Common questions about domains

In this article, we have gathered the most common questions and issues about domains.

Basic Knowledge
Duration of domain verification
Common Issues with domains
The subdomain does not work
SSL not working
Special character domains (IDN)

Basic Knowledge

There are various reasons why a domain doesn't work and for each situation, there are different ways to troubleshoot. Please check this article if you are facing any challenges with your domain. If you do not find a solution to your issue, let us know and contact us viamail! Please always be as specific as possible, provide us with the Website ID, and, if necessary, also with a screenshot.

We offer you various possibilities to work with domains. You are able to

register the domain directly with us,
transfer the domain to us, or
connect the domain from another provider to your website.

Many domain owners or persons/companies who want to register a domain do not know that in many cases there are blocking periods for some domain endings. In this article, you will find more information about special domain restrictions and blocking periods.

Here are some common terms that you will probably encounter when managing your domains with Sitejet.

A Record - An A record refers a domain or subdomain to an IP address. If you connect a third-party domain to your website, two A records are required. You can find more information on this in our article about connecting a third-party domain.
CNAME Record - CNAME records specify that one domain name is an alias for another.
DNS - DNS translates readable domain names into IP addresses. If you are using an external domain with Sitejet, you will need to change the DNS settings in the account of the domain provider.
IP address - Your IP address is a unique string of numbers that uniquely identifies your device or server on the internet. Because numbers are hard to remember, domains are used. DNS servers or name servers are required so that browsers can convert these domains back to IP addresses.
Main domain - Your main domain is the domain you use as your primary domain if you have multiple domains for the same site. All other domains redirect to this domain. If, for example, you use the domains "your-main-domain.com" and "your-other-domain.com" for the same website, one of these domains will be set as the main domain; the other domain will redirect to this domain after being called. This is important for search engine optimization, among other things. You can switch the main domain at any time.
Subdomain - A prefix of your domain name that redirects to certain pages of your website. For example, the domains help.sitejet.io and partner.sitejet.io are subdomains of sitejet.io.
TLD - Also known as a domain extension. A TLD (Top Level Domain) is the most general part of a domain name in an internet address. The TLD always follows the last dot of a URL. The extensions .com, .org, and .net, for example, are TLDs. However, there are also TLDs that are split in two, e.g. .co.uk.
Who.is - A public directory of Internet records that provides information about all registered domains, including the contact information of the owner, availability, and the registrar.
SSL: The SSL certificate is a digital record that adds authenticity to your website on the web. When installed on a web server, it activates the security lock and https protocol and enables secure connections from a web server to a browser. An SSL certificate is an absolute standard on the World Wide Web.
Nameserver: A nameserver is a specialized server that tells a browser which website to go to when your domain name is typed into the address bar. If you have purchased a domain from a third-party provider, you should keep the default settings of your provider for your name servers.

Duration of a domain verification

When you register a new domain with us, in most cases have to verify that you are the correct domain holder and owner of the domain. The registration can only complete with this verification. This usually happens directly after you have purchased the domain with us. You will be sent a verification mail to the mail address you have added. The verification process normally takes about 30 minutes. In some cases, it can take 24 to 72 hours.

If you do not verify your domain within 14 days after registration it gets suspended and you will not be able to use it.

Common issues with domains

Warning: No matter, what you do, please do not delete or change any of the nameserver values, unless you know what you do! The same applies to your domain with a third-party provider. This could result in breaking the domain. If you are unsure about the DNS settings changes, please contact us directly via mail with the website ID, domain name, and the situation you like to solve.

