(If you haven’t read it yet, please first see our tutorial Register, Configure, Renew and Transfer Dot-Bit Domains.)
ADDING ON A DOT-BIT DOMAIN (this works in HostGator, may be slightly different in other Web hosts):
Go to your HostGator cPanel X and log in. Click on “Addon Domains”:
In the window that pops up, in the “New Domain Name” space, enter your Dot-Bit domain (without the www). The other spaces will auto-fill:
You can use the password generator, and I recommend you do. But you’ll have to copy and paste the generated password, it won’t auto fill, even if you click “use this password.”
So just generate the password, copy it, then click “cancel” to close this window and go back to the AddOn Domains page and paste the password into both password spaces (including deleting the one that already was filled in for the first space.)
Save the password somewhere safe, then click “Add Domain.”
After about a minute, you’ll get the Go Back message. Click Go Back:
If you’ve already put your DNS or name server info into the Namecoin blockchain with the Namecoin wallet (as shown in our tutorial, Register, Configure, Renew and Transfer Dot-Bit Domains), and waited 40 minutes for a name update, or three hours after for a new registration, the domain should work next time your Namecoin blockchain updates. Usually within about 40 minutes.
Adding a Dot-Bit domain will auto-generate a folder on your FTP site:
If you want to add a WordPress install, on HostGator, go to the HostGator cPanel X, scroll down the page, and pick “Quick Install”:
And follow the directions.
If you are starting a Dot-Bit mirror of an existing Dot-Com site with site with the same name on the same web host, at least on HostGator, (like if you’re starting michaelwdean.bit to show the same pages and files on michaelwdean.com), you’ll have to add a 2 (or other number) in the second space, Subdomain/FTP User Name, because two FTP domains cannot automatically have the same domain folder on HostGator:
This is michaelwdean.com redirected to show at michaelwdean.bit. It works, try them.
You can also set this up later, by clicking on the little pencil icon and entering the info there. On some web hosts, you may have to do this manually.
After clicking on the pencil icon, on HostGator, you’ll get this pop up, where you can change the .bit extension to .com:
You’ll get a really quick “changing settings” type screen flash by, then it will be done.
NOTE: the above is all for if you have an add-on domain (I have a number of them), where you host Dot-Com domains as what are actually sub-domians of a main domain. This is a common way people host multiple domains. If you want to make a Dot-Bit version of a Dot-Com that is NOT a sub-domain, your editing will probably need to look more like this:
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We don’t recommend clicking on “Manage Redirection” and redirecting to your Dot-Com site that way, because then the Dot-Bit site wouldn’t work if your Dot-Com domain were taking down by ICANN. So don’t do this:
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HTTPS Dot-Bit WEB SITES vs. HTTP-only Dot-Bit Websites
If your webs host is set up for HTTPS, you can include it. We recommend you try to set your site up not https, not SSL, to try to just get a dot-bit site working. If you can get it working with just http, then try to get it working with SSL.
https is more secure, and solves the current issue with resolving some non-HTTPS Dot-Bit sites.
For instance, freespeechme.bit ONLY will work with the HTTPS version, https://www.freespeechme.bit
This can be fixed for now on the website owner’s end, by enabling HTTPS and giving out the HTTPS URL instead of just the HTTP URL. Again, doing this is advisable anyway, because it is more secure.
Most web hosts make it pretty easy (and either free or cheap) to enable HTTPS with a self-signed certificate. In fact, no certificate is needed for the specific website; the only requirement is that the IP address hosting the website has a certificate and that the server is configured for virtual hosts on port 443 (which is often the default).
For information on enabling HTTPS on your website, consult your web hosting provider. Once your website supports HTTPS, you can setup your Namecoin name record to support HTTPS by using the “SSL Fingerprint” text box in the Namecoin wallet. MeowBit automatically verifies the fingerprint from your web server against the fingerprint in the blockchain; this is how it prevents hijacking.
This WordPress plug-in will help set up a secure HTTPS option, but you’ll still need to configure your site server:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-https/
Using the steps in our tutorials, you can easily set up Dot-Bit sites, at least that was my experience with the cPanelx on HostGator.
HostGator also has 24/7 free support, with usually only a very few minutes wait on the phone or IM. They don’t yet (as of this writing, Feb 2014) have support people well versed in Dot-Bit, but that will change. But with everything else, they’re generally far more knowledgeable, helpful, cheery and accessible than with many web hosts.
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How To Configure Your Linux Web Server To Serve Non-WordPress Dot-Bit Web Sites Properly
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Code for making links work more correctly on a Dot-Bit WordPress site that feeds from a Dot-Com WordPress install:
After you’ve done the above redirection, if things aren’t working perfectly, there is a short bit of code you can add in your WordPress wp-config.php file to fix things.
This should work for Dot-Org, Dot-Net, etc.
If you’ve never edited your WordPress wp-config.php file, here’s a tutorial on the WordPress.com site about how to do that. Don’t forget to back up your WordPress (Tools/Export/Download Export File), and also make a copy of your wp-config.php file before you edit it!
