Custom Domain: How to link CNAME records in popular Domain Name Service (DNS) providers?

In TrainerCentral, when you add a custom domain, you will be required to create a CNAME entry for that custom domain in your domain service provider after which you can use the custom domain to host your courses and workshops in TrainerCentral. Given below are detailed steps on how you can configure CNAME for your custom domain with your provider. Once the CNAME is configured, you can add and verify the custom domain in TrainerCentral. 

How to Set Up a CNAME Record in GoDaddy  

1. Kindly log in to your GoDaddy Domain Control Center. 
   
2. Choose the respective domain to access the Domain Settings page.
   
   
3. Click on Manage DNS under Additional Settings.
   
4. Click on Add to add a new record.
   
5. 
   
6. Select CNAME from the Type menu option
   
7. Enter the details for your new CNAME record:
   

1. • Name: The host name or prefix the CNAME record will be set to. You can include a period (.) but not as the first or last character. Consecutive periods (...) are not allowed, and the host cannot exceed 63 characters or be the @ symbol. You can't use a host that's already assigned to an existing A record, TXT record or MX record.
   • Value:  Enter the URL specified in the Custom Domain section of TrainerCentral (screenshot attached below) 
     
   • ​
     
   • TTL: How long the server should cache information. The default setting is 1 hour.Select Add Record to save your new CNAME record.
     

Most DNS updates take effect within an hour, but could take up to 48 hours to update globally. 

Once the CNAME is configured here, you can add and verify the domain mapping in TrainerCentral and proceed to apply for the SSL certificate. 

How to Set Up a CNAME Record in Bluehost  

1. Log into your Bluehost account.

2. Select domains, then zone editor, and choose the domain you'd like to have your TrainerCentral site available at.

3. Select Add DNS Record and fill out the following fields:

Host Record: This will be your desired subdomain. 

TTL: Leave the default value. It is often 3600, but may be different depending on your account type.

Type: CNAME

Points To: Enter the URL specified in the Custom Domain section of TrainerCentral (screenshot attached below) 

 

 

 4. Next, select add record to save your CNAME record. 

Once the CNAME is configured here, you can add and verify the domain mapping in TrainerCentral and proceed to apply for the SSL certificate. 

 

Using a CNAME Record in Hover

 

1. Log into Hover, and choose Domains from the Your Account dropdown:

2. Select the domain you would like to use to set up your custom URL for your TrainerCentral site. Click on the DNS tab.

4. From there, click on the Add A Record button.

5. In the pop up, select a CNAME record from the dropdown and complete the fields.

Hostname: Your desired subdomain.

Target name: Enter the URL specified in the Custom Domain section. 

 

 

TTL: leave as the default. 

Once the CNAME is configured here, you can add and verify the domain mapping in TrainerCentral and proceed to apply for the SSL certificate. 
 

How to Set Up a CNAME Record in CloudFlare  

1. Log in to your CloudFlare account and in the top menu, select DNS.

 

 

2. Under DNS Records, you will see an option to add a record. Fill out the following

First dropdown menu: Select CNAME 

Name: This will be your desired subdomain. 

Domain name: Enter the URL specified in the Custom Domain section. 

 

 

Automatic TTL: You can leave this as the default. TTL stands for Time to Live and simply indicates how long it will take this change to propagate.

Cloud icon: Click this until you see a grey cloud icon. This will ensure it is set to DNS only, which means traffic will not go through CloudFlare.

 

5. Select Add Record

Once the CNAME is configured here, you can add and verify the domain mapping in TrainerCentral and proceed to apply for the SSL certificate. ​

• Related Articles

• Custom Domain

  As a course trainer, after creating and publishing your courses, the next step is to make them available to your intended learners through a website. However, to achieve this, you need to have a domain where the course content will be hosted and ...

• How to set up SPF and DKIM TXT records for your domain

  After copying the SPF and DKIM record values, you can go to your domain hosting website and paste in the copied record values. We've provided the steps of the most popular domain-hosting websites below. However, if you don't find your website in the ...

• Authenticate email domain in TrainerCentral

  Domain Authentication is a mechanism that verifies the email from the point of its origin by validating the email sender. It checks emails to rule out any possibility of spamming or spoofing thereby protecting the sender's good reputation. ...

• Custom Payment Gateway

  A payment gateway is a network system that facilitates the transfer of funds from one person to another. It streamlines the online payment process and facilitates faster and more secure payment transactions.In TrainerCentral, we provide integration ...

• Custom Forms

  TrainerCentral allows you to create a custom form to suit your specific data collection requirements which you can add to your website, course pages etc. Create and edit a custom form 1. To create a custom form, navigate to the Forms section under ...