Create A Forum - Support Forums
Support => Guides and Tutorials => Topic started by: Seldom Fail on July 08, 2011, 11:24:39 pm
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This is a detailed guide on how to set up a free .tk domain via http://dot.tk
This is NOT cloaking. Using .tk cloaking on your forum can cause problems with staying logged in as well as a few others. It is not recommended that you use cloaking, but rather follow this guide to get a free domain with DNS Support.
For this guide I will use an example test forum of mine: http://seldomfail.mysmf.com
And I will change it's domain to: http://seldomfail.tk
Getting Started
If you are not the administrator of the forum you are trying to park the domain to, this will not work. There is information that is needed from the Admin CP and also steps that require access to the control panel.
First, you will have to register a domain with .tk. Doing so is not difficult. But with the way their homepage is set up, it can be confusing.
When you get to their homepage, there will be a display box in the middle. And a place to enter a domain. Do NOT use this box for your .tk domain. Rather, see the links directly above the box. There is one called Web Domain. Click it.
See picture (http://i52.tinypic.com/10h25gk.jpg)
Registering the Domain
On the page it brings you to (the picture above), you will need to type the domain name you wish to have.
I typed "seldomfail" in the box because my URL will be seldomfail.tk.
After you have typed your desired URL name in the box, click next
Choose Free Domain and then click next
The page it will bring you to, will ask for your domain and if you want to use DNS support.
Click the button that says Use DNS for this domain
See picture (http://i56.tinypic.com/wtyjw1.png)
Nameservers
When you click that button, the page will change and you will see 4 boxes appear.
But there is also a bubble to check next to Use my own DNS services (check that)
To setup the nameservers you have to set the "Name Server" to ns1.yourdomain.tk and ns2.yourdomain.tk
And then you will need to go to your forum. Go to Admin CP > Domain Manager (See picture to find IP addresses (http://i55.tinypic.com/2q9b9r9.png))
There you will find 2 IP addresses (if you notice, they ARE the same) copy that IP address. The IP address will go in the boxes to the right labeled "IP address"
See picture (http://i937.photobucket.com/albums/ad213/Seldom_Fail/nameservers.png)
After you have done this, go down the page.
Put your email address in the box where it asks for your email. It is very important that you can access this email and/or use it frequently because you WILL have to activate your domain through a confirmation email.
Then click next
Account Registration
If you already have an account with the email you provided, it will just ask you for a password.
If you do not have an account, you will be redirected to a page where you can sign up. (don't worry. It's still free)
And then you're done with your domain registration! woo hoo! but.. we aren't done yet :P
See Picture (http://i937.photobucket.com/albums/ad213/Seldom_Fail/registrationdone.png)
Domain Confirmation
You should get the email fairly quickly. Remember to check your spam folder also (Yahoo tags it as spam)
See Picture (http://i55.tinypic.com/ojjb6t.png)
Like any confirmation, you'll need to copy the confirmation code toward the top of the email you'll be sent. And then go to the link and put the code in the confirmation box.
This will activate your domain. If you do not do this, your domain will not work
After you confirm it, you will get a page that says your domain has been activated.
Parking the Domain
Now we go back to our domain manager (Admin CP > Domain Manager)
And we put the domain we registered in the text box for the domain.
See Picture (http://i52.tinypic.com/v8izcn.png)
After you've entered your domain, click Park Domain
You will now see more text appear at the bottom of that page.
It will look like this: See Picture (http://i52.tinypic.com/2r5450y.png)
It will take anywhere from 3 to 48 hours to make the DNS changes. So periodically click VERIFY URL. When you see a black 1 at the top, you can click Update Forum URL
The page will look like this: See Picture (http://i53.tinypic.com/1649qc.png)
After you've done that, it will change your domain to the .tk domain you've chosen. Don't worry though, if someone goes to the original longform domain of your forum, they'll be redirected to the new one.
If you have any questions, please post them in this topic.
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Nice guide. Most people could probably set up there .tk domain with just the link. But this could be really helpful to people who are new to computers etc.
Very nice.
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Checked out your forum. You're using the .tk domain but you're using cloaking which doesn't work well with the hosted forums (which you're not hosted through CAF so I don't know if it's a problem for you) this guide shows how to get the free domain using name servers which actually park the domain to the forum instead of using cloaking/masking to just cover up the long url.
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hello seldom yes i didnt follow your guide right the first time im going to try to change this again and thanks for this guide to help me ill let you know how it goes this time
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ive heard that when your site gets popular it takes it away and puts ads there. if that happens, can createaforum still recover my forum (not the domain name)?
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does anyone know this?
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I believe you can still access your forum through the original .createaforum url provided, by using that url, you can reset your forum's domain.
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okay thanks!
i guess ill use .tk for now as long as i can reaccess my forum anyways.
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I use Webroot security (very good and expensive security), it's warning me that dot.tk has malicious content on it. I wanted to give a free .tk domain to a friend but I'm not so sure anymore. It's not a false positive because I've opened and re opened it and it's still warning me. Is this happening to anybody else?
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I use Webroot security (very good and expensive security), it's warning me that dot.tk has malicious content on it. I wanted to give a free .tk domain to a friend but I'm not so sure anymore. It's not a false positive because I've opened and re opened it and it's still warning me. Is this happening to anybody else?
.tk domains are often used for malicious purposes since it's free unlike more professional domains such as .com so this is probably the reason why it's flagged as malicious.
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Oh cool, so it doesn't actually have viruses?
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Oh cool, so it doesn't actually have viruses?
Most likely not.
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Cool, thanks
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I can't find the box called web domain. Do I need to register?
There's one called domain panel...but that's it
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I can't find the box called web domain. Do I need to register?
There's one called domain panel...but that's it
This guide was written over two years ago so it's possible some things may have changed.