Don't Always Blame Blogger, With Your Blog Down!

Some of my favourite problem reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, are about inconsistent blog online status.

It was fine yesterday. Why is it down, now?

and

I see the blog, just fine! Why are some of my readers complaining?

and

I can access it, using my phone! Why is Blogger down, on my home computer?

and

The registrar tells me everything is OK!

Whenever I see the latter report, I know exactly where to start.

Particularly when I see the latter symptom, I know exactly where to start.

The registrar tells me everything is OK!

The "registrar says" is a frequent indicator of the problem. I'm not naming names, but the initial "G" (and not "Google") is very frequently involved, in this case.

So, I start with a Dig log, for the domain. And 99% of the time, that's all that is needed.

Bogus DNS addresses are a very commonly seen diagnosis, in so many of these cases. For 99.99% of the blogs, published to a custom domain, there is simply no effective substitute for the "Asymmetrical DNS" setup, provided long ago.

• Maybe the blog will be up for you, and some would be readers - but others will be seeing the "404".
• Maybe it was fine, yesterday - and today it is suggesting spam and viruses.
• It will only work, for some people, some of the time. That is the only constant.

So you call the registrar - and they tell you that it has to be Blogger, because they have no problem accessing it. But the registrar is part of the problem.

The righteous address setup.

mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 216.239.32.21
mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 216.239.34.21
mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 216.239.36.21
mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 216.239.38.21
www.mydomain.com. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

The domain root uses 4 x "A" addresses, accessed in a round robin sequence. And the published URL uses a single "CNAME", resolved using a complex name server array. With both domain root and "www" alias properly addressed, your blog has much better chance of being consistently and reliably accessed.

One possibly righteous address setup.

One Blogger Engineer recommended a modified version of the asymmetrical DNS setup, to be used by 1&1 customers. Only time will tell if this setup is reliable. I have seen several 1&1 customers, this year, suggesting that this is not long term reliable.

mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 216.239.32.21
www.mydomain.com. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

Some spurious address setups.

Spurious address setups are unlimited, in variety. Here are a random 3 examples, from recent forum history.

Error when adding domain

https://productforums.google.com/d/topic/blogger/WvW2yZaS-FI/discussion

When i am trying to adding the domain it shows the error
Whoops, that's an error! (bX-6g9yx1)

socialsfriend.com. 600 IN A 184.168.221.33
www.socialsfriend.com. 3600 IN CNAME socialsfriend.com.

Blogger appears to be detecting this setup as a problem - and throws a bX code, to indicate a problem.

Mobile Redirection Failure

https://productforums.google.com/d/topic/blogger/rAJgN8pYdPw/discussion

When I am on mobile on google chrome (only browser I tested).

chartlearning.com does not redirect to www.chartlearning.com on mobile.

chartlearning.com. 600 IN A 50.63.202.10
www.chartlearning.com. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

This blog is online - and visible, using broadband - but no domain root redirection, for mobile browsing. "50.63.202.10" is not a Blogger / Google name server, and won't provide reliable redirection.

Can't publish my blog

https://productforums.google.com/d/topic/blogger/ibGqKLWXhO8/discussion

When I entered the "eac-leadership-consulting.com" domain in 3rd-party domain settings, I did not receive an error. I did not see the 2 CNAME records.

eac-leadership-consulting.com. 600 IN A 50.63.202.50
www.eac-leadership-consulting.com. 3600 IN CNAME eac-leadership-consulting.com.

This blog published - but ownership verification did not provide the required second "CNAME".

The bottom line.

There simply is no substitute for righteous DNS addressing, for custom domain publishing. Publishing to a custom domain is not a productive activity, if you cannot follow instructions.

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The ability to publish a #Blogger blog to a non BlogSpot URL has been provided, for almost 10 years. Some blog owners still cannot setup the domains properly - and remain oblivious, when a problem arises.

Learn why there is one effective DNS address setup, for custom domain publishing.

If you want a reliable custom domain, this is the address choice.