website question

[Billsotx]

I need to help on my website which I built on neocities.org. I had about half my pages
uploaded over there as well as the images for those pages. I was using their free version
and every thing worked ok. I had looked into their paid version, they call it supporter
and "I think" with that they allow you to use your own url. I obtained the domain of
txgunleather.com from GoDaddy and just parked it there not wanting to use GoDaddy. Then I joined
neocities opensource version which has considerably more space and bandwidth. Next I tried
to point, link to, whatever the term is, to my domain name and now instead of being able
to view my webpages as before I get the following on a "new blank page." Most of this text
is hper-links ...

Hmmm...can’t reach this page
Try this
Make sure you’ve got the right web address: https://txgunleather.com
Search for "https://txgunleather.com" on Bing
Refresh the page
Details
There was a temporary DNS error. Try refreshing the page.
Error Code: INET_E_RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND

I've tried to refresh the page multiple times and that does not work. I entered the url
in the address bar on three different browers, two computers and an iphone and it takes me
to neocities.org website. If I'm signed in on neocities, it take me to my profile there
but it does not find the website.

Does anyone use neocities as their host, or is anyone familiar with neocities that can
give me any advice? Thanks in advance for any ideas. ~Bill

[user2013]

I can't help with neocities, you would need to speak to their support, especially if you paid for it... 

The only point I could see - do not use https:// unless it is your intention and you have the security certificate for your domain.

Use http:// instead.

You would need https:// if you accept online payments or want to secure usernames and passwords with encryption.  

[Billsotx]

Thanks for the tip, good info to know. I actually just tried txgunleather.com and it now takes me to the neocities sign-in page. I didn't ignore what you suggest and tried http://txgunleather.com and got the same. When I sign-in I get my account and I can see my uploads, the only option is to edit them and from there I can "view" the website - except when I select view I get the message in my original post. I will attempt to get a response from them. If I get some help from them I'll come back here and note that in case someone else decides to use neocities. Not sure I have the terms right but I assume neocities is my host since I purchased my domain name and can supposedly according to GoDaddy's site use it on a long list of other hosts or whatever is used. GoDaddy doesn't list neocities so that may be the rub. I may have to look else where, but for now I'll try to contact them. 

 

Many thanks for your reply. ~Bill

 

[mikesc]

You need to ask neocities for the their "nameservers"..they ( and most other hosting companies ) will usually give you two nameservers to "point" your domain name ( which in your case is at Godaddy ) to..you'll probably have somewhere in your control panel at neocities that tells you to add the "incoming" domain to..( this part registers the incoming domain name at their nameservers, so their nameservers know which "space" ( account ) to send requests for txleathers.com to..That space corresponds to your website with them, where all your files and pages live.

At the Godaddy "domain name manager "end you will go to the "edit nameservers" section, choose "use custom nameservers"..and in the two fields there you put in the nameservers that neocities told you to use. input only one nameserver per field..Save them.

I don't know neocities..but nameservers are usually in the following formats.

NS1.NAMEOFHOSTINGCOMPANY.COM
and
NS2.NAMEOFHOSTINGCOMPANY.COM

they may also be written in lower case like

ns1.nameofhostingcompany.com
and
ns2.nameofhostingcompany.com

if they are hosting a lot of sites they may have more than just two nameservers, so they might say to you to use for ( example )
ns17.nameofhostingcompany.com
and
ns18.nameofhostingcompany.com

nameservers can also use .net or .org or dot anything at the end.

from what happens at the moment when you try to reach your domain..it looks like you did not ask neocities for their name servers, that you probably didn't set your txleather.com at the neocities end in their control panel and that you just put neocities.org in the "custom nameservers" fields at Godaddy.

Do not worry about the HTTPS or the HTTP..it looks like all sites hosted at neocities automatically get an HTTPS via what is called a "wildcard" SSL cert on their system.
In reality when neocities are hosting your "space" you don't have a domain hosted with them, but it is a subdomain of neocities.org..that is why ( when it works ) it would be txleather.neocities.org.

It works like this..
txleather ( is a subdomain ) of neocities.org ( which is the domain ) the dot org is the TLD ( top level domain )

if it was www.neocities.org then www ( would also be a subdomain of neocities )

Personally IIWY , I'd get a cheap hosting space with a paid hoster who uses cpanel and who has phone support ( without a premium rate number ) in the USA,as a "newbie" you'll find it much easier to deal with being hosted via a phone support system than via a chat or an email support.I don't use Godaddy for hosting ( but I do have a couple of hundred domain names registered with them, and have done for over 20 years now, I also have many other domains registered elsewhere in other countries ) their domain manager interface is fairly easy to use.I would not normally recommend hosting in the same place as your domain name is registered,but Godaddy do have cpanel, and phone support.. I know people who only run a handful of sites that have good things to say about dreamhosts, and bluehost.com, but both of those only offer non phone support, and they use their own control panels IFAIK.

