Hi, it’s not a blocker at all, so no priority for me, but I have a DNS redirect for https://discord.juno.build that used to work. So, I wrote to Namecheap’s support to ask why my DNS entry ‘URL Redirect Record’ does not work anymore, and they answered as follows:
From what we have checked, there are CNAMEs added for the bare domain juno.build and it affects the operation of the domain’s MX and other host records. You may update the type to ALIAS for the records pointing to ic0.app and icp1.io. This type is used to point one domain name to another one, almost the same as CNAME. But the important difference here is that ALIAS can coexist with other records on that name. Please also make sure both records are required by the service provider and that they would not conflict with each other.
Is it correct that I can use ALIAS for the custom domain instead of CNAME?
If not, did anything change in the BN that would lead to this redirect not working anymore? I am almost certain it used to work, but it might have only worked for a while and then been down for a long time.
Again, no big deal. It’s just handy to have a redirect because it looks better than shorturls in communication materials.
Hey just a question about this issue, did you not use ALIAS (record maps a name to another name, but can coexist with other records on that name) at all before ?
Working on a tutorial with custom domains for the IC and stuck with Cloudflare Registrar, and looking at the “DNS configuration guide | Internet Computer” I always assumed that one would use it as default ? Maybe this changed lately ?
In the boundary nodes nothing has changed and I am a bit surprised that a record for one domain would have an influence on another subdomain.
You can use an ALIAS instead of the CNAME. In the DNS standard, CNAMEs actually do not exist for apex domains. Different providers implemented their own version and call it ALIAS, ANAME or CNAME. All of them work.
In many cases, it is not possible to set a CNAME record for the top of a domain, the Apex record. In this case, DNS providers support so-called CNAME flattening. To this end, these DNS providers offer flattened record types, such as ANAME or ALIAS records, which can be used instead of the CNAME to icp1.io .
I’ve removed the apex entry for ic0.app, as it seemed to be a leftover from the initial setup, and changed the entry for icp1.io to an ALIAS. My domains still appear to be functioning correctly. However, my original issue with the URL redirect not working as intended with Namecheap persists, so I plan to follow up with them for further assistance.
Concerning the use of CNAME and ALIAS records, would you recommend that I opt for displaying ALIAS records in Juno, or are CNAME records adequate?
I would not display it as an ALIAS in Juno as each provider handles it differently. Cloudflare, for example, calls it still a CNAME. Maybe you can just display the “help” information closer to the “problematic” record.
Regarding the discord.juno.build problem:
I think this is a problem on the namecheap end. IPv4 actually resolves to an IP owned by namecheap, whereas IPv6 resolves to nothing:
The issue is solved. Using ALIAS solved it but, also the fact that Namecheap supports URL redirect record only for HTTP:, not HTTPS. So, only the link http://discord.juno.build can work.
