Moonfruit goes global - your site served from 14 locations around the world
By Joe on Monday, November 2 2009, 10:57 - Release notes - Permalink
Moonfruit.com and every site hosted by us are now served from 14 locations around the world.
To celebrate the launch of this new service we are offering five (5) pairs of return tickets from wherever you are in the world to any of the 14 locations that Moonfruit sites are now served from. And we'll offset the carbon footprint of your flight so you can still look all your green friends in the eyes - or will that be green eyed friends ;-) - with a clear conscience.
To find out more read on...
What does this mean for you?
Moonfruit (and every site we host) is now running on a CDN (Content Delivery Network) which means your sites and all their contents are now being served from a distributed network of servers located in 14 different places around the world. Using clever routing and caching, visitors to your site get the content served up to their computer from the closest location to them, which means they get your sites faster!
What do I have to do to get on this?
Most of you will already be on the CDN following changes in our domain name configurations that have been taking place over the last couple of weeks, but for some of you, who have your domain name hosted or managed elsewhere, you will need to take some action. So here are the different cases:
- You have a site with one of our subdomain e.g. site.moonfruit.com (also t83.net, kk5.org, sm4.biz) - do nothing, you're already running on the CDN
- You have a domain name which you bought from moonfruit.com, e.g. www.yourdomain.com - in most cases do nothing, you're already running on the CDN for the 'www' part of your domain, e.g. if you use www.yourdomain.com you're on the CDN, if you use yourdomain.com (without the www) you're not. This is because you can't set CNAME records on the root of your domain. So to get on the CDN you need to use the www version of your domain. (Instructions on how to do this will be provided.
- You have a domain name hosted or managed by someone else (e.g. another domain name provider, not us) - in this case you'll need to change your DNS Zone file and create a CNAME record on the www part and set that CNAME to use your canonical address which is the original subdomain you got when you started your site, e.g. probably something.moonfruit.com. This doesn't mean that address will be displayed, it just means your domain name will copy the settings from this. Your domain provider will be able to help you with this (or you can always transfer it to us ;-) ).
Why did we do this?
More and more of our customers are located outside of the UK and have a global audience. This was really brought to a head following our last Twitter campaign in July which received an enormous amount of international attention. So that got us thinking, how could we improve the global delivery of our awesome website builder and improve the quality of service for everyone? The CDN was our answer.
And best of all, it will cost you nothing! We're paying for it, even for free sites. Consider it an early Xmas present. Enjoy!!
Where do I get the flights from?
That's our new Twitter comp to celebrate this launch. Check out www.moonfruit.com/flymeto.html.
So there you have it. Most of your sites are already running on the CDN, but for those that are not you can take the steps above and accelerate your site globally.
Comments
Hello my domain name managed by someone else. And I do not understand how to change or set Cname. I have already pointed DNSA record to moon fruit but you mentioned about something else in you above article. So would you please give more detail about Creating a CNAME record, so we can do that
THX
Hi Pijama,
On a DNS zone file you can create a number of different records. The A record is one type, and the CNAME is another. So where you currently have an A record set to 146.101.249.107, you should change this to a CNAME to yoursite.moonfruit.com or whatever the original address was. If you ask your domain provider they will know how to create the CNAME.
But remember to use the CNAME method you will have to use www.yourdomain.com and not just yourdomain.com.
I hope that helps,
Joe
Hello Joe,
When I try to use CNAME my DNS zone provider asks me the following question:
Are you sure you would like to add the following alias?
almountakhab.moonfruit.com.theatlaslions.com will be another name for the existing domain www.theatlaslions.com.
Is this correct and should I go ahead and accept this or is it not the right way?
by the way, when I tried to set it up it asked me the name of ' Alias' and I typed my moonfruit domain and for the new Alias I used my own domain www.theatlaslions.com.
thanks for your help.
