[Answered] Commercial Use, Multiple Websites/Domains

[toxeia]

I looked through the Wiki, but couldn't find anything directly addressing my questions. Best I can tell it doesn't conflict with the terms of use. I'm about to take over management of a website for a business, and I need to find hosting to move their WordPress page.

 

First, I was trying to figure out if there was any concern about running a website for a business. I'm on Tommy, and the traffic would be minimal. Honestly, the business is dying.

 

Second, is it possible to host multiple websites? I have control of the domain (through 1and1 right now) and will be redirecting it to where ever it is I end up hosting the word press page. Ideally I'd like to copy the WordPress site, make sure it's all working, and then change the A records. If I can make it seamless I won't have to deal with questions from the boss.

[Bailey]

That is possible and would be fine to do though I recommend using the Heliohost DNS rather than A records. And you can have unlimited addon domains and sub-domains.

[wolstech]

Yes you can do this. 

 

The process for a seamless move will look something like this:

• Create a subdomain on your account. Select a new folder as the document root.
• Install the WordPress site on that subdomain. Be sure you update your relocated installation WordPress with the subdomain and path or it won't work (it'll redirect to the real domain). There's guides online for moving WP installs.
• Make any other changes to the site that you wish to make.
• Once working, change your domain's NS records to ns1.heliohost.org and ns2.heliohost.org.
• In cPanel, go to Aliases and add the real domain as an alias of the subdomain created in Step 1.
• Update your WordPress settings again, this time with the real domain name and path. 
• Test.

[toxeia]

Thank you for the quick replies.

 

I was about to ask about the addon domain, since I couldn't make it without changing the NS servers (and I assume making the original page inaccessible in the meantime). I'll follow your suggestions and see how it goes.

[wolstech]

Yeah, the domain add requires that unfortunately.

 

For the interested:

 

The method I listed above is actually the manual equivalent of an addon domain. When you create an "addon domain" in cPanel, the system actually creates a subdomain then adds the domain to it as an alias in the background and just labels the whole thing an Addon domain. If you create the two parts manually, the only difference is that you'll see it on the aliases page instead. Subdomain+Alias on subdomain is functionally identical to an Addon domain, but you have the opportunity to configure the content before bringing the real domain over.

 

The fact the server works this way is also the reason Johnny users sometimes see the famous "The domain X already exists in the Apache configuration." error. That happens when the server creates the alias but not the subdomain, and is also why if you see those topics, that we always tell users to go create the subdomain to fix it.

[toxeia]

I tried to follow your instructions, but i must have messed up somewhere. I did the following, in the order provided:

1. Created subdomain rgvcsb.aepfor.us
2. Installed WordPress to rgvcsb.aepfor.us (/public_html/rgvcsb.com/)
3. Set up WordPress to mirror the original website
4. Changed the NS records from 1&1 to ns1. and ns2.heliohost.org
5. Created the alias rgvcsb.com and pointed it to rgvcsb.aepfor.us.
6. Went to rgvcsb.com and saw it redirected to the WordPress page at rgvcsb.aepfor.us
7. Went into the wp-admin settings and changed the install and website locations to rgvcsb.com.

After that last step, it ended up in a constant loop of redirects between rgvcsb.com and rgvcsb.aepfor.us. I removed all the alias, redirect, and DNS records that were created for rgvcsb.aepfor.us and then went in and used the Addon domain page as I would have originally. Right now browsing to rgvcsb.com shows a landing page stating my account hasn't been created yet. I logged in using my existing cpanel credentials. If I enter the URL for the admin page I can access that though.

 

So at this point I think I just need to wait for the account to pass through the system?

[wolstech]

Try clearing your cache. If the admin page works, it's done being set up and you're seeing stale browser cache.

[toxeia]

The web hosting equivalent of "did you reboot?" Thanks so much for all the help wolstech. It's up and running.

 

Curious if you can tell what it was I had done wrong from the steps I presented above.

 

Oh, and [Answered]!

Edited April 10, 2018 by toxeia

[wolstech]

My first step in troubleshooting it would've been to flush the DNS cache and rename the index.php and .htaccess file. 99% of the time that fixes it (it's usually either stale DNS or misconfigured software that causes those loops).