Subdomain IP address not found

Hi mnatseah624

I can’t see DNS records for these sub-domains so I think that’s your issue. If you add these (or even better a wild card) to your domain’s DNS that should do the trick.

As you’re using Google this should help https://support.google.com/domains/answer/4633759?hl=en-GB

Hello @jonathanclark
Thanks for your helpful advice.
Well, I’ve set up DNS records through my webhost 123-reg.co.uk. But they tell me it will take a while to propagate.
Here’s hoping….

The DNS seems to be working now from here in Virginia but your webhost isn’t handling that properly yet.

You probably should ask your host for a bit of help and make sure your WordPress is setup for multisite and knows about the two subdomains.

Hello, @jnashhawkins Many thanks for your reply. I don’t know what you’re seeing in Virginia. But what I’m seeing (in Belgium) is this…

The requested URL /404.html was not found on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Apache Server at christmascantata.brightmorningstar.org Port 80

Does that make any sense to you? I think the multisite is set up OK. When I go to the main site dashboard, I can see My Sites and the two subdomains I’ve set up. But I’m not able to access them.

Yes, that’s what I see now and based my answer on.

That message you see is coming from your webserver so the webserver isn’t passing the domain name through to the WordPress system.

And that is why I recommended asking your host for a bit of help.

If they can’t help you then I’ll need to know what host it is and what hosting control panel they provide.

The control panel (the server) needs to be told to listen for the domain or subdomain and to point that at your WordPress’ directory which will then pass the request thru to WordPress where the internal domain mapping will take over.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by JNashHawkins.

Wow, thanks @jnashhawkins. I did get help from my host server, but I’m not sure the person on the phone knew everything about it.
My host is 123-reg.co.uk.
He said I had set it up right on this page (printscreen):

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AlcN6_1e8aFDgZIY7WDLU22EaeSHSw?e=8ko5l7

I was wondering if there was something wrong with the Apache server, since I got a funny message about the Apache server settings when I was setting up the multisite.

PS It’s midnight here. So good night.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by mnatseah624.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by mnatseah624.

That DNS looks right to me and the two subdomains seem to hit the webserver so you need to add the subdomains to the site via the control panel then make sure the directory for the two subdomains points to your webroot instead of subdirectories under webroot.

The easy way is to look at the directory the root domain (brightmorningstar dot org) points to… that will probably be something like ‘public_html’ just point the subdomains to that same directory.

The wildcard DNS entry is a good idea but that’s only half the battle. You still need to get the webserver to recognize the subdomains and send them through to WordPress. That’s why I didn’t mention the wildcard DNS. Hosts with control panels usually need further effort. And sometimes the admins forget that stage or a new admin comes along and thinks the wildcard should work.

Hello @jnashhawkins Many thanks again.
I’m not sure what you mean by

The easy way is to look at the directory the root domain (brightmorningstar dot org) points to… that will probably be something like ‘public_html’ just point the subdomains to that same directory.

I don’t see any place in my domain host cpanel to enter any other information about where the root domain is pointing to apart from what I’ve already filled in.
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AlcN6_1e8aFDgZIY7WDLU22EaeSHSw?e=8ko5l7
That “brightmorningstar.org” entry under CNAME has nothing following it.
Are you suggesting I need CNAME entries for the subdomains?

When I looked the other evening the domains and subdomains were hitting the server so the DNS was working. I think it might be time for you to call your web host again for a bit more help there.

It appears you are looking at DNS entries where you need to be looking at the host entries in CPanel which will tell you what domain or subdomain is pointing where on the server itself.

Those all need to be pointing to the ‘root’ WordPress directory.

That’s CPanel –> Domains pane –> Click on the domains Icon to see the website’s document root.

Back to the Domains pane again and click the subdomains Icon

When that window opens add your subdomain name itself and select the domain name then hit create. Once it creates the subdomain it will point at a document root address in the list below the ‘create’ form … set that to your root domain’s ‘public HTML’ address.

Try your subdomain and you’ll either get your WordPress itself, a 404 page from your WordPress instead of the one from your server, or your new subdomain site will answer. If not then ask your host to help you with that.

Let me know if it works or not and where it lands.

Hello @jnashhawkins Thank you for your really helpful advice. Much appreciated. (My webhost (Bluehost) say they don’t offer advice on multisites. I don’t know if they are trying to discourage them, or if they just don’t know the answers.)

You say…

”CPanel –> Domains pane –> Click on the domains Icon to see the website’s document root.”

