WordPress MU: DNS Wildcards
To enable a subdomain type of installation in WordPress MU, you’ll need a wildcard entry in the DNS. The following instructions applies only to Dreamhost users, but they can be easily adapted to other CPanels or other host providers.
Steps
- Login to the Dreamhost’s Panel
- Click on the Manage Domains
- Find yourdomain.com and click the DNS link
- Add a custom DNS to yourdomain.com. See entry below
- Click “Add Record Now” submit button
Custom DNS Entry
Name: *
Type: CNAME
Value: yourdomain.com.
Comment: wildcard dns script
Captured Images
If your provider does not provide you with the facility to add DNS records, please contact the support team telling them you need a wildcard entry in the DNS for a particular domain. They are usually happy to enter it for you. Please note some providers don’t allow wildcard entries, then you are better off using a subdirectory structure or moving to another host provider that supports it.
You literally do not need to add subdomains to yourdomain.com when installing WordPress MU. I made that mistake. The DNS wildcard and Apache’s mod_rewrite module should do the trick for you. As long as you have those two requirements, the subdomain type of install of WordPress MU will work.
What about that part of adding code to httpd.conf?
I guess it might not be needed. I have done this, but all I get for all sub domains is cPanel page confirming that is installed.
What should .htaccess look like, could you c/p?
Alen,
There’s no need to add code in httpd.conf when using DNS wildcards for WordPress MU. I made an entry earlier about .htacess and WordPress MU. Just search ‘.htacess’ on this website and that should give you the correct .htaccess. Let me know how it goes.
Still no go…
My .htaccess was almost same, just added redirection for www
and 2nd line was “RewriteBase BASE/” - just deleted BASE part, everything else was same.
I’m using WHM / cPanel, but it should not be much different.
I have installed new WordPress MU in root folder and created few blogs for test i.e.
http://test.webmajstori.org/ but it just shows cPanel page…
Am I missing something in DNS setting:
http://webmajstori.org/temp/dns.gif
I have also tried as instructed in other tutorials but with same results:
* 14400 A 85.94.76.38
(http://www.blogopreneur.com/2006/11/06/installing-wordpress-mu-on-a-cpanelwhm-server/)
It appears like it’s htaccess problem, because wildcard sub domains are “working” :-/
Alen,
Unfortunately, I don’t have WHM cPanel like yourself. I’m with Dreamhost. In your entry detailed in the gif you provided, you have the fully qualified domain entered as ‘*.webmastori.org.’ Have you tried entering just the asterisk, “*” to see if that will work? In my WordPress MU setup, I never had to do anything with the httpd.conf file, unlike what blogopreneur.com wrote. My setup is just a little different since I dont use cPanel. Also, make sure .htaccess is writable. Chmod .htaccess to either 755 or 777.
how about if you want individual authors to have a profile page with myspace-like structure -
e.g. site.com/mypage
That is easy to set up from WP MU, no need for any special server side interventions.
p.s.
I have managed to set it up only after host has added an unique IP address for my site
[...] ulyssesonline.com » WordPress MU: DNS Wildcards » Blog Archive - For Wordpress MU [...]
For a stable wildcard on Dreamhost, you have to have support do it. I’m a Dreamhost customer, and as a best practice, Dreamhost users have to ask for a wildcard DNS Any Dreamhost user will save themselves a lot of trouble down the road if they have it done this way, since using the panel will either cause a series of redirects that won’t complete, or use a lot of CPU. The only way I see this technique working is with a unique IP.
The proper, trusted instructions for installing MU on Dreamhost are here http://wiki.dreamhost.com/WordPress_MU. It’s just easier and saves trouble down the line.
I’ve noticed some installation instructions use Type: A instead of Type: CNAME - I’m a little unfamiliar with DNS… any ideas why some people choose Type: A over Type: CNAME?
An A record is usually a hostname entry in the DNS, while a CNAME (canonical name) is usually an alias entry.
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