I keep getting https or SSL errors on my browser when I set up this DNS forward for domain traffic. What am I doing wrong!?
There are a lot of web builders now that only show your site under their domain path and your only option for directing traffic is with a DNS forward.
What is DNS forwarding?
Think about it as a bounce. When one url is entered it bounces the traffic to another location on the internet.
This is NOT standard “pointing” where the domain loads to a hosting IP with files. This is a direct hand-off to another website.
What is “masking”?
Masking is when you load the destination page in the same window as your domain. It’s kind of faking that you have the content on your domain. This used to be great for quick replication of content across multiple domains… but it was cheating and now google doesn’t like it. It looks like you’re spoofing another site. So in general, we do NOT use masking any more.
Use HTTP or HTTPS?
This is the most important question! This is what causes the issue most of the time.
While you’d think that you’d pick HTTPS by default… this is actually a mistake. The reason is that the forward has to bounce around a few proxy servers and there will be a few different hand-offs before the connection makes it to the end result.
This means; if you pick HTTPS by default, then the browser expects the connection to be secure the entire length of the bounce. This probably won’t happen, which means the browser gets sassy about the full handoff through the SSL protocol.
However, if we JUST pick HTTP for the connection type… it’ll just be a standard connection at first. Which means the browser should be happy with the bounces before the end-result loads.
If the destination site loads how it’s supposed to then it’ll have its own HTTPS update and load with an SSL. So there’s no reason to call this out ahead of time.
In summary; use standard forward with HTTP only.
As much as the internet changes… some of the legacy protocols continue to work because they are not overly complicated. Keep it simple.
If you aren’t sure about DNS Forward or a Hosting Redirect, you can learn the difference here.