NameSilo Administration
NameSilo Administration
NameSilo.com is a Domain Registrar, and is where Water Gardens purchases their Domain Name, which is "watergardens55.org".
There is some configuration and handshaking necessary to get the Google Site, https://sites.google.com/view/watergardens55, connected to the custom domain, "watergardens55.org". When it is configured properly, then you can get to your website using your custom domain name. Our Domain Name is pretty much set up on NameSilo, and all you really need to do is pay the annual fee.
Here are the login credentials for NameSilo.com
Website: https://namesilo.com
Login name: lovesmtns@gmail.com
Password: Tucker123!
The Domain Name (watergardens55.org) costs $15/year, plus tax. You can get to the billing page here: https://www.namesilo.com/login?redirect=%2F
They will send an email each year at the anniversary date. This payment is set to auto-renew. This setting can be managed easily at the page above.
Here is how to set up the custom Domain Name (watergardens55.org) for our Google Sites website:
In order to get the initial Google Sites verification, you can only be logged into the WaterGardens55@gmail.com account. If you are also logged into other accounts, it will fail. I had the best success by using a different browser, and only logging into watergardens55@gmail.com. Then it worked to add a custom domain. Do this by opening the Google Site, click on Settings, and click on "Custom Domain".
Getting the NameSilo DNS settings right, so that both www.watergardens55.org and watergardens55.org (without the www, it is called the "naked domain name") to work was devilishly difficult. But here are the settings that finally worked. Unless it stops working, I would not change a thing!!
Set a TXT record to what Google Sites required for this site, which was:
Name=@
Address/Value=google-site-verification=<<number assigned during process>>
Set a CNAME record to what Google Sites required for this site, which was:
Name=www
Address/Value=ghs.googlehosted.com
Set an A-Record
Name=@
Address/Value=174.129.25.170
Someone set a CNAME record as follows:
Name = admin
Address/Value = parking.namesilo.com
The A-Record that points to 174.129.25.170 (a free service from wwwizer.com) . THIS A record was the magic that makes it work.