Truly, it's an unresolveable conundrum. Depend on technology that abuses us.
I have concluded, just to escape the angst, that humans must learn to hate information technology if we are too survive its capture of us. Otherwise, we'll become Stockholm Syndrome slaves in love with enslavement, Patty Hearst-like victims of the Symbionese Liberation Army's applied science.
I switched mine to a custom domain and substack has a super simple how to for this. If you own the domain, you just follow these steps. Took me like 10 min
In the middle of this and it doesn't work. The company I bought the domain from is asking for an "IPv4 Address" and I haven't been given one, either by substack or anyone else.
In my case, Substack waived the USD50 fee and just let me straight through. They gave me a link of the type target.substack-custom-domains.com, which is not at all like an IPv4 address. An IPv4 address looks like this: xxx.xxx.xxx.xx or xxx.xxx.xx.xx where each "x" represents a number.
This, to my eye, is an "or" construction: "To do this, you will edit the A, AAAA, CNAME, or ALIAS records with the values that your hosting provider gives you"
However, the sample instructions they provide suggest you need both A & CNAME.
The people who wrote that would fail freshman composition, I'm afraid.
My experience was that setting up the custom domain was very straightforward.
The key is to get your DNS records set up first before changing your Substack configuration. Once that's done plugging in the domain information is seamless from what I saw. Any existing links you have out there should continue to work, and will resolve automatically to the custom domain.
I have no idea what's going on, what you're talking about, and why you can't fix it. But I FEEL YOUR PAIN. Your "I'm mad as Hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" attitude is absoluetly kickass. Gotta love your toxic masculinity. Who hasn't spent hours online with a Third World Geek fixing a computer issue. At least Substack is not charging you.
My sister, who's more naive than a Unitarian minister with a BLM banner on his church, was swindled out of $1200 last month by a Third World computer Geek after her computer stopped working and started beeping hysterically, warning in a loud voice, "You have been penetrated (how risque) by a virus. DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER. IF YOU TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER ALL OF YOUR FILES AND SOFTWARE and your hard drive WILL BE DESTROYED. Call our MICROSOFT EMERGENCY HOTLINE at 1-888-...... and a computer software security specialist will correct the problem, remove the virus, protect your hard drive, and restore your ability to use your computer. Again, DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER. CALL 1-800-....... NOW!"
My sister writes children's books, so her life is tied to her computer. She panicked, but rather than calling her husband from the next room or her son, both Geeks, she called the 800 # and got a prompt answer by a guy with an accent (who, no doubt, was sitting in a Third World closet waiting for her call.) He explained that it would take him 15-30 minutes and $3500 to fix the problem. My sister, whose pulse rate at this point was probably in the 180-200 BPM range, replied that her credit card did not have that much credit available. Mr. Third World Geek asked, "How much credit do you have?" Little Miss Sunshine Naivete said, "$1200." Mr Third Worlder paused, went off the phone "to check with my supervisor" and returned to say that, reluctantly, they would fix the problem for $1200. She gave him her credit card #, a charge for $1200 was made immediately, and 5 minutes later NO PROBLEMO!
So, Helen, I say, "Put up with computer shit (and there's always computer shit) only if you can blow your stack at someone in the vicinity," enough at least to incite a DemocRat to recommend anger management therapy.
This never ending madness about trying to control information is not new. It's just taking different forms. I roared with laughter at the hyper excitement of Elon buying Twitter. He's the PT Barnum of our times.
Out of curiosity, did you have to purchase the domain through Substack, or a third party provider, with you then linking the domain to Substack? Would you have the rights to your domain even if Substack decided to end the relationship with you?
Good luck. Remember to unwind a spool of thread when you go into the mainframe so you don't get lost.
Titter.
Condolences!
Truly, it's an unresolveable conundrum. Depend on technology that abuses us.
I have concluded, just to escape the angst, that humans must learn to hate information technology if we are too survive its capture of us. Otherwise, we'll become Stockholm Syndrome slaves in love with enslavement, Patty Hearst-like victims of the Symbionese Liberation Army's applied science.
Steady as she goes, Helen.
I switched mine to a custom domain and substack has a super simple how to for this. If you own the domain, you just follow these steps. Took me like 10 min
https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360051222571-How-do-I-set-up-my-custom-domain-
In the middle of this and it doesn't work. The company I bought the domain from is asking for an "IPv4 Address" and I haven't been given one, either by substack or anyone else.
