How to redirect 1and1 domain to your bloggers blog

Recently, Blogger added extra security when configuring a blog using a custom domain.
You know need to setup two CNAME values in the DNS settings of your domain for Blogger to recognize your custom domain settings.

Personally, I purchase all my domains with godaddy.com but let's assume for now that you have purchased a domain with 1and1.com and you would like to setup that domain on Blogger.


Warning: If you are using 1and1 hosting services to display a website as well as a Blogger blog, these instructions will disable the website. Please post a comment with your website address and I'll check how these instructions must be updated. If you're using eMail, remember to complete the optional eMail step.

Step 1: Get the DNS settings for Blogger

First, go to www.blogger.com, select your blog and go to the basic settings:

Click on "Add a custom domain" and then on "Switch to advanced settings".
Enter "www." and the domain name you purchased. In my example, "www.mydomainname.com" and press "Save":

As you can see, Blogger returned back an error because of missing CNAME entries in your domain.
Let's see what we need to do to configure these settings.

Copy/paste the CNAME values displayed into a text editor (or keep the Blogger window opened), you will need them in step 2.

Step 2: Configure CloudNS

As 1and1.com DNS system is not able to be configured with the values required by Blogger. you will need an external DNS hosting service. This does not require your to transfer your domain from 1and1.com. We are simply going to stop using 1and1 DNS servers and use CloudNS free DNS service instead.

Go to www.cloudns.net and create an account. once you have verified your email address, you should be able to access the dashboard. It should look like this:

Next in "DNS zones", click "Add new", enter your domain name and press create:

You will get a new DNS zone with the NS records already set:

Now click "Add new record", select CNAME, type "www" and "ghs.google.com":

Note: If you're using a subdomain, like "blog.mydomainname.com" then enter "blog" instead of "www" for the first CNAME pointing to "ghs.google.com".

Then add a second CNAME with the values that were displayed by Blogger on the settings page.
Mine were "dqbhffrggxdu" and "gv-lca7dpm4ctjmlm3l3jhfftuepgwgzosehj7i2gqrg7y7wv37hima.domainverify.googlehosted.com." but yours will be different. They are specific to the domain name your are trying to register.

Finally add four A records with IPs 216.239.32.21, 216.239.34.21, 216.239.36.21 and 216.239.38.21. Leave the Host entry empty.

Your final dashboard should look something like this:

Optional eMail step:

If you are using email on the domain, you need to add two additional records in cloudNS to continue using 1and1 mail servers.

The two records should be of type "MX". Leave the "Host" field empty, enter "mx00.1and1.com" in the "Points to" field with a priority of 10, and a second record with "mx01.1and1.com" in the "Points to" field with a priority of 20.

Step 3: Configure 1and1.com

So now, let's go to the 1and1.com Control Panel and configure your domain to use CloudNS for DNS services.

Your control panel should look something like this:

Click the checkbox in front of the domain name and then select DNS -> Edit DNS Settings:

In the next screen, select "DNS" and "My name server" and enter the CloudNS name servers.
They are "ns1.cloudns.net", "ns2.cloudns.net", "ns3.cloudns.net" and "ns4.cloudns.net".

Now press "Ok" and it goes back to the Control Panel. The status of the domain will show "updating" and it can take up to 48h for 1and1.com to complete the update.

Step 4: Configure blogger.com

Once the update is done, go back to blogger.com, back to the Advance settings shown in step 1, enter "www." + your domain name such as "www.mydomainname.com" as the custom blog URL and press save. Blogger will verify your DNS settings and apply the new custom domain.

Note: Remember to enable the "Redirect ...." checkbox if you would like your domain name to also point to your blog like "http://mydomainname.com" without the "www" in front.

You may still need to wait about 48h for all DNS servers to have mirrored the changes and point to Blogger instead of 1and1.com.

I hope this helped. Remember to share this article on Google+ and leave comments if I missed something or some steps need more explanations. Goodluck