Table of Contents

Configure your domain for Moonfruit

So you have created a website with Moonfruit (http://www.moonfruit.com) and now need to configure your domain name at Gandi so that it takes visitors to your website.

After having finished configuring your Moonfruit website for your domain, you will need to make some technical changes to your domain at Gandi. For security purposes, Gandi cannot perform these changes for you.

Step 1: Log into your domain name

You will need to log in to Gandi.net with the Gandi handle listed as the domain's owner, administrative, or technical contact (trouble logging in?).

If you have registered your domain name directly with Moonfruit or another reseller, they may have created and manage a Gandi handle on your behalf. If this is the case, you will see a message on our website saying that you do not have sufficient rights, and you will need to contact them to either make the changes on your behalf or release your Gandi handle so you can make them yourself.

Step 2: Edit your zone file

Note: To add the A record or CNAME record, you need to first make an editable copy of your zone file.

If you created your website in moonfruit.com, the Moonfruit IP is 93.184.220.23 and their shared hosting address is cdn.sitemakerlive.com.

If you created your website in moonfruit.fr or gandi.net, you need to create the records @ A 217.70.184.41 and www A 217.70.184.41

You now need to change the domain's DNS zone file so that it will point to the website you have created at Moonfruit.

To do so, add an A record to your zone file that points to the Moonfruit servers at 93.184.220.23 for every domain or subdomain you want to point to your Moonfruit website.

(Alternatively, you can use a CNAME record to point subdomains at cdn.sitemakerlive.com.)

Before proceeding, remember that zone file changes will take several hours to propagate.

There may be a limit to the number of domains you can link directly to your Moonfruit site. Remember that you can add web forwarding for every domain or subdomain you want to redirect to the domain that points to your Moonfruit website.

Make the changes

The entry or entries you need to add will look something like one of these (check with Moonfruit to be sure): 

@ 10800 IN A c
www 10800 IN CNAME example.moonfruit.com.

If you already have a line that starts with @ 10800 IN A you just need to change the IP address from whatever it is to 93.184.220.23.

Similarly, if there is already a line that starts with www, you will need to replace it with this new one.

Don't forget to submit your changes and activate the new version of your zone file!

Example of a zone

Here is an example of a zone file for a domain (we'll use example.com) that will bring visitors to a Moonfruit.com website: 

@ 10800 IN MX 50 fb.mail.gandi.net. 
@ 10800 IN MX 10 spool.mail.gandi.net. 
@ 10800 IN A 93.184.220.23
imap 10800 IN CNAME access.mail.gandi.net. 
smtp 10800 IN CNAME relay.mail.gandi.net. 
webmail 10800 IN CNAME agent.mail.gandi.net. 
blog 10800 IN CNAME blogs.vip.gandi.net. 
pop 10800 IN CNAME access.mail.gandi.net. 
www 10800 IN CNAME example.com.

DNS propagation delay: After you submit your new zone file, please be sure to allow about 3 hours for the changes you made to your zone file to propagate.

Step 3: Update your Moonfruit settings

Once your domain name is pointing at Moonfruit (you'll know because it will look like this), you'll need to register your custom domain at Moonfruit so their servers know which website should be displayed when someone visits your domain name.

From the Moonfruit toolbar, select 'Admin' > 'Site address' which will load the 'Admin' panel. In the 'Site Address' tab enter the domain name in the last text field provided and then click 'Add'. You can have up to 3 additional addresses for your site.

Step 4: Add web forwarding (optional)

You may want additional URLs to automatically redirect visitors to the address you configured above. If so, just add a web forwarding entry for each domain or subdomain you want to be redirected.

For example, if you pointed www.example.com to your Moonfruit site using a CNAME or A record as described above, but not example.com, you can add a web forwarding entry so that example.com automatically redirects visitors to www.example.com.

See also