Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Domain Names : domain must have www?

[jonniejoejonson]

I have a domain... mydomain.com

If you type in the browsers address bar...
www.mydomain.com the site loads fine...
however if you simply type
mydomain.com the site doens't load.

This is strange becuase i have the domain set up the exact same way i have all my other domains, and it is pointing to the same server as all my other domains, any idea why i am having to type the www for this domain and not the others?
Kind regards J

[FrankLaszlo]

Have you done any troubleshooting? Does the domain resolve properly? Have you tried using dig against the authoritive DNS servers to see if they are responding properly? Is it a redirect loop?

[Brian-de-vie]

Have you set A(address) records for both 'www' & '@ (none)'

What domain reg. & cPanel are you using ?

[esupports]

Best Practice to use A record for domain and put www as CNAME to domain.com. You can use the following link http://intodns.com/domain_name to check the complete dns status of your domains.

[VIPoint]

You need to add DNS record for the domain with and without WWW. If you are using cPanel server, check your /var/named/domain.db file, It should have A(address) records for both 'www' & '@ (none)'.

Also try telnet <domainname> 80 and telnet www.domainname 80 from your server and see if there is a difference in the ip.

[TryteComputing]

In some control panels you are required to enable a "Allow WWW Prefix" option, I would look for that if all of the above fail.

[warrichpk]

you may use Redirect 301 for this

[jonniejoejonson]

Thankyou all for the responses, but i am a bit of a newbie...
I have registered the domain with a company that does not allow total dns.
I have changed the domains nameservers to my websites hosting company.
I have parked the domain on my server.
This is how i have set up all my domains but this one is the only one i have problems with...
I have also noticed that if you click refresh in the browser window after it has attempted and failed to connect that it then loads.

[Vinayak_Sharma]

It could be a NS change propagation issue.

have you informed your hosting provider to look into it?

[warrichpk]

Originally Posted by jonniejoejonson

Thankyou all for the responses, but i am a bit of a newbie...
I have registered the domain with a company that does not allow total dns.
I have changed the domains nameservers to my websites hosting company.
I have parked the domain on my server.
This is how i have set up all my domains but this one is the only one i have problems with...
I have also noticed that if you click refresh in the browser window after it has attempted and failed to connect that it then loads.

so its working fine now?

[repertoire]

You dont always need to add '@', as the prefix, that might not work or might be a wildcard.

You can sometimes leave it blank and just add the IP or servername (if its a C-Name record)

[WRZHost[dot]com]

setup a *.yourdomain record that will resolve the problem

[domainandhost]

Its also possible that it could be due to spy ware issues in your system. I once unknowingly downloaded a toolbar and whenever I typed a domain without "WWW", the page wouldn't load or it used to redirect me to the toolbar's search page

[energizedit]

The last reply is a good suggestion... Have you tried loading it from another computer? What about a different browser? These will eliminate a local software issue.

Mark

[treynolds]

Generally you will need to either leave the field blank or add * or @ in the A record field.

It may be worth checking the IP to ensure it is correct.

As suggested above it is also worth checking this from a different location to make sure it is not a local issue.