Set Up Your Domain

EnaCast lets you use your own domain (for example, www.yourstation.com) for your station’s public website instead of the default EnaCast address (yourstation.enacast.com). This guide explains what to set up at your domain provider, in which order, and how to check that it works, both for the www address and for the domain without www (yourstation.com).

With your own domain, your brand appears in the address bar, search engines index your domain, and the website works over HTTPS with a free certificate that EnaCast issues and renews automatically.

Summary: what to point where

Everything happens in your domain provider’s DNS panel (where you bought the domain or where its DNS zone lives):

For	Type	Name	Value
The website (`www.yourstation.com`)	CNAME	`www`	`frontend2.enacast.com`
The domain without www (`yourstation.com`)	A	`@` (the root domain)	`3.66.77.10`
…or, if your provider supports it	ALIAS, ANAME or “CNAME flattening”	`@`	`apex.enacast.com`
The domain without www	AAAA	`@`	delete it if there is one

The root domain must keep exactly one A record, the 3.66.77.10 one. If you use the ALIAS option, leave no A record at all.
If your website is on a subdomain other than www (for example radio.yourtown.org), create the CNAME record with that name (radio), and there is nothing to do with the domain without www.

Before you start

You need to:

Own the domain you want to use (bought from a domain registrar)
Have access to the DNS panel of your domain provider to create and delete records
Have the administrator role on your EnaCast station

The order is: first the www website, then the domain without www.

Step 1: the website on www (or a subdomain)

The order matters: first the DNS record, then the domain in the panel. When you save it, EnaCast checks that the domain already points to EnaCast and only then activates it.

Create a CNAME record in your provider’s DNS panel:

Type Name Value
CNAME www (or your subdomain, for example radio) frontend2.enacast.com

If an A or CNAME record with the same name already exists, replace it: there cannot be two. If your domain’s DNS is on Cloudflare, leave the record as “DNS only” (grey cloud).
Wait a few minutes for the record to propagate. It usually takes minutes; with some providers it can take longer.
Save the domain in the panel: in Settings → Custom domain, enter www.yourstation.com (without https://) and save. If the record does not point to frontend2.enacast.com yet, the panel tells you so and does not save the domain: wait a few more minutes and save again.
Check the status on the same page, under “Domain status”: it first shows Pending while we validate the domain and issue the certificate, and usually Active a few minutes later.
Open https://www.yourstation.com in your browser: your station’s website should appear with the secure-connection padlock.

Type	Name	Value
CNAME	`www` (or your subdomain, for example `radio`)	`frontend2.enacast.com`

Step 2: the domain without www

Many people type or share the domain without www (yourstation.com). A CNAME record cannot be created on the root domain, so EnaCast runs a service that redirects the domain without www to the www website, over HTTPS with a valid certificate: https://yourstation.com/anything leads to https://www.yourstation.com/anything, keeping the page and its parameters.

The redirect exists only when your domain in EnaCast is www. + the domain without www (www.yourstation.com → yourstation.com). Do step 1 first.

Point the root domain to EnaCast. In the DNS panel, on the root domain (shown as @, an empty name or the domain itself, depending on the provider), keep exactly one A record with the value 3.66.77.10:

Type Name Value
A @ 3.66.77.10

Delete any other A record on the root domain. Many domains still have 174.129.25.170: that is the redirect service recommended in the past (wwwizer), which does not work over HTTPS. Replace it.

If your provider supports ALIAS, ANAME or “CNAME flattening” records on the root domain, you can point it to apex.enacast.com instead of creating the A record. If you have that option, it is the best one: it keeps working even if we change the IP address one day.
Delete the AAAA record on the root domain, if there is one. An AAAA (IPv6 address) pointing elsewhere prevents the certificate from being issued and makes part of your visitors miss the site.
If your DNS is on Cloudflare, leave this record as “DNS only” (grey cloud) too.
Do not touch anything else: the www record stays as you left it in step 1, and the MX, TXT and email records do not change.
EnaCast enables the redirect for your domain on its side. There is nothing else for you to do: once the DNS change has propagated, the domain without www starts redirecting, and the HTTPS certificate is issued by itself on the first visit. It usually takes minutes; at most, as long as your provider kept the previous record cached (its TTL, sometimes a few hours). If it is still not redirecting after one working day, write to support@enacast.com with your domain.
Check that it works: open https://yourstation.com in your browser. It should take you to https://www.yourstation.com with no security warning.

