • Profile picture of the author paulie888
        Originally Posted by Drake Kerrigan View Post

        Thanks for the answer. I did it slightly backwards. Got the domain, set up hostgator, then changed DNS. The sad thing is I can't really do much with it until it propagates. I can access it via http://ip/~domain but I just get text only because the theme stuff it trying to pull from the domain, which of course isn't working yet lol.

        Hurry up and wait, looks like
        The nice thing about many domain registrars I've encountered is that they let you change the DNS right on the pre-checkout page as you're purchasing the domain, so keep your Hostgator DNS settings handy when you're purchasing domains, as this will eliminate the need to log in to your registrar site again to change the DNS later on.

        Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    Both should work fine however in saying that, why would you want both? For SEO purposes you should choose the one you want to stick with and then edit your htaccess folder so that the one you are not using redirects to the other. I have heard that Google treats them as two different versions, whether that is true or not is another thing.

    I use Hostgator and another third party company for my domains. My domains are usually available within minutes after adding them as an addon domain. The delay is with your domain company, not hostgator. You can add your new domain to hostgator whenever you want but whether or not it shows will depend on if the DNS records at your domain registrar have created/updated.
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    • Profile picture of the author Drake Kerrigan
      Originally Posted by WillR View Post

      Both should work fine however in saying that, why would you want both? For SEO purposes you should choose the one you want to stick with and then edit your htaccess folder so that the one you are not using redirects to the other. I have heard that Google treats them as two different versions, whether that is true or not is another thing.

      I use Hostgator and another third party company for my domains. My domains are usually available within minutes after adding them as an addon domain. The delay is with your domain company, not hostgator. You can add your new domain to hostgator whenever you want but whether or not it shows will depend on if the DNS records at your domain registrar have created/updated.
      I understand that the delay is on Namecheap's end. That's why I asked about people who used both for their average. Namecheap says allow up to 24 hours but my last domain (which I currently self-host) was live within minutes *shrug*

      As far as google treating them separately, I didn't know that. I'll look into it and adjust accordingly. Thanks for the tip. I assume that one wouldn't necessarily be better than the other?
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      • Profile picture of the author Marketing Cheetah
        Originally Posted by Drake Kerrigan View Post

        I understand that the delay is on Namecheap's end. That's why I asked about people who used both for their average. Namecheap says allow up to 24 hours but my last domain (which I currently self-host) was live within minutes *shrug*

        As far as google treating them separately, I didn't know that. I'll look into it and adjust accordingly. Thanks for the tip. I assume that one wouldn't necessarily be better than the other?
        If you are using Wordpress, then do it the easy way. Go to "Settings" in your wp admin and change your domain from http://x.com to http://www.x.com. Wordpress will automatically redirect your traffic of x.com to www.x.com.
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        • Profile picture of the author WillR
          Originally Posted by jugroo View Post

          If you are using Wordpress, then do it the easy way. Go to "Settings" in your wp admin and change your domain from http://x.com to http://www.x.com. Wordpress will automatically redirect your traffic of x.com to www.x.com.
          That's what I do for my Wordpress sites. But for static sites you will need to use the htaccess file.
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          • Profile picture of the author Drake Kerrigan
            Originally Posted by WillR View Post

            That's what I do for my Wordpress sites. But for static sites you will need to use the htaccess file.
            Guess I forgot to mention that I will be using wordpress lol.

            Another question. When I'm looking at my domains in hostgator I see three domains: domain1, domain2, and domain2.domain1.com. is that normal?
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            • Profile picture of the author WillR
              Originally Posted by Drake Kerrigan View Post

              Guess I forgot to mention that I will be using wordpress lol.

              Another question. When I'm looking at my domains in hostgator I see three domains: domain1, domain2, and domain2.domain1.com. is that normal?
              Yes, you are using addon domains right. So domain 1 would be the root domain for your account and then domain 2 would be the domain added correct?

              So you are seeing something like this: addondomain.rootdomain.com
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              • Profile picture of the author Drake Kerrigan
                Originally Posted by WillR View Post

                Yes, you are using addon domains right. So domain 1 would be the root domain for your account and then domain 2 would be the domain added correct?

                So you are seeing something like this: addondomain.rootdomain.com
                Yes, that is correct.
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            • Profile picture of the author SageSound
              Originally Posted by Drake Kerrigan View Post

              Guess I forgot to mention that I will be using wordpress lol.

              Another question. When I'm looking at my domains in hostgator I see three domains: domain1, domain2, and domain2.domain1.com. is that normal?
              Wordpress has nothing to do with your DNS question.

              Addon hosting is implemented in cPanel as a "trick" that's coordinated between their DNS nameservers and Apache (the web server).

              The DNS hosts map multiple addon domains into a single account's file system, but Apache thinks they're actually subdomains. And they are! You can access addon domains both ways.
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  • Profile picture of the author SageSound
    Originally Posted by Drake Kerrigan View Post

    Also, for any who use namecheap and hostgator, what's the average amount of time it takes for the dns to actually propagate?
    For a NEW domain name, about 10 seconds; but I usually give it a minute or two.

    For EXISTING domain names ... allow up to 72 hours, although it can happen much faster. Personally, I change the DNS back to Namecheap's server first, then change it to HG's DNS server settings. Then don't touch anything for an hour or so. Most of the time, I can access the domain's home page at that point. If a parking page comes up, wait 24 hours and try again.

    (Most DNS TTLs are set to 86400 seconds, or 24 hours.)

    Originally Posted by Drake Kerrigan View Post

    I understand that the delay is on Namecheap's end.
    Actually, it's not. The problem is neither Namecheap nor HG. It's the cached DNS settings at your ISP. The "propagation time" is how long it takes for OTHER DNS hosts between the registrar and the host to flush their caches and refresh from the DNS registrar. DNS is a highly distributed database, and it does not have "write-thru caching" -- meaning you have to wait until the cache expires before it will even check for updates.

    You can see this very easily if a parking page shows up after changing the DNS settings at your registrar. Simply pack up your laptop and head over to a nearby coffee shop with WiFi and pull your page up there. Assuming it's a different ISP than what you've got at home, and you haven't tried to pull up that page in the past day or so from there, the proper page should come right up.

    Or use a proxy to access it.

    -David
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