When I click it gives me several options including Name Servers and DNS Zone Editor. Here’s a pic of the top part of the DNS Zone editor.

DNS Zone Editor : https://1drv.ms/u/s!AlcN6_1e8aFDgZIb0kDP5DOsb4K97g?e=fxJ3gO

It looks like I need to add a Host record for brightmorningstar.org. What goes in the “Points to” field? Should it be 50.87.233.18 ?

Then you say:

“Back to the Domains pane again and click the subdomains Icon. When that window opens add your subdomain name itself and select the domain name then hit create. Once it creates the subdomain it will point at a document root address in the list below the ‘create’ form … set that to your root domain’s ‘public HTML’ address.”

Here is the Subdomains page. I’ve entered the subdomain “shop” tho I haven’t created it yet.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AlcN6_1e8aFDgZId8Fmbhq-3XJ-wtg?e=pygYeK

But the Home Folder field expects the Document Root for the subdomain to be in public_html. But my site and its subdomains are not located in public HTML at all. They are in cpanel/proxy_conf. Are they in the wrong place?
If so, I’m wondering how they got there, since I reinstalled everything yesterday.
Thanks for any light you can shed…

This may be our problem now…

I just double-checked your DNS entries you seem to have set at 123-reg.co.uk and they are pointed at the server as far as I can see. The server seems to be answering but not sending the request through to WordPress…

That makes me think the webserver doesn’t know how to handle the subdomains… The webserver itself needs to be told which directory to point the requests to which would then let WordPress take over.

You were mentioning CPanel, which is a popular web hosting control panel, so I went to one of my hosts running CPanel and went through the steps to deal with the domain requests at the server level.

You then sent us a screencap of your web host and it’s a proprietary web control panel at Bluehost…

How did Bluehost get into this game and what the heck control panel could that be??? Could that be why the support at 123-reg couldn’t help you further? Maybe???

So, if you’re actually hosting the site at Bluehost then I need to dig into that a bit and try to help you through that control panel.

Or you could ask support at BlueHost to help you. Your choice.

Right now I’m very swamped with some contract work and figure I’ll be tied up the rest of the morning dealing with that but then I’ll take a good hard look at this again after lunch here.

If you want to call on Bluehost yourself (provided they are actually your web host) in the meantime for help then go right ahead. I’ll be back later to check and see what I can do.

Let’s leave that DNS alone as it appears to be working just fine. The webserver is the problem.

Let me know if you have any further ideas or info and I’ll try to get back to you later this afternoon.

—

BTW: if the host is Bluehost then the ‘proxy’ makes a bit of sense but we need to leave it alone as it should be preconfigured to take care of itself.

Many thanks again @jnashhawkins I got back to Bluehost (yes, they are my webserver) who were much more helpful than usual ??
The issue was that (for some reason) the setup process had put my site and its subdomains in the wrong place: in File Manager > .cpanel > proxy_conf.
But they should have been in their own folders in Public_html. So that’s now done, the sites are setup, and it looks like I can move ahead.
Just one question before I go please. The Bluehost rep said the problem was not the DNS Records. So is it OK for these fields just to stay blank (pic)
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AlcN6_1e8aFDgZIb0kDP5DOsb4K97g?e=fxJ3gO
Thanks again.

From what I see you are using the DNS servers at reg-123 so the Bluehost DNS isn’t being used and that is fine. And the DNS is working as I expected.

I tried the three sites again and the two subdomains are now answering as WordPress based sites.

The next question is can you log in as the super admin of your main website on the two subdomains. If yes, then the multisite is working. You should also be able to log in at the main site and see the subdomains in the ‘my sites’ list and you should be able to visit them from there. When you are visiting from the main site you should then be able to see the dashboard on the subsites as the logged-in super admin.

But you are on the right track! You are getting there.

Keep me in the loop here.

I also found this article from Bluehost about installing and using multisite there.

https://www.bluehost.com/blog/wordpress/how-wordpress-multisite-works-a-helpful-guide-10936/

Hope this helps clarify the rest of this for you.

Hello @jnashhawkins Many thanks indeed for your help and advice. It’s very good of you.
Everything now seems to be working fine thanks. I can login to the subdomains from the main site. The first time I had to enter my login details, but after that it just seems to go through automatically.
Now I need to (re)populate these sites.
Thanks too for the Bluehost article.
I’m sure we’ll meet again on this forum before too long. ??
Until then best wishes and God bless