Built website on ip and then added domain later - How to make domain not ip?

6 replies
Hi all, I built a website on the ip before I had the domain. Then I pointed the domain toward my server. However, the site is now displaying as (IP address.com/article) and not (domainname.com/article).
My question is, how do i change it to be domainname.com/articles? My server is cPanel.

Thanks
#added #built #domain #make #website
  • Profile picture of the author 512jay
    Well if I understand your question you are trying to host your website on your personal computer.
    Easy answer: get a web host there are free ones
    Hard: Check to ensure that your home PC has a static IP address from your internet service provider. Setup a DMZ zone inside of the router that your computer is connected so that incoming requests go to the correct place. Configure your DNS to point to your static IP.
    Signature

    Jay has a website www.tidyneat.com where he puts stuff sometimes.

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  • Profile picture of the author lordspace
    you can check dyn.com . they used to have a service that you can use e.g.
    user.homeip.net and you have to have an app running which will make sure dyn.com's servers have your latest IP address and will update user.homeip.net accordingly.
    Signature

    Are you using WordPress? Have you tried qSandbox yet?

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  • Profile picture of the author mywebwork
    Is this WordPress? If so there is another issue, the IP address is now being recorded in the database and will need to be edited.

    But if it's not WordPress it's not an issue, so I won't bother giving instructions until I know the answer!

    Bill
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  • Profile picture of the author JayBansal
    If you want to check DNS resolution immediately then you should setup your host file otherwise you will need to remain calm for atlest 48 hours before all the nameservers are updated.

    Hostfile Location:

    Windows: c:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
    Linux: /etc/hosts

    These files must be used only in local debugging environment. If your server is live then you must check your public DNS Server.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mkj
    Originally Posted by ps2home View Post

    Hi all, I built a website on the ip before I had the domain. Then I pointed the domain toward my server. However, the site is now displaying as (IP address.com/article) and not (domainname.com/article).
    My question is, how do i change it to be domainname.com/articles? My server is cPanel.

    Thanks
    I have carried this out loads of times. It can get complicated when you are using a cms say like wordpress but other packages can be similar.

    If your site displays the ip address and not the new domain name on first load (once the domain has propagated) then look to the htaccess file. If that is all that is wrong then ok if not read on.

    When I purchase a new domain for instance it becomes active instantly off my domain provider but if I point that to a site say where I have moved everything over from another directory on my server along with a copy of the database it was using in loads of cases the site will still display the old domain settings on lots of links.

    As has been mentioned these settings are stored in the database mainly, though cache directories might need emptying too along with config or setup files altering.

    How I get around the database problem is to download it and then carry out a search and replace for the old domain (ip in your case) with new domain name (resaving it as another name and keeping the original safe). In packages like wordpress there can be loads of these especially if you have installed a lot of plugins. Once I alter it I will upload it again thereby removing all instances of the old domain setup.

    Some wordpress plugins will also need checking as these can create their own settings files, especially ones to do with redirecting.
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