How to configure DNS for a domain that should redirect to a Netlify site?

Support
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1

I have two domains, registered through hover.com. Let’s call them
domain_one.org
domain_two.wtf

In the past, domain_one.org was pointed at a netlify site. https://domain_one.org worked.
I set up domain_two.wtf to forward to domain_one.org. I suppose this was http only? I will never know now.

Now I have reversed the roles of the domains.
domain_two.wtf has become primary and is pointed at my netlify site. https works.
domain_one.org is configured to forward to domain_two.wtf, in hover.com’s dashboard.

Problem: https://domain_one.org is NOT forwarding (note “s” in httpS).
Hover says this cannot work, as they only provide 302 redirects.

But due to the previous setup, many people have bookmarked https://domain_one.org. So I want that to redirect for both https and http.

Hover says I can configure domain_one.org for DNS redirect, but that I have to get details from Netlify:

“You would have to update DNS to map the domain to the website instead of forwarding. The website host will have to provide you with the required DNS”

“The website host will let you know which DNS records to update. They might say name servers if they want zone file to be managed by them or they might say A records or a CNAME”

I can’t find any specifics in Netlify’s documentation about how to do this. I can’t use a _redirects file, which all I can find documentation on.

Thanks for any help!

2

Hi Jenny,

You’ll want to make sure the DNS actually points directly to us for all names in question. That will mean A and CNAME records, not some “web alias” or “domain forwarding”. Once that is the case, the domain settings screen will show that DNS configuration is correct, like this:

image
image.png843×725 45.4 KB

In that example, all of the hostnames except the last one are correctly configured.

Once this is the case, you can renew the SSL certificate and it should work for all names, and they should all forward to https.

Before it is the case, yes, redirection is not expected to work correctly.

Hopefully that helps out!

3

I ended up creating a dummy Netlify site for domain_one.org that consists solely of a “hello world” index.html file and a one-line _redirects file of this form:

/*    domain_two.wtf/:splat 301!

On hover.com, I configured the domain to use the Netlify name servers and otherwise am letting Netlify handle DNS for the dummy site. This appears to be doing exactly what I want. I understand there may be some other or better way, but this is the one I got working.

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