Web site not found when "www" is used

[Penrod]

I'm working on one of my customers web sites and just realized it will not come up when I type the address with "www" included (i.e http://www.example.com vs http://example.com). Leave it out, and the site comes up. What does that mean? How does that effect search engine results?

[edited by: tedster at 8:03 am (utc) on Jan. 29, 2008]

[phranque]

welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com], Penrod!

it's probably a domain name server config problem.
what do you see when the site does not come up?

regardless of the reason it means is that any links to the www. url will not resolve and therefore have no benefit.

[rocknbil]

Just so Penrod doesn't get confused - this is most likely a problem with your host.

[jtara]

Actually, it might be a problem with your webserver (guess that's what Bill means by "host"?), and it might be a problem with your DNS configuration.

1) Make sure you have a DNS A or CNAME record for "www".
If an A record, it should have the same IP address as for your base domain name. (Depending on the UI for your DNS configuration, this will be the A record for either "." or blank.) If a CNAME, it should point to your base name.

e.g. www CNAME example.com

2) Make sure your webserver is configured to handle both example.com and www.example.com. (Usually requires a "virtual host" setup.) Then, make sure you choose one as your default, and forward one to the other.

That is, either forward www.example.com to example.com or example.com to www.example.com.

Since we don't know your hosting details, it's hard to give specific "how to" advice.