How to connect your own domain

Steps

1. Pick the name: www or the root

   A subdomain such as www.mycafe.com is the easy case. A root domain, mycafe.com, cannot hold a CNAME at most providers, so it needs another record type. Most people connect www and redirect the root to it.

   You want	Record	Points at
   www.mycafe.com	CNAME	the host's address name
   mycafe.com	A (and AAAA for IPv6)	the IP addresses the host gives you

2. Add the record at your domain provider

   Open the DNS settings where you bought the domain and add a record. A name that holds a CNAME cannot hold any other record. Delete an old www record first. At most registrars the name field takes the part before the domain, such as www.

   at your domain provider

   # type   name   value
   CNAME    www    my-cafe.example-host.net.

3. Tell the host the name

   The host has to know the name too. Without it, a visitor reaches the host and gets an error. Each host has its own field:

   	GitHub Pages	Cloudflare Pages
   Subdomain	A CNAME record from the subdomain to USERNAME.github.io, without the repository name	A CNAME record from the subdomain to YOUR_SITE.pages.dev
   Root domain	A records: 185.199.108.153, 185.199.109.153, 185.199.110.153, 185.199.111.153	An apex domain needs your site added as a Cloudflare zone, with your nameservers pointed at Cloudflare
   Order	Enter the domain in the repository's Pages settings	Add the domain in the dashboard first: a CNAME created by hand without that step ends in a 522 error
   Wait	DNS changes can take up to 24 hours to propagate	Until the record answers

4. Wait, then turn HTTPS on

   DNS answers are cached by other servers for the record's TTL. TTL is how many seconds other servers may keep an answer before they ask again. A new record usually shows within minutes, but plan for hours. On GitHub Pages it can take up to 24 hours before Enforce HTTPS is available.

5. Send the root domain to www

   If you connected www only, set a redirect from mycafe.com to https://www.mycafe.com in your provider's forwarding settings. Visitors who type the short name still arrive.

Check that it works

Ask DNS what the name points at, then request the page the way a visitor does. dig comes with macOS and most Linux systems.

$ dig +short CNAME www.mycafe.com
my-cafe.example-host.net.
$ curl -sI https://www.mycafe.com/ | head -1
HTTP/2 200

An empty answer from dig means the record is not live yet. A certificate error from curl means the host has not issued the certificate yet: wait and retry.

In Uno: one CNAME and one field

A site in Uno lives at https://my-cafe.uno4.me/, with your own name in place of my-cafe. To put it on your own name: add a CNAME record from your subdomain to your site's uno4.me address, then connect it on the site's Custom domain tab.

1. Add the record

   At your provider: type CNAME, name www, value my-cafe.uno4.me, with your own site name in place of my-cafe.

2. Connect it

   Open the site in the console, go to the Custom domain tab, type www.mycafe.com and press Connect. DNS can take a few minutes to update; Uno checks the record before it connects the domain.

3. Done

   HTTPS is automatic, and the site keeps its uno4.me address too. To undo it, press Remove on the Custom domain tab: the site stays at its uno4.me address.

# type   name   value
CNAME    www    my-cafe.uno4.me

Uno connects the domain only if the CNAME points exactly at your site's uno4.me address, so a typo in the value shows up at once instead of as a broken site. A root domain like mycafe.com cannot hold a CNAME, so use a subdomain such as www.mycafe.com. To keep the short name working, redirect the root domain to the www address at your domain provider.

What this does not do

• It does not sell you a domain. Buy it at a domain provider, and keep the login: the DNS records live there.
• On Uno the bare root domain cannot point at a site. Use www or another subdomain.
• A domain with a record at the wrong place stays broken for as long as DNS caches the old answer. Fix the record and wait out the TTL.

Common problems