Cheers,
Atlas
Hi Altas,
You may need to need to contact the support team at your domain provider to check with them and make sure you get the settings right. I don't recognise the way they are describing it, but that's not to say it's wrong. I hope that helps,
Joe
Hi Joe,
For those of us who have the domain name managed somewhere else, Do we need to DELETE the A-record - in addition to adding a new CNAME? Also, is there any way to KNOW after attempting to do this - that it IS in fact done/working properly? tx
Hi Rose,
Yes, you'll want to replace the A record with the CNAME. In terms of testing it you have to wait for the changes to take affect which can be some hours. It would be best to check with your domain name provider to make sure the setting is correctly setup so they can check it for you before it propagates around the internet (which is what takes some hours). I hope that helps,
Joe
Joe
if we didn't do this for a while - what effect would it have?
Not making sense to me. I have 10 sites on moonfruit - all domains purchased via GoDaddy. Can you give a step by step explanation? The directions are confusing to me.
Thanks for your efforts to make Moonfruit even better! I am just a little confused as to how to adapt.
@ Paul - it won't matter if you don't move onto the CDN, the service will remain exactly as before.
@Bobbie - it's difficult to give exact instructions for other domain companies as we're not familiar with all of their interfaces. Your best bet would be to contact the customer service at godaddy (and try to avoid them selling you anything ;-)
Hope that helps,
Joe
Having told us that we need to take action, you have said that "it won't matter if you don't move onto the CDN, the service will remain exactly as before"
Please clarify as I have a lot of sites to change and if there is no benefit or need, why would I do it?
I have no idea if I am already on the CDN my site address was purchased through moonfruit. If I can still access my site does this mean all is OK? How do I check? My site in question is www.corbierescreatives.com I assume my other sites are OK since they have retained the moonfruit.com name
I hope this makes sense.
Hi
So if I understand correctly: if I change the DNS to a CNAME my site will work faster (server = closer) but if I don't change anything everything will still work as before.
Right?
HI
I'm in the clutches of Go daddy with three domain names. i can't alter anything as i own the names but am not an administrator so Go Daddy wont let me do that. I have thee free tickets for domains with moonfruit i can't use and am a little miffed as this situation has gone on for months. I would transfer but guess what, i'm not an administrator. owners can't be administrators at Go daddy
Oh i did get a friend to act as administrator who after months of begging i gave up on. I wrote to tech spuport at Moon fruit who said just fill in etc etc like i was an idiot But go daddy won't give me the codes because i own the domain names. Catch 22
Anyone in the world can with an email address can have the codes except me.
Best wishes
Geofizz.
im so confused. I also have sites forwarding to myname.moonfruit.com
over 10 sites acutally.
Is it neccesary to make these changes? Will the sites still work the same if not.
I have noticed some people saying they can't get to the sites and some can. Is that becuase of this change. I have always been able to. But others have not been able to see the site.
I am also hosting with godaddy, How much is hosting if I transfer to you?
sweden hello
Hi guys,
Apologies for the confusion. Essentially all your sites are working and will continue to work. Those who use a moonfruit.com sub domain or have bought a domain through us will already be on the cdn, and your sites have been tested from the remote location.
For those with their own domains managed elsewhere, if you take no action your site will continue to work as before with no problems, but you will not get the performance improvement from being on the cdn. There is also no rush to change so you can take your time and work with our support team to make sure any changes are done correctly.
Sorry to hear about those having trouble with godaddy, they do have some 'interesting' policies, but do drop us a support mail and our domain experts will help you get it sorted.
And finally being on the cdn will make your site load more quickly as content is served from closer to your visitors no matter where they are. But if you don't change nothing will break and take your time, there's no hurry.
Sorry to spook you ;-)
Joe
my domain name www.allterrainroutes.co.uk
is from 123 host, do i need to change it at all, plus my 2 years must be up soon, can i close it and then buy it from you, and how long does it take once i closed it to be available to buy .. cheers wayne ..
ps your website is so easy to use and to build a professonal look . i've had so many good comments, on how good it looks. well done guys on making life a breeze :o)
Where do I belong? Sorry, I am confused. I live in the UK and operate global. How do I check? Very busy but any help would be appreciated as my website will be promoting Fiesta's beauty pageant - 14 finalists. I don't wish to be cut off due to the Moonfruit's change. Thanks. Swiftminds.
