When I looked for information on how to use a personal domain name with iWeb 08 and .Mac I found a lot, but much of it wasn’t very helpful, or was incomplete. Hence this article.

First, you should know that previously my domain was just forwarded to my old Blogger site. However, I didn't like forwarding because the reader sees Blogger URL's once they get forwarded. You can use masking to hide these, but then they only see your domain name, not the real URLs. That's bad because without the real URL the reader can't bookmark it, email it, etc. In my mind, forwarding was unacceptable, and I resolved that for my new site I would do this right.

Ultimately the solution is to use Aliases on your domain via what's known as a CNAME record. One CNAME for www.yourdomain.com and, for the anal, another for yourdomain.com. To do this, follow the steps below. (My screenshots are from GoDaddy; other domain registrars should have similar options.)

1) Login to GoDaddy, and from the Domains menu select My Domains. You’ll get a list like the screenshot above. In my case I only have the one domain.

2) Click on the domain you want to change, which brings you to the Domain Details page:

3) If this is a new domain, or one that has never been modified since it was purchased, go directly to step 8. However, If your domain was previously modified for any reason I suggest putting it back to it's default state with the next four steps.

4) Check the link under the Forwarding section in the middle of the page. If it says "Domain is not forwarded" (as seen here), go to the next step. However, if it lists a forwarded domain, click on it and Disable forwarding. Now click the Masking tab and make sure those fields are blank. Then click OK.

5) Go back to the Domain Details page from step 2, and now click the link "Total DNS Control and MX Records" link located just above forwarding. The large middle section for CNAMES is what we're interested in. Click the button "Reset to Default Settings". Also, if there are CNAMES here you previously entered manually, I suggest deleting them (click the X at the far right). NOTE: Only delete CNAMES you added yourself. Most of them are automatic and should not be changed. If you are not sure, then don't delete it! I deleted one entry I’d added before I ended up forwarding to the old site. There is no OK button on this page, after your changes just click "Return to List" (not shown in cropped screenshot).

6) Logoff GoDaddy, and take a break. Seriously. The changes made here are probably not immediate, so grab a cup of coffee, kick the dog and feed that cat (or vice versa). Not long, maybe 10 minutes.

7) Now log back in to GoDaddy and check the settings to ensure forwarding is off and any CNAMES you removed are gone. Bottom line is when you enter your domain in a browser you should just get the GoDaddy "parked" page.

8) OK, you're ready to modify the domain to point to your .Mac site. This requires changes on both .Mac and GoDaddy. It starts with .Mac, then goes to GoDaddy, and then goes back to .Mac. Launch iWeb and select File / Set Up Personal Domain. You’re prompted to login, and then get the .Mac Account screen:

Click Personal Domain and just follow the prompts (basically it will ask you for your domain name, in my case I typed www.thesmallwave.com). Then you get a screen that tells you that you need to go make your domain changes, and come back to finish. I just left that screen open and fired up GoDaddy in another browser tab...

9) In GoDaddy, from the Domain Details page (step 2) click the link "Total DNS Control and MX Records" link located just above forwarding. The large middle section for CNAMES is what we're interested in (there’s a screenshot of this in step 5). Look for the CNAME record with a hostname (left column) of "www". Click the pencil (edit) icon for that record. Fill it out exactly as you see here. Click OK.

10) Now go back to .Mac tab and finish the prompts (basically, just click continue).

11) OK, now you wait. It can take anywhere from 15 minutes to two days for the domain change to take affect. Yes, it can be excruciating, but there's nothing you can do about it. Come back to step 12 when you can enter www.yourdomain.com in a browser and have it pull up your .Mac site. I'll wait...

(*cheesy "smooth jazz" hold music playing in the background*)

12) Ah, you're back! Great! Technically, you're done. You have a personal domain and it's forwarding to your .Mac site as it should. Then what's left to do? Well, you may notice that "www.yourdomain.com" works as expected, but entering the name without the www (i.e., "yourdomain.com") does not. If you're anal enough (like me) to also want the domain to work without the "www" then you have another step.

13) Lucky step 13! Ha! I spit in the face of superstition! There's no way I'm worrying about some ancient belhd ig  igf 8og   uguig yugf yihg  uogfu vhiej ug jbu uigfighighue g ug oi gugf uofgf u gfugf uebfgue!#(^

14) Um, shall we continue? In GoDaddy, from the Domain Details page (step 2) click the link "Total DNS Control and MX Records" link located just above forwarding. The large middle section for CNAMEs is what we're interested in (there’s a screenshot of this in step 5). You came here in step 9 and edited an existing CNAME, but this time you’re going to add a new one. Click the "Add New CNAME Record" button. Enter the data for this new record similar to how you see here, except use your own domain name. Click OK.

15) Logout of GoDaddy and wait again. Maybe 15 minutes,maybe two days, but sooner or later you'll see that yourdomain.com will wind up at your .Mac site.

All done. It’s actually straightforward once you know what needs to be done. For me, the wait after step 11 was trivial, maybe 25 minutes. I was probably lucky, be prepared to wait the full two days before panicking. (I'm glad it was a short wait for me, I hate "smooth jazz".) After step 14 my wait was a couple hours.