Migrating your Website to Broadcast.Radio Web

Modified on Tue, 24 Sep at 12:54 PM

This article will walk you through migrating your website domain (e.g. purgatory.fm) from a previous provider to Broadcast.Radio servers.

Before you begin, review the following check-list to ensure you're ready to migrate.

You have set up your website in the Broadcast.Radio portal - and are happy with the layout and content. Remember, you can preview your site before going live by going to your unique .broadcast.radio address.
You can change the DNS records of your domain*

* Most domain registrars provide 'free' DNS hosting, which allows you to change records. If yours doesn't, third party providers such as Cloudflare offer a free DNS hosting service.

In this article, we will be referencing the demo website purgatory.fm.

Adding A Custom Domain Name

Before you start migrating your domain, you will need to add a "Custom Domain" in the Broadcast.Radio Portal.

We need to create two domains for our website: one for the 'bare' domain (purgatory.fm), and one with 'www' (www.purgatory.fm).

Under Settings, choose Custom Domains. Click Add

Enter purgatory.fm as the Domain Name. Leave the type as Add-On Domain, and the path as /

Then, click Add.

Then repeat the previous step, this time using the full domain: www.purgatory.fm .

Once you've added these two domains, your Custom Domains page should look like this:

Migrating Your Domain Name

Option 1: You Already Have DNS Hosting

Some domain providers only let you change the 'name server' addresses for your domain. If this is the case, you should use Option 2. If your domain provider has a facility to change DNS A and CNAME records - or your current DNS provider has this facility - you can use Option 1.

1. Find Your Domain Registrar, And Log Into Their Control Panel

If you don't know who your domain registrar is, you can use this free tool to look it up, and then contact them to reset your login details.

Once you have logged in, find the settings for your domain name.

Although it varies from provider to provider, there should be an option named "Change DNS Records", "DNS Records", "DNS Settings", or similar.

2. Remove The Old DNS Records

WARNING: Whilst you are carrying out steps 2 and 3, there may be a small window of down-time on your website. Only proceed when you're sure you can complete step 3.

There are normally two records. Look for and delete the following records:

"purgatory.fm" - sometimes called just an @ symbol
"www.purgatory.fm" - sometimes it could be "*.purgatory.fm"

3. Create The New DNS Records

Click on the "Create" button, and create the following DNS records:

These first two records make purgatory.fm on its own work, and the final record makes www.purgatory.fm work.

A Record for "@"
Name: @
Type: A Record
Value: 87.117.222.111
Second A Record for "@"
Name: @
Type: A Record
Value: 87.117.222.112
Third A Record for "@"
Name: @
Type: A Record
Value: 87.117.222.115
CNAME Record For "www"
Name: www
Type: CNAME
Value: on.broadcast.radio

The two A records, with the different IP addresses, allow you to balance your web-site traffic across the broadcast.radio network. This can allow website visitors to automatically connect to the closest server.

The "CNAME" record, which points to on.broadcast.radio, is short-hand for both A records. The reason this is different is because most DNS providers won't allow you to add a "CNAME" record as your root/@ record.

4. Save & Apply Changes

Once you've saved these changes, due to how the internet works, it may take several hours for the DNS changes to 'propagate'. Over the next 1-12 hours, traffic will start to redirect from your old site to your new website.

Option 2: Using Third Party DNS Hosting

In this article, we are using the free service Cloudflare. These steps can be applied to any DNS hosting provider.

As well as hosting DNS, Cloudflare provide many other tools that can further optimise your website. These are documented on the Cloudflare support website.

1. Create A New Account

2. Add your domain name to your account

3. Set The DNS Records

When you first add an account to Cloudflare, Cloudflare tries to copy over your current 'DNS' records. For the purpose of migration, we probably don't want to do this.

On the Review Your DNS Records page, let's remove the records we don't need.

You'll notice there are several Types of record listed. Find and delete any record that are A, AAAA or CNAME records.

Once finished, you may have a few remaining records, such as TXT or MX records. We recommend that you keep these as they are.

Now, let's add the new records!

Click Add record, and add the following records:

CNAME Record for purgatory.fm
Name: @
Type: CNAME
Target: on.broadcast.radio
Proxy status: off/DNS Only
CNAME Record for www.purgatory.fm
Name: www
Type: CNAME
Target: on.broadcast.radio
Proxy status: off/DNS Only

Once you've added those, we're now have records that look like this:

4. Change Your Name Servers

After you've entered the new Records, to complete the migration, you will need to change your domain Name Servers. Please note that the name-servers you need to add will be different to the ones below.

Frequently Asked Questions

I've migrated my website, but I get a security error.

If you have just migrated your website, this error message is normal, and usually disappears in about 5 minutes.

Modern websites use HTTPS encryption to keep people safer on the internet. This requires a special security certificate that proves you control the website. Our system cannot order these certificates until the steps above have been completed in full.

Firstly, double check you have correctly added your domain to the Custom Domains section of the Broadcast.Radio Portal. If the domain has not been added, or if you have not both the www. and non-www domain names, the verification will fail.

How many domains can I add?

You can add as many "add-on" domains as you need. These are website names that show the same website.

I want to show different content on each website

To do this, you will need to order a Broadcast.Radio Website package/add-on for each website, or use a third party "redirect" service. Our website management platform is incredibly powerful and can support everything from simple one-page websites to complex networks with multiple station brands. Please get in touch to find out more.