Moonfruit is growing. And very fast. That too when there is global recession! Now, to use a cliche, only sky is the limit. Cheers.
Hi All of you out there with names at godaddy.com,
It's actually quite simple to make that change - and I've found them to be quite helpful when I called them on the phone.
Here's how I did it:
Go to Domain Manager
Click on the domain you want to reset
(scroll down until you see) and Click on "Total DNS Control"
Click on "Add New CNAME Record" button
In the box "Enter an Alias Name" Put in your actual domain name
In the box "Points to Host" Put in your domain.moonfruit.com name
This last step - still confirming with JOE: you may still have to DELETE the Existing A-Record (A(Host) that's pointing to an IP address by clicking on the red X button - for delete. - for it to take complete effect.
Otherwise - you're done!
Hope this helps some of you that have your domains currently by Godaddy
(And geofizz - if you're the domain name owner - you shouldn't have any problems with being the "administrator" as the owner sets all this up AND changes as needed. But if it's the other way around - you're the administrator - then the owner could have locked you out of being able to access to change the stuff. Are you the one PAYING to renew those domain names? if so, then you are the owner.)
Probably unrealistic but it might help if you could create a user guide with instructions for the major domain companies - easily 123 reg etc etc
Ok - deleted my ANAME added a CNAME however site now not working.
what is the Alias? have reverted back to ANAME.
Hi Paul,
The alias is your original site address e.g. something.moonfruit.com. So you should have a www record with a CNAME to something.moonfruit.com (or whatever your original address was).
I'd difficult to advise on particular companies as we don't know all of their interfaces, but I take your point that we should get some info on the most popular. We'll work on that. Thanks,
Joe
@rose - thanks for the helpful summary for godaddy users. Yes you will have to delete the A record at the end of this process, though only for the 'www' record of your domain.
(e.g. a domain name is the 'domain.com', which can have any number of subdomians, e.g. something.domain.com. The 'www' is just a subdomain, but has become the convention for web addresses. So to use our CDN, you will need to create a CNAME for the www record to use your original site address as an alias, e.g. something.moonfruit.com. If you have any other A records setup (not for the www record) then you can leave these alone).
I hope all that helps!
Joe
Great news for us on the other side of the pond. What Commercial CDN provider did you choose to serve our sites? I’m glad to see there is a lot more going on behind the scenes at Moonfruit. Keep up the good work !
Back again... when I attempted to delete the A(Host) record - he site doesn't work anymore.
So all the steps UP UNTIL deleting the A-record worked fine (though I didn't see a significant increase in speed - here in New Jersey)
Right now, I will go ahead and put back the A-record.
Joe - if you can weigh in on this - can you give us some kind of a pointer - HOW would we know we followed everything properly - and now should be working faster? (otherwise, it's difficult to figure out - as computer speeds are kind of arbitrary...)
Thanks,
I've made the changes as suggested by Rose (comment no 20) for adding the CNAME on Go Daddy. I've deleted the A Record but now it's not finding my site.
Is this just becuase it takes time? Or might it be wrong?
Also my original (MF) address is a sm4.biz Are they included in this CDN change!?
BTW - Very pleased moonfruit have done this, some of my clients are in New Zealand and the sites are loading too slowly here.
Hi Rose,
If the A record is still in place then it will take precedent over the CNAME for the same record, e.g. www.
When the switch is made from the A record to the CNAME it should work normally through out, as any DNS server with outdated info should still be using the A record (which will work), and as soon as they update and get the new CNAME that will work too.
So if it didn't work at some stage, then it doesn't sound like it was correctly configured. I've just reviewed the godaddy FAQs on this (http://help.godaddy.com/article/679) and the alias is actually the 'www' not the domain.
