iWeb, me.com and zoneedit

there's a lot of webconfusion out there about how to get one's own domain working with a me.com/iWeb site. happily, i sussed it out and got my own working.

i use dotster as my registrar, and am usually quite happy with them. after buying a new domain to use with iWeb, however, i unhappily discovered that dotster wanted to charge me an extra $10/year to simply have access to the DNS records. outrageous.

one can, however, and for free, specify domain names that point away from dotster servers. that's where zoneedit comes in: they'll let you use their DNS servers for free (with some limits), but give you free reign over the DNS configuration.

so, to get this all working:

1. ensure you have a working, live iWeb site


2. go to your registrar of choice and buy a new domain


3. make an account at zoneedit and set up a configuration for your new domain


4. zoneedit will give you a pair of DNS server names


5. at your registrar, use those DNS server names for your new domain


6. back at zoneedit, go to the Aliases(CNAME) tab


7. add a new entry, with Alias "www" and Actual Name "web.me.com" (without the quotes, of course)


8. press Add New Alias


9. log into me.com


10. go to Account


11. click on Personal Domain


12. enter your new domain and click Done

that's it. within a couple hours, you should be able to go to your domain and see your iWeb page.

note that zoneedit automatically configures your email so that an email sent to any address @yournewdomain will be forwarded to your address of record (in my case, that's my me.com email address).