Generally, setting up a personal domain to point to your Mobile Me website is quick and easy.  Recently, however, we discovered that following this process with a domain at Network Solutions requires a few extra steps, but is still as easy as falling out of a banana tree.

The first thing you want to do open iWeb and select File>Set Up Personal Domain on Mobile Me.  This will lead you to the place in your mobile me to enter your domain name, type it in and click Continue.  You’re going to get a screen telling you to go do some stuff at your registrar’s website and this is where Network Solutions gets a little tricky.

First, press COMMAND+T to open a new tab in your browser and use that new tab to log in to Network Solutions, then click ‘Domains’ in the sidebar on the left and choose ‘Manage Domain Names’.  This will give you a list of all the domains you have registered with them, put a check next to the one you want to point at MobileMe and click the ‘Edit DNS’ button below the list.

On the next screen, click the button that says ‘Manage Advanced DNS Records.’  Yes, it sounds scary, but its not, trust me.

The first thing we need to change is in the first section called ‘IP Address (A Records), click the Add/Edit button in that section.   On this screen, you should see the first three lines directing your domain to an ‘under construction’ page,   Delete first three items by placing a check mark in the DELETE column and then clicking the CONTINUE button at the bottom of the column.  Save changes when prompted.

Now were back at the Domains page; go down to the section called “Host Aliases(CNAME Records) and click the Add/Edit button on the right.  We’re going to create two aliases.  In the first line, the ALIAS name is * and the OTHER HOST is web.me.com. (please note the . afterwards, it is important and necessary).  In the second line, the ALIAS name is www and the OTHER HOST is web.me.com. (again, don’t forget the period aftwards.  Now, click the radial buttons next to OTHER HOST on both lines so that they are blue.

I know this is complicated to type, so here’s a picture of what it should look like:

Click the continue button in the bottom right corner, save changes if prompted and you’re all done!  The site warns that this process could take 24 hours to take effect.  In my experience, its more like 2 hours.

Now, flip back to Mobile Me (forgot you had it open, didn’t ya?) and click the DONE button.  In a few hours, traffic will be directed to your Mobile Me through your personal domain and you’re ready to go!

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