So once you get to their step 5, you should;
5. Create a new CNAME
6. Complete the info:
Alias - www
Hostname - yoursite.moonfruit.com
TTL - 3 hours
Then click ok, and this will create a CNAME on the www record. It may ask you to remove the A record on the www before you create the CNAME. But if you this at the same time your site will remain running normally throughout.
I hope that helps,
Joe
Okay Joe - thanks. It worked to put the site back up... but - I don't think I notice any improvement on the speed of loading thing...
So back to my previous question: How do we know (to measure) if this actually improves the speed... so we know we did it right and are taking advantage of the distributed network... (as opposed to just having it run a "different' way...)
Also, are there ANY side-effects, so to speak, of pointing to the site this way? (GOOGLE issues... seo... etc.)
Many thanks!
Rose
Hi Rose,
If you let me know the your URL I'll check the settings for you and run a speed test for you. Thanks,
Joe
Rose/Joe- i agree the Godaddy instructions were a little confusing. i just completed mine.
Alias name: www
Points to host name: arcbrand.moonfruit.com
TTL; 1/2 hour
then delete A Record using the RED "X" icon next to it.
So now, we wait 24 hours or so and see if everything works.
joe- It would be helpful to post the speed test link. That way people can try it on thier own. the big question is...did this really improve my site performance? perhaps if I had heavy content and loading issues but who's to say.
Help!
I did it all ( I think correctly: just put www.sophieploeg.moonfruit.com in the cname alias and my site is still up and running fine. BUT I am not receiving any emails anymore!! (I am with 1&1) and I don't know the old DNS settings anymore. Are they still available somewhere?
boohoo!
OK, I found the old settings so put it all back. I obviously cannot change to a Cname alias without also losing functionality of email etc. So the old system will have to stay. If my website gets too slow for users, what do I do then?
Google Analytics shows i have visitors from all over the globe as things are.
As the above stuff is incomprehensible is there any reason why I should ever risk trying to change from A to C?
My domain is with FreeParking. It has been asked already if I transfer my registration to Moonfruit when renewal comes round will that sort it?
Me again :)
Right now - if you put in the domain name without the "www" in a browser - it doesn't come up.... only if I use the full www.domain.com does it work.
Is this part of what's expected to happen with the change? If so, it may not be worth it...
@Mariem555 sounds like you've done it right. I've checked you site URL and it is now correctly loading via the distributed servers.
However, like rose it looks like the root URL, e.g. domain.com, vs www.domain.com, is not resolving. For the domain.com you'll need to add back an A record either with the value * or @ going to the IP address 146.101.249.107. (* is all records, @ is just the root, but the * won't override the www).
Apologies for any confusion in this, but it all depends on how things are setup at the registrar originally. I hope that helps,
Joe
@Sophie - there should be separate records for websites (A or CNAME) and for mail (MX records), so changing one shouldn't affect the other. So you'll need to be careful in the 1&1 interface not to change the MX records. I'd be surprised if they don't allow you to change just the web records.
In terms of speed, your site will remain exactly the the same as now if you don't make any changes, which is not slow anyway. So if you don't make the changes it won't make things worse. The main beneficiaries if you make the changes will be users outside Europe, particularly the US where there should be a significant speed improvement.
I hope that helps,
Joe
Hi John,
The current setup doesn't stop you getting visitors from all over the world, just makes the site load faster for them. But if they're happy now, that's fine too ;-)
If you transfer your domain over to us we will setup all these settings automatically so there will be no issues. I hope that helps,
Joe
Hi Rose,
If you keep the A record for the root of your domain (sometimes referred to as @, though nothing to do with mail), then the domain.com by itself will still work. Sorry if this was not clear. It was only the A record for www that you would need to delete. If they has setup the A record as * (all subdomains), then you can leave it in place as the CNAME www would override the * for the www and leave all other subdomains using the A record.
I hope that helps,
Joe
Joe, thanks very much. I am afraid at 1&1 if I fill in a Cname/alias I HAVE to tick the box that disables MX records etc. So I have little choice. I'll stick to the 'old system'.
