Network Solutions custom domain setup

When you create a WildApricot 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 WildApricot address. If you are using Network Solutions as your domain registrar, follow these instructions to set up your Network Solutions account and configure your WildApricot account to use your custom domain as the address for your Wild Apricot site.

The following 3 DNS records are required for using your custom domain as your From email address within WildApricot:

• SPF (a TXT record)
• DKIM (a CNAME record)
• DMARC (a TXT record)

Important Note: It can take up to 2 days before changes made to the DNS records within your custom domain account take effect globally.

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 (SPF) 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 WildApricot from being able to install a security certificate on your domain.

CAA record

A Certification Authority Authorization (CAA) record is used to specify which certificate authorities are allowed to issue certificates for your domain. 

If you don't have a CAA record within your DNS, you need to create one for letsencyrpt.org and for any other certificate issuing authority that you have ordered a certificate from.

DMARC record

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance) is a method of authenticating email messages. A DMARC policy is a TXT record that tells a receiving email server what to do after checking a domain's SPF and DKIM records. 

For an in-depth explanation of DMARC, view Cloudflare's article. 

Your DMARC record can also include a rua tag with instructions about where to send reports of emails that pass or fail DKIM or SPF. 

Important Note: To view an example of a DMARC record with a rua tag, please see the DMARC rua tag section below.

Here is an example of what a basic DMARC record, without a rua tag, might look like for a custom domain of {yourdomainname}:

Name:  _dmarc.{yourdomainname}
Value:  v=DMARC1; p=none; adkim=r; aspf=r; 

What does this mean?

• v=DMARC1 indicates that this TXT record contains a DMARC policy and should be interpreted as such by email servers.
• p=none allows emails that fail to still go through, while p=quarantine indicates that email servers should "quarantine" emails that fail DKIM and SPF — considering them to be potentially spam. Another possible setting is p=reject, which instructs email servers to block emails that fail.
• adkim=r means that DKIM checks are "relaxed." This can also be set to "strict" by changing the r to an s, like adkim=s.
• aspf=r is the same as adkim=r, but for SPF.
• Note:  aspf and adkim are optional settings. The p= attribute is required and indicates what email servers should do with emails that fail SPF and DKIM.

DMARC rua tag
The rua part of a DMARC policy indicates what email address your DMARC reports should be sent to.

The DMARC rua tag is used to designate an email address or addresses to send DMARC aggregate feedback reports to. These reports are incredibly valuable to any business that sends email, as a they provide a view into email delivery when reports are combined. 

Even if a business does not use the domain for sending email, setting up a DMARC record and receiving these DMARC reports can provide insight into domain spoofing or phishing attacks impersonating the domain, which may impact your business and reputation.

The rua tag is set as a comma-separated list of email addresses which you want DMARC aggregate reports sent to. Each email address you wish to send reports to should be formatted with a prefix of mailto: 

You can add an optional rua tag to the DMARC value in your DNS settings. A sample DMARC record with a rua tag for the custom domain {yourdomainname} might appear as follows:

Name:  _dmarc.{yourdomainname}
Value:  v=DMARC1; p=none; adkim=r; aspf=r; rua=mailto:something@{yourdomainname}; 

Important Note: The DMARC information provided in the examples above are only examples, and the specific Name and Value settings will be unique to your account. As long as you have a TXT record that provides a DMARC policy in your DNS settings, your domain will pass WildApricot's domain status check for DMARC.

Setting up your domain in WildApricot

Once you have made these changes, you can set up your custom domain in WildApricot. 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. Click the Save button to save your changes.
6. 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.
   

To secure your custom domain, we will automatically issue a custom security certificate for your domain from Let's Encrypt. For more information on Let's Encrypt security certificates, click here.

Important Note: It can take up to 2 days before changes made to the DNS records within your custom domain account take effect globally.