[Solved] Question regarding my main daskunk.heliohost.org domain

[daskunk]

I'm wondering if this is possible  I have my entire web site running on Heliohost and don't want to move or relocate anything. It's currently accessed under the https://daskunk.heliohost.org/ domain. I recently received a gift of a Squarespace domain name. I would like to use the new Squarespace https://www.daskunkworkspbc.com domain name as the access URL for my users instead of https://daskunk.heliohost.org/.   But I still want them steered to Heliohost and for all of my content to remain in my existing account. This is an absolutely wonderful hosting service. Is there a way to do that?  (PS The Squarespace domain does have a corresponding SSL certificate)

Thank you so much.

[wolstech]

Does the squarespace domain support changing name servers? If so, we can change your main domain or add it as an alias domain.

[MoneyBroz]

It seems like it's supported.

https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/4404183898125-Nameservers-and-DNSSEC-for-Squarespace-managed-domains

[daskunk]

It allows me to add custom name servers so I added the two Heliohost name servers. If you add it as an alias does that mean the original URL would still work as always but users would have the option of using the new alias?
 

Edited December 29, 2023 by daskunk

[wolstech]

Correct. An alias would make both domains show the same content. Now, if your site's software is coded to redirect to one domain or the other, it may switch domains upon visiting (Wordpress will do this for example), but that can be fixed by changing the domain in the software settings.

[wolstech]

The domain has been added but can take up to 2 hours to start working.

[daskunk]

Thank you. The alias sounds like a great solution as it would allow my users to change URLs at their convenience. I'm trying not to disrupt the service. Would it be possible to set up the alias?

[wolstech]

Done  Just got to wait the 2 hours for it to finish activating.

[daskunk]

Thank you so much, really appreciate it.

[daskunk]

I tried the new domain and got this SSL error. I probably should have asked earlier but how does the SSL certs work when you have an alias domain along with the original domain? I know you auto generate SSL certs for the heliohost domains and supposedly according to my Squarespace login I have a valid SSL cert for www.daskunkworkspbc.com but somehow it looks like it's trying to use the heliohost SSL when I try to access www.daskunkworkspbc.com directly. Is there something I need to do?

Websites prove their identity via certificates. Firefox does not trust this site because it uses a certificate that is not valid for www.daskunkworkspbc.com. The certificate is only valid for daskunk.heliohost.org.
 
Error code: SSL_ERROR_BAD_CERT_DOMAIN

[daskunk]

Also, I proceeded through the SSL cert warning to see if I could access my main web page and I got a Plesk Screen. So I logged into my Plesk Account and I see the new alias domain now but it doesn't have the Files & Databases section. However, I noticed it allows you to an HTTP 301 redirect to the main domain (which sounds like what I want) but when I tried to activate it, I got a permission denied message. Is it possible to set it up so when a user goes to www.daskunkworkspbc.com it automatically takes them to daskunk.heliohost.org/pbc/index.html ??   Thank you again for all the help.

[wolstech]

You have to regenerate the certificate in Plesk once the domain becomes active so it can validate the domain. I just did that for you, but I've attached a picture of where the option for the alias is for the future if you need to reissue your certificate. 

It will take up to 2 hours for the SSL to start working properly now that it has a certificate.

Aliases do not have files/databases since they share content with the site they're an alias of. Since this is an alias of http://daskunk.heliohost.org/, you need to manage the website under that domain. This is by design. Simply edit the content of the daskunk.heliohost.org and the alias's content will update automatically since they're the same website. 

You do not want that redirect option enabled (I actually turned it off for you when I added the domain) because it will cause your domain to automatically be replaced in the user's address bar with http://daskunk.heliohost.org/ which I doubt you want.

[daskunk]

Thank you again for all the help and for the clarification on the HTTP 301 redirect.  What you explained is the behavior I'm looking for. I did just try it out again (bypassing the invalid SSL warning) and it did properly navigate to my index.html web page  I'll try again in 3 hours to make sure the SSL warning is gone. Thank you so very much.

[daskunk]

4 hours ago, MoneyBroz said:

It seems like it's supported.

https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/4404183898125-Nameservers-and-DNSSEC-for-Squarespace-managed-domains

Thank you for pointing me to this info. It was very helpful.