DNS – Forwarding Root Domain to www Subdomain

domain-name-systemforwarding

I have www.mydomain.com pointed at an Azure Website.

www.mydomain.com --- CNAME --- mydomain.azurewebsites.net

When I visit www.mydomain.com, everything works fine. This is good.

Problem is, mydomain.com doesn't work. Azure only allows the www subdomain.

In some nameservers, I use a FWD Record to forward the root to the www, and this works fine. My current name server (zoneedit.com) does not have this FWD Record.

Is there a DNS Record that we can use to forward the root domain to the www subdomain?

Best Answer

Unfortunately, this is a well-known shortcoming of the DNS protocol. There is no record type defined within the DNS standards that will allow you to alias the apex of a domain. Many people assume that CNAME records can be used to accomplish this but there are technical reasons why they cannot.

Many DNS providers implement custom (read: fake) DNS record types to try and address this shortcoming. Behind the scenes, these fake records implement custom behavior in that company's software using a combination of synthesized A records and webserver redirection to accomplish your desired goal. FWD is one of these, much like the WebForward that Michael directed you to in the comments.

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