Connecting Your Own Domain, Step by Step

How do I connect my own domain to my BanglaCodes site?

Publish the site, then type the address into the domain button in the builder, with no http:// and no www. The box shows two records: a CNAME that points the address at us, and a TXT that proves the domain is yours. Copy both exactly into your domain company's DNS panel and press verify. It usually takes 10 to 30 minutes, and HTTPS comes on by itself.

Three things to check before you start

The job is split across two places: part of it here, part of it wherever you bought the domain. Have these three ready before you begin.

• The site has been Published at least once. The domain section does not even open on an app that was never published. The green live badge tells you it is done.
• The domain really is yours. The account at the domain company has to be in your name and on your email. If it sits in somebody else's account, move it into your own name first.
• You can log in to that panel yourself. The two DNS lines have to go in there. If you do not have the login, sit whoever does beside you for five minutes.

Have not bought a domain yet? Read the previous chapter first; where to buy one and how to pick the name are all in there.

Where the button is

1. Open the app in the builder.
2. Press the three dots button at the top right; domain is inside it.
3. A small box opens with one empty field and a button to add.

Three more things turn up later in that same box:

• The verify button.
• The DNS details, meaning the two lines you have to add.
• The button that removes the domain again.

So the whole job happens in this one place, with nothing to hunt for elsewhere.

How to type the address

Put only the name in the field, nothing else. This is where people stumble most, because you do not type all of what a browser's address bar shows you.

• Do not write http:// or https://. We put the padlock on ourselves; it is not yours to type.
• Do not start with www.. Whether you need www at all is covered further down.
• Do not add a / or a page name at the end. Just the address, nothing more.
• Write it in lowercase English letters. No Bangla letters and no spaces.

Exactly how it should look: aiinbangla.com. That is the whole of it.

Press add and a box opens below with two records written in it. Those two are the entire next step.

The two records, and what each one does

DNS sounds heavy, but the thing itself is an address book: a list of which name points where. You have to add two lines to that book, and nothing beyond that.

• The TXT line holds a code that is visible only inside your own app.
• The TXT name looks like _banglacodes.your-domain, and the value is the code written in the box.
• The first time a domain is added, either one matching is enough to verify.
• If the domain was attached to another account before, the TXT line becomes compulsory.

The reason is simple: a CNAME shows that the domain points at us, but not who pointed it, and in that gap somebody could attach another person's domain to their own site.

Copy exactly what the box shows, adding and removing nothing of your own. One character out of place and the record does not work, yet nowhere will you see an error message about it.

What to do in your domain company's panel

1. Log in to the site where you bought the domain.
2. Look for the section called DNS, DNS Management, Advanced DNS, Zone Editor or Manage DNS. The name changes, the thing inside looks much the same everywhere.
3. Press the Add Record or Add New Record button and a few empty fields open.
4. Fill the fields by the rules below, then press Save or Add.
5. Do the same again for the TXT line. With both lines in, that page is finished with.

Their names vary a little from company to company, but they do the same jobs:

• Type: which kind of record you are adding. Pick CNAME from the list, and TXT for the TXT line.
• Name or Host: which part of the address. For the site, exactly what you typed in our box: www if you typed www, @ or blank if you typed the bare address (aiinbangla.com); see "www or the bare address" below. For the TXT, the name starting with _banglacodes.
• Value, Target or Points to: where it points. Put in exactly the address or the code shown in our box.
• TTL: how long it is remembered. If there is an Auto option, leave it on Auto; if not, type 3600.

One trap sends a lot of people round in circles: if the domain's nameservers point somewhere else, the record has to go there, not on the site you bought the domain from. If you cannot work out where, write one line to their support: I want to add a CNAME record on my domain, where do I add it? It is their everyday work and takes two minutes.

www or the bare address

There are two shapes of address. The one with nothing stuck on the front is called the apex or the root.