Type	Name	Value
A	`@`	`3.66.77.10`

CAA records

Most domains have no CAA records (they restrict who may issue certificates for the domain). If yours has some, they must allow the authorities we use, or the certificate cannot be issued:

For the www website (or subdomain): letsencrypt.org, pki.goog and ssl.com. If one is missing, the status stays “Pending”.
For the domain without www: letsencrypt.org, with the line 0 issue "letsencrypt.org", no accounturi= restriction and no validationmethods= that leaves out http-01.

CAA records on the root domain also apply to www, so these three lines on the root domain cover both:

yourstation.com.  CAA  0 issue "letsencrypt.org"
yourstation.com.  CAA  0 issue "pki.goog"
yourstation.com.  CAA  0 issue "ssl.com"

Stations that already have a domain

If your website already worked with EnaCast pointing to frontend.enacast.com, you do not need to change the www record: it keeps working as before. The panel always shows the value that applies to your domain.

If your domain without www still points to 174.129.25.170 (wwwizer), it only works over HTTP: browsers try HTTPS first, so they show it as down or very slow. Do step 2 to get it working over HTTPS.

Domains managed by EnaCast

Some stations have their domain’s DNS managed by EnaCast. In that case, the Settings → Custom domain page in the panel says so, and:

You do not need to create any DNS record: EnaCast has already set up both the www website and the domain without www
EnaCast also manages the HTTPS certificate
To change or remove the domain, contact EnaCast

Renewing the domain with your registrar is still up to you.

Check that it works

The www website. In Settings → Custom domain, “Domain status” should say Active. Open https://www.yourstation.com: your station’s website should appear with the secure-connection padlock.

The domain without www. Open https://yourstation.com and also http://yourstation.com: both should take you to https://www.yourstation.com with no security warnings. Use a private window to rule out your browser’s cache.

If you are comfortable with a terminal, this command shows it directly:

curl -I https://yourstation.com/

The right answer is a redirect (status 301 or 302) with location: https://www.yourstation.com/. A certificate or connection error means the DNS is not right yet: see the next section.

To see which records the rest of the internet sees, you can look up your domain in a public tool such as dnschecker.org.

Troubleshooting

The panel will not save my domain (“does not point to… yet”). The CNAME record cannot be seen from the internet yet, or it does not point to frontend2.enacast.com. Check that the name (www) and the value are right, wait a few minutes and save again. EnaCast checks again every time you save.

The status stays “Pending”. Check that there is no other record (an A or another CNAME) with the same name, that the record is “DNS only” if you use Cloudflare, and your CAA records. If you change anything, save the domain again.

The domain without www shows a certificate error or does not load. It is almost always one of these:

There is more than one A record on the root domain, or the old 174.129.25.170 is still there: keep only 3.66.77.10.
There is an AAAA record on the root domain: delete it.
The CAA records do not allow letsencrypt.org.
The record is proxied (orange cloud) on Cloudflare: set it to “DNS only”.
The change has not propagated yet: wait; after one working day, write to us.

The domain without www works over HTTP but not over HTTPS. If http:// takes you to the website but https:// fails, the root domain still points to another service (usually wwwizer): do step 2.

My website is on a subdomain (radio.yourtown.org). The redirect of the domain without www exists only for www. domains: the root domain (yourtown.org) does not belong to the station and must not be touched.

Email stopped working. An MX or TXT record was changed or deleted. Restore it at your provider as it was: EnaCast never needs any email record changed.

Automatic daily monitoring

EnaCast checks your custom domain automatically once a day: it verifies that the DNS records are correctly configured and that your website responds correctly over HTTPS.

If a problem is detected:

You will receive an email alert at your station’s notification address, explaining what failed and how to fix it
You will receive a daily reminder while the problem persists, and a confirmation email once it is resolved
The current status is shown in EnaCast Studio, in Settings → Custom domain: Your domain is working correctly or, if there is a problem, how many days it has been down

Change or remove the domain

You can change your custom domain from Settings → Custom domain. For a new domain, follow the same order: first the CNAME record to frontend2.enacast.com, then save it, then the domain without www. When you change or remove the domain:

The old domain stops working, including the redirect of its domain without www
If you set a new domain, a new certificate is issued automatically
If you remove it, the website is reachable only at the default EnaCast address again

If EnaCast manages your domain’s DNS, the field cannot be changed from the panel: contact EnaCast to change it.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use the domain without www as the main address?

No: the website’s main address is always the one with www (or a subdomain), because only there can a CNAME record be created, and the CNAME is what lets EnaCast serve the website without depending on a fixed IP address. The domain without www leads to it through the redirect in step 2.

What happens to the old EnaCast link?

The default EnaCast address keeps working even with a custom domain. Both links are valid.

Do I need web hosting?

No. EnaCast hosts your website. You only need to own the domain and set up the DNS records in this guide.

If you have any questions, contact technical support at support@enacast.com