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Connecting to Sonic Domain

Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2020 10:47 am
by dbellnow
Hi, I set up a sonic personal website and registered a new domain name. I added wordpress to the site. Ended up having a friend create the site at Wix and was told I needed to remove wordpress so that Wix could "connect to a domain I already own".
To remove wordpress, I used the sonic tool to remove the web directory and then re create it. (I also turn on the FTP directory?) My website now shows:

"The requested URL / was not found on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request."

Is this to be expected? Can Wix still connect to my domain? They are currently saying "still verifying your domain connection"...

My goal is to have my Sonic website redirected/point/reflect the fully developed Wix page. Is there a simple way to do this myself (instead of relying on Wix connection)?

I'm sure this is all pretty remedial and I really appreciate any help!
Dave

Re: Connecting to Sonic Domain

Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2020 5:08 pm
by joemuller
Hi Dave,

If I understand correctly, your website is going to be hosted at Wix. The easiest way to get everything pointed is to update the DNS records on the Sonic side to point at the appropriate IP address at Wix. They have a guide on how to get the necessary info here.

Once you have the IP address, you can enter it in our Member Tools site. You'll want to change the 'A' record (it is currently set to something like 209.204.175.65) to the IP address that is provided by Wix.

After that's all done, you will still have DNS, email, and Registration of your domain name with Sonic, but it will be pointing at Wix for the web hosting.

-- Joe M
Sonic System Operations

Re: Connecting to Sonic Domain

Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2020 5:37 pm
by dbellnow
Thank you, that is potentially very helpful...

A couple of more questions:
If I update the DNS records at Sonic to point is that same as DNS only hosting with a redirect (to Wix in this case) which Sonic charges $1.95 for? or is it as simple as changing the 'A' record IP address to be the appropriate Wix address?

Also, is it normal for my web address to currently show a "404 not found" error message (after I removed wordpress)?

Does either of these methods allow my existing domain name to remain shown in the browser (e.g. not reveal the redirect)?

Thank you,

Dave

Re: Connecting to Sonic Domain

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 11:45 am
by joemuller
dbellnow wrote: If I update the DNS records at Sonic to point is that same as DNS only hosting with a redirect (to Wix in this case) which Sonic charges $1.95 for? or is it as simple as changing the 'A' record IP address to be the appropriate Wix address?
Sort of. Right now you have Personal Hosting for your website, which is free (aside from the yearly renewal of your domain registration) as long as you have a connectivity service with Sonic (Fusion, IP Broadband, Fiber, etc). So there's no real cost associated with you keeping that service around, even if you're pointing the DNS 'A' record to another provider.

On to the original question - if you're using the same domain name at Wix as you currently have with Sonic, then the 'DNS-only' option is what you'll want. (Or, as I mentioned above, keep the free hosting service and just treat it like DNS-only.)

The DNS + Redirect service is meant for situations where, for instance, you have example.net and example.com, but you just need anyone going to example.net to get automatically redirected to example.com. So, unless you need to direct to a different domain name or page, it's not needed.
Also, is it normal for my web address to currently show a "404 not found" error message (after I removed wordpress)?
Yes, it's entirely normal to get a '404 not found' error page if there's nothing in the hosting directory.
Does either of these methods allow my existing domain name to remain shown in the browser (e.g. not reveal the redirect)?
That usually depends on how your website is set up. For instance, by default, Wordpress will make all links use the 'sitename' setting, so while you may arrive at it using example.net, clicking on any links will result in the browser showing (and using) example.com. Generally, it's best to just settle on one true domain name, then either have everything redirect there using DNS (blind redirect) or DNS + Redirect (can potentially direct users to something like example.com/blog/ instead).

-- Joe M
Sonic System Operations