Joomla · Joomla Errors

Domain Not working with “www”…

Believe it or not, this is a very common problem.  My client chose to purchase her domain name and webhosting from 2 different companies.  The domain name was purchased from Godaddy and webhosting from Dreamhost, so she had an existing Joomla website before she requested my help.  One of the problems that I noticed, but she wasn’t aware of, was that her domain name was not working if there was a ‘www.’ prefixing her URL.  If I typed in her url without the ‘www’, then I would be directed to her Joomla website, if I prefixed the ‘www’ in front of the URL it brought me to a 404 page not found error.  Here are the steps to fix this if your purchased your domain name from Godaddy.

1.  Login to your Godaddy account.

2.  Click on ‘Domains’, ‘Domain Management’, click on your domain name.

3.  Under ‘Forwarding’, it’s currently set to ‘No’.  Click on ‘Manage’.

4.  The window will say “Forward domain.com to” with a “http:” URL box.

5.  In the box enter your URL with the ‘www’ in front.  eg – http://www.domain.com.

6.  Select Update my DNS settings to support this change. (Recommended)

Godaddy requires about 24 hours to refresh.  You won’t be able to see the changes right away so try to access your website with the ‘www’ prefix tomorrow.   If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.

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