Custom Domains Redirecting To Google Sites

Similar to a redirection to the Google Apps Start Page service, some custom domains will be found to be directed to Google Sites. Again, we'll see an apparently normal (asymmetrical) DNS address configuration.

mydomain.net.            3600    IN      A       216.239.32.21
mydomain.net.            3600    IN      A       216.239.34.21
mydomain.net.            3600    IN      A       216.239.36.21
mydomain.net.            3600    IN      A       216.239.38.21
www.mydomain.net.      3600    IN      CNAME   ghs.google.com.
---
ghs.google.com.         282206  IN      CNAME   ghs.l.google.com.
ghs.l.google.com.       300     IN      A       74.125.43.121 

The diagnosis, again, will be made using an (abbreviated) HTTP trace.

Sending request:

GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: mydomain.net
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:
1.9.0.5) Gecko/2008120122 Firefox/3.0.5
Connection: close

• Finding host IP address...
• Host IP address = 209.85.171.121
• Finding TCP protocol...
• Binding to local socket...
• Connecting to host...
• Sending request...
• Waiting for response...

Receiving Header:

HTTP/1.1·302·Moved·Temporarily(CR)(LF)
Location:·http://www.mydomain.net(CR)(LF)

Sending request:

GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: www.mydomain.net
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:
1.9.0.5) Gecko/2008120122 Firefox/3.0.5
Connection: close

• Finding host IP address...
• Host IP address = 209.85.171.121
• Finding TCP protocol...
• Binding to local socket...
• Connecting to host...
• Sending request...
• Waiting for response...

Receiving Header:

HTTP/1.1·302·Moved·Temporarily(CR)(LF)
Location:·http://sites.google.com/a/mydomain.com/sites/system/app/pages/meta/domainWelcome(CR)(LF)

Unlike the generically known "Server Not Found Error 404" symptom, this one won't be solved by merely publishing back to Blog*Spot, then re publishing to the custom domain.

What we see here is that Sites, similar to Start Page, is apparently enabled, and published to "www.mydomain.net". In this case, you're going to first have to disable Sites. If you don't, you're going to see another old friend

Another blog is already hosted at this address.

After doing that, then you can publish back to Blog*Spot, then re publish to the custom domain.

A second variation on this redirect may not start with an explicit "Server Not Found Error 404", and the HTTP trace will be slightly different. You will probably see "Another blog is already hosted at this address." in the usual places.

Sending request:

GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: mydomain.net
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:
1.9.0.6) Gecko/2009011913 Firefox/3.0.6
Connection: close

• Finding host IP address...
• Host IP address = 216.239.34.21
• Finding TCP protocol...
• Binding to local socket...
• Connecting to host...
• Sending request...
• Waiting for response...

Receiving Header:

HTTP/1.1·302·Moved·Temporarily(CR)(LF)
Location:·http://www.mydomain.net(CR)(LF)

Sending request:

GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: www.mydomain.net
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:
1.9.0.6) Gecko/2009011913 Firefox/3.0.6
Connection: close

• Finding host IP address...
• Host IP address = 209.85.171.121
• Finding TCP protocol...
• Binding to local socket...
• Connecting to host...
• Sending request...
• Waiting for response...

Receiving Header:

HTTP/1.1·200·OK(CR)(LF)

(Here is a short excerpt of the rest of the trace -
you have to look carefully for these clues)

<body·xmlns="http://www.google.com/ns/jotspot"·id="body"·class="·en">(LF)
<div·id="sites-page-toolbar">(LF)
<div·id="sites-status"·class="sites-status"·style="display:none;">(LF)
<div·id="sites-notice"·class="sites-notice">·</div>(LF)
</div>(LF)
</div>(LF)
<div·id="sites-chrome-everything"·style="direction:·ltr">(LF)
<div·id="sites-chrome-page-wrapper">(LF)
<div·id="sites-chrome-page-wrapper-inside">(LF)
<div·xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"·id="sites-chrome-header-wrapper">(LF)

As shown immediately above, we have Google Sites involved, though less obviously. Resolution of this scenario, too, seems to involve disabling Sites. After doing that, you will likewise need to publish back to Blog*Spot, then re publish to the custom domain.

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