Difference between domain mapping and forwarding from my domain registar w/maski
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I hope I can ask this in a way that makes sense, but please know in advance that I have already searched help and FAQ pages for the answer.
I registered a domain name (www.randiland.com) with godaddy. I miraculously was able to go there and forward that domain to my wordpress blog. I selected “masking” for the forward service (no idea why or what that means), and voila, when I clicked on http://www.randiland.com, it took me to my wordpress blog. Amazing. And I didn’t do anything here at wordpress to make it happen. But when I googled this blog, the google results showed my address as the wordpress one I registered here. And I still had that W thingie (forget what it’s called) in my URL address.
Curious, I then I tried something else. In my options, I added the doman http://www.randiland.com to my wordpress domains, and then, follwing the directions there, I added those NS1, etc. nameservers to my domain registry. I”m not sure what I accomplished, but it cost me ten bucks, so I’m hoping someone can explain it to me. Since http://www.randiland.com was already “forwarded” to my blog, what exactly did I accomplish, if anything? Will people now see my non-wordpress address if they google me?
Finally, I did notice that the W in the URL address is now the generic blue globe thingie. I thought I read somewhere here that it wasn’t possible to do that. I guess maybe that’s worth the ten bucks.
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What you did for the domain forwarding was make sure everyone that goes to your domain would be forwarded to the wordpress blog with the wordpress.com URL. That works for some people if they want everyone coming to the wordpress.com address. Most people get a domain to not have the wordpress.com URL. When you bought the “domain mapping” you got it so your wordpress.com blog now always uses your domain name. That is worth the $10 for me each year!
You gave yourself the ability to use the domain name you have and still be hosted here.
Trent
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But when I had just done the forwarding, it was already leading me here (wordpress blog) AND it said my non-wordpress address in the URL address bar. So wasn’t I already accomplishing what the $10 does?
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and, sorry, what exactly does “masking” do? I thought masking was the reason my address bar looked like it was at http://www.randiland.com, even before I did the mapping. Again, I hope that makes sense. I’m very much a noob with this stuff.
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There is no “www” in your domain url or in any wordpress.com urls.
this is your domain url http://randiland.com
The words disappeared when you purchased domain mapping were “wordpress.com” and Mark stated what “masking” was. It appears that you are self-hosting your blog on your own server when in truth it is hosted by wordpress.com on their servers. -
IMHO it would be a lot easier to help you if you told us exactly what you want to achieve with your blog oneissue at a time. That way we can give you specific instructions.
On the other hand, if you want to contact, chat and exchange information and opinions with other bloggers then the best place for that is in the off-topic forum. Here’s the link https://en.forums.wordpress.com/forum.php?id=4&page
Cheers :) -
Like many things on the net the domain name system is extremely simple. There is however something about it which seems to be non intuitive. That makes it difficult to grasp for inexperienced users. So how does it work?
Consider a typical new user experience. They log on to a web host to set up a hosting contract. At the same time they register a domain name. Off they go.
But what has really taken place? In the mind of the user the domain name and the hosting have somehow become wedded together. It is not true. Most hosts offer domain name services but when a host registers a domain name and then enters into a hosting agreement he is in fact carrying out two completely separate transactions. One he is registering the domain name. Two he is hosting it for you.So: The simplest way to grasp this is just to understand that your domain name belongs to you. You paid for it:). You have paid wordpress.com to map your domain and provide hosting for it. But you can leave your web host at any time (after 60 days) and you can take your domain name with you.
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timethief, my question’s pretty clear. I wasn’t looking for instructions. I just want to understand what I paid for, and I thought someone could explain. And, as I said, it seemed to me, the wordpress was ALREADY gone from my url address when all I had done was the forwarding at godaddy (prior to paying for and doing mapping). As for www, I type it as a habit. Still gets me there.
Trent, I thank you. You had answered most of my question. If you get a chance, maybe you can answer my follow up. Thanks in advance.
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timethief, I’m not sure who mark is or where he addressed masking. Trent, however, addressed MAPPING.
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One last thing… maybe I didn’t say this. Prior to paying for mapping, when I had ONLY forwarded (and masked) from godaddy, if I typed randiland.com into my address bar, it took me to my wordpress blog but DID NOT say WORDPRESS in the address bar.
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Mark is the wordpress Support Maven (head of support). Most of the FAQs entries are made by him
http://faq.wordpress.com/category/domain-mapping/(1) Q: What is domain mapping?
A: This is where your blog is here at wordpress.com but it looks like it is somewhere else – on another domain.(2) Q: I own domain.com, and want to map a subdomain of that to my WordPress.com blog. Is that possible?
Note: You cannot map only the “www” subdomain since we remove the www from all the URLs at wordpress.com.(3) What you pay for when you have a domain is “hosting services”. For example I have my own domain and I pay A Small Orange to host it.
(4) What you pay a blog host for when you purchase domain mapping is “domain mapping services” to direct all traffic to your domain.
P.S. I’m sorry the quote I provided above was not helpful.
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Would you prefer to put all your details into a support ticket and have Mark answer them for you? If so then support hours are weekdays 9-5PM Pacific time and here’s the link http://wordpress.com/contact-support/
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nah, I just feel kind of bad for asking at this point. But I do understand mapping now. I’m just confused because it seemed like the same thing was already happening with forwarding and maSKing. I think I’ll just run away with my tail between my legs and google for answers.
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I have a domain too. The quote I posted above https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic.php?id=18394&page&replies=13#post-138159 is from my web developer’s post on the subject. He wrote it because people were confused. The bottom line is that you don’t really have to make any big decisions now. If you are going to leave things with your domain as they are currently then you’ve got lots of time to explore and learn and blog. I know it sounds trite but I have learned not to sweat the small things. And, if you are going to research this topic for your own edification then why not turn what you find into a blog post? :)
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What do you know. What I found regarding masking only reinforces that I have been asking a simple, legitimate question:
“Domain masking lets you protect the address of a particular site, while still allowing customers to access the content.
When you just use forwarding, the forwarding address will not appear in the browser’s address field after the forwarding is completed. When you add masking, the forwarding address will always stay in the browser’s address field and hide the real destination’s address. “
So, again, plain and simple – why then does one also need to pay for mapping? My wordpress blog name WAS in fact already disguised just by masking and forwarding from godaddy. If anyone knows the answer, thank you in advance.
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Real Simple:
Users end up on my22cents.wordpress.com – you had this with godaddy. Just because they started with your domain they typed in, it ends up with the URL showed to them as my22cents.wordpress.com
Users end up on http://www.randiland.com – you pay wordpress.com $10/yearIt is really irrelevant what you do, except what address you want traffic and users to go to.
Trent
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thank you for your simple explanation, Trent. I must have been imagining, but I was sure that at least MY screen URL still showed “randiland” when forwarded by godaddy (using masking) to my blog, even before I spent the ten bucks. I guess I’m wrong.
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and now the wordpress logo “W” thingie has returned to the URL bar. Strange, I somehow got rid of it yesterday, and now it’s back. Anybody know why?
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It’s a favicon and is the one standard on wordpress.com blogs. Sometimes I have the “W” and sometimes the standard globe, but most of the time the “W”.
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I guess it was a coincidence then, that it disappeared when I instigated the “masking” and “mapping” together?
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