Hosting Domains as Portals in a Single Web Service with Independent Email Service Print

Hosting Domains as Portals

At EPHost, you can host multiple domains or web sites within one DotNetNuke application, saving you administration time and disk space fees. This can be accomplished in two ways, with domain aliases, or with a dedicated IP address.

Method One: You create a new hosted domain in your control panel, and point the WWW records in DNS to point to the IP address (you'll need to order a dedicated IP address) of your main DNN portal (installation). Then add the portal alias in your main DNN portal for the new domain. The benefit is that email addresses are added to the new domain specifically. If you are a reseller, then they could also have their own control panel if you set it up that way. The drawback is that you'll be using a hosted domain resource unnecessarily and in the vent we make mass DNS changes or do a mass restore, you would need to "fix" them after the changes. We would not be able to do that for you.

Method Two: In the control panel you simply add the new domain as a Domain Alias to your main DNN portal's domain. Then add the portal alias in your main DNN portal for the new domain. If a user on that domain needs an email account, you would manually add it to YOUR MAIN DOMAIN. However, they can still use the new domain for their email address and settings. In other words, mailbox@domainalias.com is the exact same as mailbox@hosteddomain.com. This will give the appearance of having independent email service when in fact it is not. The only drawback is that you would have to add email addresses to your main DNN domain for them when needed. There is also the possibility of having conflicting email addresses e.g. bob@domainalias1.com and bob@domainalias2.com would be a conflict as they both need to be added as bob@hosteddomain.com.

For more information about Method Two: http://www.ephost.com/support/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=138

We recommend that you use Method 2 if the new portals are for yourself or close business associates because it is much easier to accomplish. If portal aliases are for a completely independent business then we recommend Method Two for the seperation. If you are a reseller, Method One is also helpful because it would be possible to give them their own control panel.

This article assumes you are already hosting a single domain with EPHost, and have DotNetNuke installed to this domain.

Step 1: Request an IP address

1. Log into the EPHost control panel (http://cp.ephost.com)
2. Click on the Extra Features icon
3. Select the package you wish to add the static ip to
4. Click the Next button
5. Select Static IP Address
6. Click the Add button
7. Send an email to support@ephost.com specifying the domain you wish to add the static IP to (Your MAIN portal). You will receive notification within four business hours of your new IP address, use this IP address to complete the remainder of these steps

Step 2: Add the new Domain to your Hosting Account

1. From the Home page, Click the Domains icon
2. Click the "Add New" button
3. Select your registration preference

No registration or transfer required - The domain will be added as a web site and email domain, but will not be registered for you. It is assumed that you have registered the - domain elsewhere and will update your name servers with your registrar.

Please register this domain - EPHost will register this domain for you.

Please transfer administration of this domain - EPHost will transfer "registrar" control of this domain to us.

Click the "Next" button

If you have selected: No registration or transfer required

- Type the domain name and extension to add as a portal

- Click the "Save" button

If you have selected: Please register this domain or Please transfer administration of this domain

- Type the domain name to add as a portal

- Select the domain extension from the list of supported extensions.

- Click the "Save" button

- Note: it may take up to 24 hours for new registrations to be registered.

Step 3: Change the Domain's DNS Records (After you get the new IP address)

1. From the Home page of the control panel, click the Domains icon
2. Click the new domain you wish to add as a new portal
3. Click the DNS Zone Editor icon
4. Click the www a record
5. Change the IP Address
6. Click the Save button
7. Repeat the same steps for the "*" record.

Step 4: Add a New Parent Portal in DNN

	Log into your existing DotNetNuke installation with a superuser (host) account
	Click Portals on the Host menu
	Click the Add New Portal link
	Specify Portal Setup fields Portal Type: Parent (Child would allow folders off of your existing portal EG: www.demodotnetnuke.com/portal2) Portal Alias: The domain you added above Title: The title of your web site Description: A description of your web site (by default your home page will have this information in a meta tag which is indexed by search engines.) Keywords: Key words that apply to your web site (by default your home page will have this information in a meta tag which is indexed by search engines.) Template: Choose a template to apply to the new site
	Specify Security Setup fields First Name: The first name of the administrator of this portal Last Name: The last name of the administrator of this portal Username: The username for the administrator of this portal Password: The password for the administrator of this portal Confirm: Confirm the password for the administrator of this portal Email: The email of the administrator of this portal Click the Create Portal link