Change URL - CNAME

In this guide, we'll walk you through how to create a CNAME record for your domain, so that your Prenly e-magazine can be accessed through its own URL, such as epaper.example.com.

By setting up a CNAME, you point a subdomain (like epaper) to your Prenly homepage. This allows your visitors to use a clear and branded URL instead of a standard address.

The guide shows you step-by-step how to ask your web host to do it for you, and how to set it up in your DNS yourself.

CNAME with help from your hosting provider

1. To make a CNAME pointing of your chosen subdomain to Prenly, you first contact your web host.
2. Then you tell the web host that you want to make a CNAME pointing from your chosen subdomain (e.g. epaper.example.com) to Prenly, e.g. name.prenly.com (you replace name with your subdomain)
3. Once a CNAME pointing has been made by the web host, contact Prenly's customer service:

   Email: hello@prenly.com
   Chat: in Prenly AdminPhone: +46-31-388 47 40with information about which subdomain you have chosen and which your main domain is.
   
   

4. Based on the above example, it is enough to tell us that you have made a CNAME on "epaper.example.com" and want to get this into your web app.
5. Prenly will notify you when your web app has been moved to your new web address.

Activating a CNAME pointing usually takes up to 24 hours and there are usually no costs involved. Please note that it must be a CNAME pointing. A regular REDIRECT will not work.

What is a subdomain?

A subdomain, also called a subdomain, is an extension to the main domain. The most frequent subdomain today is "www". In the web address (URL) "www.example.com", the "www" part is the subdomain; "example.com" is the main domain.

For many web hosts, it is a main domain that customers need to buy. A subdomain usually doesn't cost anything extra, depending on which web host you have as a customer.

Many of Prenly's customers have chosen to use the subdomain "epaper" for Prenly.

Create a CNAME record yourself

If you want to do this yourself through your web host, you usually follow these steps - but it may vary a bit depending on which web host you use.

Step-by-step: Create CNAME record

1. Log in to your web host's control panel (often called cPanel, DNS Editor, or similar).
2. Navigate to DNS settings or DNS zone editor for your domain.
3. Locate a function to add a new record.

   Fill in the details like this
   
   - Type: CNAME
   - Name/Host/Subdomain: ex etidning (if you use etidning.example.com)
   (sometimes you write etidning.example.com, sometimes just etidning depending on the platform)
   - Value / Target / Pointing to: name.prenly.com. (this value is the first URL you get from us, you can always ask for it from support if you don't remember)
   Note that the dot at the end is not always necessary, but some DNS systems require it
   - TTL: Leave it at default (e.g. 3600)
   
   

4. Click on Save / Add record / Update.
5. It can take up to 24 hours for the change to take effect globally (due to DNS caching), but it is often much faster.

You can test that it works via e.g.:

- https://dnschecker.org
- Or through the terminal with: nslookup etidning.example.com