Domain Registration with Sitejet

You have registered the domain with Sitejet and published it, but the website is not online or not showing the latest version? Let's go through the most common issues why that might be:

Please wait 24 hours after the registration. This will give the servers time to process.
Newly registered domains have to be verified! For this, the domain owner will get a verification mail from the ICANN. Check the spam folder as well (!) If you have not received a validation mail within 24 hours after registration, please let us know!
Have you really published the website already and activated the SSL certificate? Note that this could take a few minutes to take effect. The certification might take up to 48 hours!
Please clear your browser cache completely when you still see the old website!
Are you able to access the DNS settings? If not, please contact us via mail and provide us with the domain name and the website ID. Please also let us know if you received a verification mail from ICANN.
Are the DNS settings set up correctly? Check again! Access the DNS settings and check if you have set the A record and the CNAME as described in this article. If not, please add the values and reload the website. Please be aware that changes can take a few minutes.
Are there existing AAAA records? Remove them.
If your domain is "your-website.com", you should write "@", "www" or nothing in the name field rather than the full domain name ("www.your-website.com").
Are there several A records listed that point to different servers/IP addresses? Please delete all entries that do not point to the two IP addresses listed here. If you are unsure, please contact us!

Domain transferred to Sitejet

You have transferred a domain to Sitejet, but the domain still shows the old website or an error?

Please wait 24 hours after the transfer. This will give the servers time to process.
In rare cases and with certain TLDs, a domain transfer might take longer than a few minutes. This depends on the domain provider you are transferring the domain from and the type of domain. If you like to make sure that the transfer went through, please contact us via mail stating the domain name.
Have you really published the website and activated the SSL certificate? Note that this could take a few minutes to take effect. The certification might take up to 48 hours!
Please clear your browser cache completely when you still see the old website!
Are you able to access the DNS settings? If not, please contact us via mail and provide us with the domain name and the Website ID. Please also let us know if you received a verification mail by the ICANN.
Are the DNS settings set up correctly? Check again! Access the DNS settings and check if you have set the A record and the CNAME as described in this article. If not, please add the values and reload the website. Please be aware that changes can take a few minutes.
Are there existing AAAA records? Remove them.
If your domain is "your-website.com", you should write "@", "www" or nothing into the name field rather than the full domain name ("www.your-website.com").
Are there several A records listed that point to different servers/IP addresses. Please delete all entries that do not point to the two IP addresses listed here. If you are unsure, please contact us!

Third-Party domain connected with Sitejet

You have a third-party domain and like to point it to Sitejet, but the website is not online or does not show the latest version?

Please be aware that our support with a domain hosted with an external provider is very limited. Before you contact us, please get in touch with the support from the provider. Thank you!

Please wait 24 hours after the connection. This will give the servers time to process.
Have you already published the website and activated the SSL certificate? Note that this could take a few minutes to take effect. The certification might take up to 48 hours!
Please clear your browser cache completely when you still see the old website!
Are the DNS settings set up correctly? Check again! Access the DNS settings and check if you have set the A record and the CNAME as described in this article. If not, please add the values and reload the website. Please be aware that changes can take a few minutes.
Please check again if there are still old A records and CNAMEs present.
If you set up all records correctly, but the forwarding does not work, please keep in mind that it can take up to 24 hours for changes to take effect.

The subdomain does not work

If you have set up a subdomain, please check the DNS settings first and afterwards the setup in the website builder. For more information on how to set up a subdomain, see our article.

SSL is not working

Here are some common issues that might explain why your SSL certificate is currently not available:

Incorrect DNS settings: If you used incorrect DNS settings the SSL certificate will not be activated. Please check the settings and wait 24 hours.
Changes in the DNS settings: If you made changes to the DNS settings of a domain in the meantime it might take up to 24 hours until the SSL certificate is up and running again.
More than one SSL certificate activated: If you host your domain with another provider please check if SSL is activated there as well and if so, please deactivate it and wait for 24 hours.

If you checked these common issues with SSL certificates and waited for 24 hours without any positive results please contact our support team via email.

Special character domains (IDN)

Special character domains (IDNs) are not supported by DNS. That is why they need to be converted into a worldwide uniformly know form called ASCII. With Sitejet you don't need to convert the special domain yourself, but simply add it to the search field with diacritical signs and Sitejet will automatically convert them for you into the so-called "Punycode". If you like you can see how a domain with diacritical signs looks like when it's converted you can do so with this punycode converter (or IDN converter).

Although the converted version of the domain looks different you can still use the special character domains to search for them in the browser.

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