Other than those two ( and Godaddy ) I don't know enough about any other shared hosters in the USA, if you were wanting to rent a server or a VPS I'd suggest hostdime..In the past I did some IT consultant work for a French hosting company who also wanted to run some hosting from the USA, I set them up with dedicated servers at Hostdime ( both managed and unmanaged ) they ( Hostdime )were good, but probably way above what most people reading here would ever require.All my stuff is now hosted in Europe.

re what you said here

GoDaddy doesn't list neocities so that may be the rub.

makes no difference..you could "point" any domain that is registered with any registrant anywhere to any hoster anywhere, as long as you put the nameservers in the "choose nameservers" fields at the registrant and also "add" the domain name at the "add domain" ( or whatever that form is called at your host ) form at the hosting company.

Edited October 31, 2017 by mikesc

[Billsotx]

Thanks Mike, I have found some of the settings at neociies but GoDaddy won't take them when I try to save them. I did get this far, but like you said it's only a subdomain: txgunleather.neocities.org ... 

 

Neocities is telling me what my "A Record" and "AAAA Record" and that they point to my domain, but I'm in the wrong place on GoDaddy apparently. 

 

I'll keep fussing with it. I appreciate you taking the time as this definitely helps to understand what I need to do. 

[mikesc]

This is the page at Godaddy's help files that explains how to set up your A record..
https://uk.godaddy.com/help/add-an-a-record-19238
( don't worry about it appearing to be their UK site, it should auto-redirect to the USA site for you if you copy and paste that into your address bar and then click enter )
But..it may still be a little confusing for you, so ..What I'd advise is..

Make sure that you have the message from neocities with you A record open, so that you can copy and paste from it later..

Log into your account at Godaddy ..then phone their customer service number, when you reach their multiple choice machine, choose "existing customer", then choose "tech support", then choose "domains"..

Explain to the tech what you want to do, ask them to "walk you through it"..don't be afraid to ask what you think might sound like "dumb questions" ( they will have heard things that are far far "dumber" ) ..when you have done what the tech says, and clicked "save at the final stage..You'll then have to allow some time for the internet to propagate that information.
Usually you'll read that domain pointing can take upto 72 hours..in my experience the Godaddy system gets picked up "live" in under an hour..To see if your domain name is "resolving" to your space at neocities, you'll need to either "flush your browser cache" and try again to reach your space by typing in your domain name ( the one you registered at Godaddy ) into the address bar, and click enter..Or start up a different browser and do the same thing..

Not knowing which operating system you are on and which browsers you might be using or have available to you I can't tell you how to "flush your browser cache"..You can Google that info by searching for your system OS ( might be win 7 ) and your browser ( might be IE10* ) and add the phrase "how to flush browser cache" to the search.

*If you don't know what version of your browser you are on..go to the "help button" on the browser, click it..then go to "about" and click that..it will tell you which version it is ..

btw ..an easy explanation of the difference between "nameservers" and "A records"
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=975353

observation..it is a shame that neocities don't have somewhere where people who want to find out how their system works before/ without setting up an account, can find this stuff ( like that they don't use nameservers but instead use A records directly )..it is open source, and they make the source available on git, so why hide how the back end works..

Edited November 3, 2017 by mikesc

[Billsotx]

Thanks Mike, I'll post feedback in awhile. I may be there and only need to flush my browsers. I've used Win 10, IE and Edge, and Ubuntu - Chromium. I'll work on flushing all and if it's not that I'll phone GoDaddy.

[Billsotx]

No luck with the customer support at GoDaddy over the phone; jason over there said they do not provide customer service to third party hosting. 

 

I continue to fuss with it. I finally figured out how to get the GoD dns-management menu to show me an A-record and managed to get it to save my entries but I have no idea if I entered the right data. After I save the A-record there was an option for the AAAA-record so I've tried that one also.

It could be that an hour is not long enough, but it's been about that long. If it comes up I'll post that here.

What I'm getting right now if I search for https://www.txgunleather.com is: This site can't be reached ..... www.txgunleather.com's server DNS address could not be found. ... DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NIXDOMAIN ... and there is a reload button that just ditto's this message so far.

Back to fussing with it.

[Billsotx]

So far, it's been days neocities doesn't answer anything but there is a contact link. You'd think after a week they'd reply.

Edited November 3, 2017 by Billsotx

[Billsotx]

Mike, I'm going to look into another host. I appreciate all your help. I'm not attached to that domain at GoDaddy. I think I saw somewhere that a domain name can't be transferred until it is over 60 days since it was created; if that's the case I'll just get something else, rather than wait another month. Jason at Godaddy was suggesting that I delete my account since I wasn't going to use them as host so I should probably do that.

Edited November 4, 2017 by Billsotx