Right. In that how to link I believe it shows how that happens. You pay the $50 to substack and they give you the link
So you needed an IPv4 address?
In my case, Substack waived the USD50 fee and just let me straight through. They gave me a link of the type target.substack-custom-domains.com, which is not at all like an IPv4 address. An IPv4 address looks like this: xxx.xxx.xxx.xx or xxx.xxx.xx.xx where each "x" represents a number.
OK.... I got the one substack provided. Who is your domain handler? I used Google Domains and it was easy peasy.
Did you get an IPv4 address though? Or just the one with "target" in the name?
Target.... but what Peter says below is what I did. I did a CNAME. That might be your hiccup.
Are you setting up an A record or a CNAME record within your DNS manager?
A record points to an IP address. CNAME points to a hostname.
Substack only provides instructions for a CNAME record, but the instructions from my DNS manager are confusingly written, at one point suggesting you should choose only one of the available options, and at another suggesting you need to set up an A record first, followed by a CNAME record. See: https://docs.gandi.net/en/domain_names/common_operations/link_domain_to_website.html?highlight=cname
This, to my eye, is an "or" construction: "To do this, you will edit the A, AAAA, CNAME, or ALIAS records with the values that your hosting provider gives you"
However, the sample instructions they provide suggest you need both A & CNAME.
The people who wrote that would fail freshman composition, I'm afraid.
Tech writers are frequently linguistically challenged!
However, a CNAME does not require an underlying A record.
I just read through your DNS instructions. You should be able to create the CNAME record directly using the "target" hostname provided by Substack.
My experience was that setting up the custom domain was very straightforward.
The key is to get your DNS records set up first before changing your Substack configuration. Once that's done plugging in the domain information is seamless from what I saw. Any existing links you have out there should continue to work, and will resolve automatically to the custom domain.
That was my experience, at any rate.
Helen,
I have no idea what's going on, what you're talking about, and why you can't fix it. But I FEEL YOUR PAIN. Your "I'm mad as Hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" attitude is absoluetly kickass. Gotta love your toxic masculinity. Who hasn't spent hours online with a Third World Geek fixing a computer issue. At least Substack is not charging you.
My sister, who's more naive than a Unitarian minister with a BLM banner on his church, was swindled out of $1200 last month by a Third World computer Geek after her computer stopped working and started beeping hysterically, warning in a loud voice, "You have been penetrated (how risque) by a virus. DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER. IF YOU TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER ALL OF YOUR FILES AND SOFTWARE and your hard drive WILL BE DESTROYED. Call our MICROSOFT EMERGENCY HOTLINE at 1-888-...... and a computer software security specialist will correct the problem, remove the virus, protect your hard drive, and restore your ability to use your computer. Again, DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER. CALL 1-800-....... NOW!"
My sister writes children's books, so her life is tied to her computer. She panicked, but rather than calling her husband from the next room or her son, both Geeks, she called the 800 # and got a prompt answer by a guy with an accent (who, no doubt, was sitting in a Third World closet waiting for her call.) He explained that it would take him 15-30 minutes and $3500 to fix the problem. My sister, whose pulse rate at this point was probably in the 180-200 BPM range, replied that her credit card did not have that much credit available. Mr. Third World Geek asked, "How much credit do you have?" Little Miss Sunshine Naivete said, "$1200." Mr Third Worlder paused, went off the phone "to check with my supervisor" and returned to say that, reluctantly, they would fix the problem for $1200. She gave him her credit card #, a charge for $1200 was made immediately, and 5 minutes later NO PROBLEMO!
So, Helen, I say, "Put up with computer shit (and there's always computer shit) only if you can blow your stack at someone in the vicinity," enough at least to incite a DemocRat to recommend anger management therapy.
This never ending madness about trying to control information is not new. It's just taking different forms. I roared with laughter at the hyper excitement of Elon buying Twitter. He's the PT Barnum of our times.
Congrats!
Hope things work out soon!
Out of curiosity, did you have to purchase the domain through Substack, or a third party provider, with you then linking the domain to Substack? Would you have the rights to your domain even if Substack decided to end the relationship with you?
Ahhh I see from the rest of the thread that you purchased your own. Good job, worth the initial hassle!