• If the apex will not take a CNAME, use ALIAS or ANAME, which is the alternative they offer.
• If neither exists, verify with the TXT record instead.
• In future keep the domain somewhere that allows a CNAME on the bare address.
• Want both addresses to work? One app here holds one domain, so add either one here.
• Redirect the other to it from your domain company's panel. In their panel the thing is usually called URL Redirect or Forwarding.

When that name already holds a record

This is where most people get stuck, and the symptom does not look like your fault.

The rule is simple: a name holds either a CNAME or an A/AAAA, never both. That is not one company's quirk, it is how DNS itself works.

The bare address almost always has an A record on it already: when you buy a domain the company parks a holding page or a redirect on it. While that record is there, the new CNAME either will not save at all, or it saves and the browser keeps showing the old page.

1. Look at the list of records on the name you are about to use.
2. Delete the A and AAAA records on that name.
3. Then add the CNAME.

• Do not delete the MX records. Those do a different job, and a bare-address CNAME works with them in place; mail keeps running exactly as before.
• The TXT record starting with _banglacodes also stays, because it sits on a different name.
• On Cloudflare the orange cloud (proxy) works either on or off for SERVING the site.
• But on a bare address (apex) the CNAME is never visible from outside, not even with the proxy off. DNS does not allow a CNAME on a bare address at all, so Cloudflare turns it into A records internally. That means the TXT record is the only way to prove a bare address is yours; it has to be there.

Before deleting, write the old record's Type and Value down somewhere. Those two values are all you need to put it back.

Press verify, then wait a little

1. With both records in, come back to the domain box on BanglaCodes.
2. Press verify. We read DNS to see whether the lines really are in place, and only then does the domain start showing your site.
3. If it does not match the first time, do not panic; go and drink a cup of tea and press it again.
4. Once it matches, type the domain into a browser and the site comes up.

• A DNS change takes time to spread around the world: usually 10 to 30 minutes, sometimes as much as 24 hours.
• Pressing verify repeatedly harms nothing and costs no Token.
• The HTTPS padlock arrives by itself, with nothing for you to buy or install.
• It can take up to 15 minutes to settle, so if the browser says Not secure in the first few minutes, give it a moment.

That is the last step. The picture below is not a mock-up: it is a real BanglaCodes site, running at demo.nerdsx.com, set up by exactly the steps above.

It opens the same way on a phone, with nothing extra to do.

The fee you pay once

• The moment verification passes and the site goes live on your own domain, the one-time hosting fee is due: ৳6,999. You can pay it beforehand by bKash, Nagad or card with "Get the hosting" in the domain section; if not, it comes out of your balance when it holds 2,449,650 Token.
• So glance at the balance before you press verify.
• After that you never pay for the hosting again: no hosting renewals, no monthly bill. The domain itself still renews yearly at your registrar.
• If you already have Business hosting (৳14,499) or Commerce hosting (৳23,999), that same ৳6,999 is inside the price and is never charged separately.
• So if you were going to need form orders or messages anyway, starting from that side is the cheaper route.

The domain's own yearly rent is not part of this. You keep paying that to the domain company, and no hosting company can waive it.

The sites you may not host

Inside the domain box there is a small line, "sites you may not host". Press it and the full list opens. Read it once before you pay, because breaking these rules means the site comes down with no refund.

• Fraud, phishing, or anything built to take someone's data or money.
• Spreading viruses, malware or harmful files.
• Illegal goods, drugs, weapons or gambling sites.
• Obscene, adult, or child-abuse content.
• Stolen text, images, video or software someone else holds the copyright to.
• Spreading hate, making threats, or harassing anyone.
• Someone else's face, or a recognisable person's picture, put in a video without permission.

An ordinary shop, portfolio, booking, school or office site touches none of this. The list exists so that nobody can wreck the reputation of the whole domain, because one bad site getting caught makes a browser suspicious of the entire hosting.

When nothing happens: symptom, cause, fix

After adding a domain you can also see whether it has verified, and press to verify it, from the manage screen. See Manage your site.

Read next

• Deployed Site Settings and Limits
• Which Hosting You Need: Basic, Business or Commerce
• Lifetime Hosting: 6,999 BDT Once, Forever