I'll ask my American visitors (half of all my visitors!) how slow my site is and if it needs improvement. Haven't had any complaints so far!
Thanks for answering all our questions on this...
Hi Everyone
Well it seems Go Daddy got the message. could not be easier to change forwarding
Went to my domain manager checked domain box, clicked fowarding and re typed my moonfruit name and addres in pannel that poped up, simple
Only one slight concern so far on the preview button My site came up?? Sounds good but site as shown was four years old and not now in existance so thats a slight worry but will check links out in 24 hours.
Good news is a can now use the 20.000- leaflets i have ?
Best Regards
Geofizz
Hi Geofizz,
Be careful that you are changing the right setting. Forwarding can mean that they load the target site in a blank frameset on your URL rather than actually getting your domain name to correctly load the site directly. This 'masked forwarding' using the frameset is very bad for SEO as it looks like your site has no visible contents. Domain registrars like it because it is very easy to setup, but not good for their clients.
So have a quick check to make sure you haven't done this rather than change the CNAME. Thanks,
Joe
Hi Joe. Great news we are moving to a faster server! thanks!
I use Crazy Domains for my domain hosting and just have a quick question. I cannot find anywhere to update these details, except there is a section called "Update name server details" which then has a primary hostname listed and a secondary.
Primary: s1.dnspackage.com IP address: 203.170.87.1
Secondary: ns2.dnspackage.com IP address: 74.50.118.47
Is this where I do it? Does Primary mean A record maybe?
Thank you
Mel
t
Hi, I badly need your help please. Since you made your changes my web page
disappeared from one of the sites that I was linked to - namely
Bedandbreakfasts.co.uk. I have been in touch with them and they have told me
"Your website is NOT google cached. I added it
<http://www.google.com/addurl/> http://www.google.com/addurl/ but whether
Google caches free sites like moonfruit I dont know
Re your link to bedandbreakfasts.co.uk it has no "www" at the start. But it
wont work yet anyway as that page is not google cached"
I (that is me) went to the Google web site and followed their instruction
and inserted a given cut and paste meta tag into my web page before the
first welcome page and then received a note from Google that they could not
verify my site.
I am really struggling with limited knowledge of the terminology and where
and what to do -- please help me as this is affecting my B & B business - I
will do what ever it takes. The meta tag that I entered was inside< > which
I think I may have included was that wrong??
Thanks for any crumb of help.
Hi. Does anyone know if we need to actually DELETE the A name record which points to 146.101.249.107 ? Or do we keep this, and then just add a C Name record (so we have both) ?
Hi. I bought a domain through moonfruit.com and I am trying to access my CNAME to add my forum/ adsense.. however I cannot. Can you tell me how to access my CNAME through moonfruit.com?
I love Moonfruit but they have done a horrible job of explaining this change to everyone. They just threw out some vague instructions and left us to fend for ourselves. Not cool!
Come on, Moonfruit team...how about some real customer service?
Hi Tim,
Sorry that this is still not clear, it's actually quite a complex change if you have your domain managed elsewhere, as we don't know what the domain interface looks like that you're dealing with.
The simple answer is that if you use a .moonfruit.com address of have your domain managed with us we take care of everything for you. If you transfer a domain to us, we will update the records correctly.
But if you do have it elsewhere, then you need to create a www record in your zone file, as a CNAME to your site.moonfruit.com address. If there is an existing www A record, then delete this too. If there is a * record set to A, then simply add the www CNAME.
And if you give us specific information about your domain we can give you a specific answer to it.
I hope that helps,
Joe
I made a website on moonfruit but I dont like it. Is there any way to delete it and make a new completely different one?
Hi
I have 2 moonfruit sites in my account and 2 domain names bought through moonfruit.
http://scotlandprayer2010.org points to the correct site that it's assigned to scotlandprayer2010.moonfruit.com. However when I type www.scotlandprayer2010.org into my browser I get directed to my other site.
Can you help? I've emailled 3000 people with the www link and it points to the wrong site!
Thanks
Peter