Using your own domain name


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: Using your own domain name

You can use your own domain name with your message board through one of the following options:

Using a subdomain
Purchasing a managed domain
Using an HTML frame
Using web forwarding
Using an iframe

Using a subdomain

You can access your message board using your own domain name by creating a subdomain which points to Website Toolbox. You can choose any name you want for the subdomain.

For example, if you choose the subdomain "forums", your message board URL will look like this:

http://forums.yoursite.com/mb/username

Instead of

http://www.websitetoolbox.com/mb/username

Please note that this method will only work if you have your own domain name and access to the DNS records for that domain.

Here is how the record should look:

Name Type Data

subdomain.yoursite.com. CNAME websitetoolbox.com.

If you are having trouble with the subdomain setup process, a Website Toolbox representative can do it for you. There would be a one-time fee of $24.95 and you would need to provide the representative with the username and password for your account with your domain name provider. Please contact Customer Support if you are interested in this option.

You may need the Website Toolbox IP address as well. The IP address to use is 12.144.36.179. Only use the IP address as a last resort. If we change the IP address in the future, your subdomain will stop working correctly.

After adding the record you will need to wait approximately 12-36 hours for your changes to propagate throughout the Internet. Your subdomain may not work correctly until the propagation is complete.

If your domain registration company also provides web forwarding, you can setup your subdomain to web forward to your full subdomain URL. This way, forums.yoursite.com will forward to forums.yoursite.com/mb/username. If you do not setup web forwarding in combination with your subdomain, when a user just enters forums.yoursite.com and forgets the rest of the URL, they will reach a "403 Forbidden" page.

Website Toolbox does not provide additional support for subdomains because each system is different. The setup process for each system may be different as well. For additional support you may want to contact your domain name and/or web hosting provider. Specific instructions for certain providers is available here.

Purchasing a managed domain

Using a subdomain with web forwarding is the best way to remove the websitetoolbox.com domain name from the URL, but it is also the most advanced and complicated way. Therefore, customers wanting a simpler solution can purchase a managed message board domain name from Website Toolbox for as little as $24.95 per year. You will not need any technical knowledge regarding domain names, DNS, web forwarding, or HTML. Your purchased domain name will completely be setup and managed by Website Toolbox.

Your domain name will redirect to the subdomain which points to your message board. For example, if you purchase domainname.com, domainname.com would redirect to forums.domainname.com/mb/username. Using domain masking, your domain can even be configured to keep domainname.com in the URL at all times. The user will not know that they have been redirected.

More information regarding this option is available in the Website Toolbox members area.

Using an HTML frame

It is also possible to use an HTML frame that covers 100% of the screen to hide the Website Toolbox URL.

Here is an example of a message board using this method:
http://www.printaudit.com/forum.asp

Click here to view the HTML code for this method. <html> <head> <title>Document Title</title> </head> <frameset rows="1, *" frameborder=0 framespacing=0 border=0> <frame src="URL TO BLANK PAGE" frameborder=0 framespacing=0 scrolling="no" name="blank" marginwidth=0 marginheight=0 border=0> <frame src="MESSAGE BOARD URL" frameborder=0 framespacing=0 marginwidth=0 scrolling="auto" name="forum" border=0> </frameset> <noframes>Sorry, your browser does not support frames.</noframes> </html>

Note: The URL in the browser's address bar will not change when users click a link on your message board. Also, the Website Toolbox URL will still be used in emails sent out by the system.

Using web forwarding

You can purchase a separate domain name for your message board and then use web forwarding to point the domain name directly to your message board. Please click here for more information.

Note: The Website Toolbox URL will still be used in emails sent out by the system.

Using an iframe

You can use the iframe HTML tag to embed your message board into your website. The iframe tag creates an inline frame or basically a frame within the page.

Here is an example of a message board using this method:
http://www.allamericanfootballleague.com/messageboard.html

Here is the HTML code:

<iframe src="MESSAGE BOARD URL" width="100%" height="550"></iframe>

Note: The URL in the browser's address bar will not change when users click a link on your message board. Also, the Website Toolbox URL will still be used in emails sent out by the system.