Network Solutions custom domain setup

When you create a Wild Apricot account, you are provided with a free website address. If you already have your own custom domain address, you can use your custom domain name in place of your free Wild Apricot address. If you are using Network Solutions as your domain registrar, follow these instructions to set up your Network Solutions account and Wild Apricot account to use your custom domain as the address for your Wild Apricot site.

Accessing your DNS settings

1. Log into your Network Solutions account then click your account icon then click Home.
   
2. Within Account Manager, click My Domain Names.
   
3. Click Change Where Domain Points for the domain name you want to manage.
4. Select Advanced DNS.
5. Use the directions that follow to set up the required records.

Setting up the A Record

1. Click the Edit A Records button.
2. Set the Numeric IP for @ (none) and * (All Others) to 34.226.77.200. Leave the A-record www box empty.
3. If you would like to use a sub-domain (e.g. members.myorg.com) instead of a full domain (e.g. myorg.com), then type both the www and regular versions of the sub-domain name in the host field, and set its IP to 34.226.77.200.
4. Click Continue. If prompted to confirm your DNS changes, click Save Changes.
5. Click Return to Advanced DNS Summary.

Setting up CNAME records

For a sub-domain skip this step.

1. Click the Edit CNAME Records button.
2. Enter www in the Alias field and sites.wildapricot.org in the Other Host field, then click the radio button beside the Other Host field.
3. Within the next blank CNAME record, set the Alias to default._domainkey.
4. In the Other Host field, enter dkim.wildapricot.org.
5. Click Continue. If prompted to confirm your DNS changes, click Save Changes.
6. Click Return to Advanced DNS Summary.

Setting up the TXT record

1. Click the Edit TXT Records button.
2. In the Text field for both the * (All Others) and @ (None) hosts, enter  v=spf1 mx include:wildapricot.org ~all .
3. If you're using a sub-domain instead of a full domain, then enter sub-domain in the Host field, and set its Text value to
   v=spf1 mx include:wildapricot.org ~all
4. Click Continue. If prompted to confirm your DNS changes, click Save Changes.

AAAA (IPv6) records

If you have an AAAA (IPv6) DNS record specified, you should remove it as it would prevent Wild Apricot from being able to install a security certificate on your domain.

Setting up your domain in Wild Apricot

Once you have made these changes, you can set up your custom domain in Wild Apricot. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Website module (by clicking the Website menu) then click the Settings option.
2. Within the Settings screen, click Domain name (under Site settings).
3. From the Domain name management screen, click the Add custom domain name button.
   
4. Enter your domain name, then click the Save button.
   If you add a custom domain name without the www prefix, we will automatically add domains both with and without the www prefix. 
5. If you want to automatically install a custom security certificate from Let's Encrypt for your custom domain, make sure the option to install a free SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt is checked. If you use a custom domain without a custom security certificate, visitors who access your site by manually entering https will typically see a security warning displayed by their browser (e.g. "not secure" or "connection not private").  For more information on Let's Encrypt security certificates, click here.
6. Click the Save button to save your changes.
7. If you don't want to use both domains, you can remove one by clicking the Remove button beside the appropriate entry. If you want to keep both, you must designate one at the primary domain by clicking the Set as primary link beside the domain name.