For WordPress, add this code right above your MySQL settings in your wp-config.php file:
define( 'WP_SITEURL', 'http://' . $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] . '/wordpress' ); define( 'WP_HOME', 'http://' . $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] . '/wordpress' );
The ‘/wordpress’ in the first line should be the path to the folder where your WordPress files are; the ‘/wordpress’ in the second line should be the path to the folder where your index.php is. In many cases both will just be empty single quote marks.
For example, the first part of your wp-config.php might look like this. (Note the two rows of space added above and below the added code.):
<?php
/**
* The base configurations of the WordPress.
*
* This file has the following configurations: MySQL settings, Table Prefix,
* Secret Keys, WordPress Language, and ABSPATH. You can find more information
* by visiting {@link http://codex.wordpress.org/Editing_wp-config.php Editing
* wp-config.php} Codex page. You can get the MySQL settings from your web host.
*
* This file is used by the wp-config.php creation script during the
* installation. You don't have to use the web site, you can just copy this file
* to "wp-config.php" and fill in the values.
*
* @package WordPress
*/
define( 'WP_SITEURL', 'http://' . $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] . '/wordpress' );
define( 'WP_HOME', 'http://' . $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] . '' );
// ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //
/** The name of the database for WordPress */
(We’ve bolded the added code for clarity. You don’t actually bold it, you can’t. php files are really just a text file. They have no formatting):
Another clarification:
The above would be if the website is accessed via http://freedomfeens.com/wordpress , and that the WordPress directory is located at http://freedomfeens.com/wordpress
If your WordPress files aren’t in a subdirectory, and the site isn’t accessed via a subdirectory, you shouldn’t have the /wordpress there.
Like if the website is accessed via http://freedomfeens.com and that the WordPress directory is located at http://freedomfeens.com
then the added code would look like this:
define( 'WP_SITEURL', 'http://' . $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] . '' ); define( 'WP_HOME', 'http://' . $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] . '' );
This is working flawlessly on our Dot-Bit versions of our Dot-Com website. The only issue is with podcast WordPress sites using a podcasting plug-in (PodPress in Michael’s case), the MP3 file links and player are still pointing to the Dot-Com. We’re working on this, and it may involve adding a fix in the plug-in itself.
A workaround would be, say if ICANN deleted freedomfeens.com from its registry, we could quickly put a sticky post on the front page linking to the folders that contain the audio, like:
http://www.freedomfeens.bit/AUDIO/
http://www.freedomfeens.bit/AUDIO2/
http://www.freedomfeens.bit/AUDIO3/
http://www.freedomfeens.bit/AUDIO3/RADIO/
http://www.freedomfeens.bit/AUDIO3/Wed-Shows/
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After you get your Dot-Bit site running, post a comment below and tell us about it!
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How to transfer a WordPress install from .com to .bit (if you only want a Dot-Bit site, rather than a Dot-Bit address that also re-directs to an existing Dot-Com site. This is ONLY if you want to move from .com to .bit and then get rid of your .com. I don’t think many people will do that yet. But I can only hope, so I wrote this. And it’s solid, so I’m including it.)
Successful method for transfer of WordPress from .com to .bit
Once you have MeowBit installed and can view .bit addresses, check out:
Here’s how I got that from the Dot-Com:
I set up a test blog at
and made three posts. I added the PodPress plug-in, uploaded two songs, added links, some text, images, an RSS widget, etc.
Then I exported the WordPress XML backup. (Tools/Export/Download Export File.)
Make sure you make a backup copy of it, since you’re going to be editing it.
I opened the WordPress XML backup in WordPad. I used “Find and Replace” to replace every instance of
wormcoin.com
with
wormcoin.bit
and saved the file.
At your web host’s control panel, you point your .bit add-on domain to the folder where your .com is hosted (by entering the IP address and file path, if it’s a subdomain).
Some of this process is the same as the above tutorial, ADDING ON A DOT-BIT DOMAIN, but some of it is different.
On Hostgator:
Go to your HostGator cPanel X and log in. Click on “Addon Domains”:
In the “New Domain Name” space, enter your Dot-Bit domain (without the www). The other spaces will auto-fill:
You can use the password generator, but you’ll have to copy and paste the password, it won’t auto fill even if you click “use this password”:
Enter it in both password spaces. Save it somewhere safe, then click “Add Domain.”
after about a minute, you’ll get the Go Back message. Go back:
It should work within about 40 minutes.
Adding a Dot-Bit domain will auto-generate a folder on your FTP site:
You can delete the new folder if you’re just doing a re-direct to your old Dot-Com folder only.
On some FTP programs, you’ll need to delete the empty folder inside before you can delete the folder.
Click on “Manage Redirection” and add the correct path.
After about a minute (on HostGator) you should be able to go to the .bit URL and see the WordPress site you set up, but most of the internal links will still be pointing to Dot-Com URLs.
The targets of those links and image tags will still show because the Dot-Com is still up, but the images would not show if the Dot-Com domain were ever killed through ICANN. So now you’ll want to move everything and change all links.
Here’s the tricky part. It took me a few tries to figure out how to fix this. It won’t work right without doing this:
Log in at the .bit
(www.YOURSITE.bit/wp-admin)
and DELETE ALL YOUR POSTS. (Including the “Hello World” that comes with a new install.) And DELETE ALL YOUR PAGES. (Including the “Sample Page” that comes with a new install.)
Then you HAVE TO empty them from the trash. Without doing that, this import will NOT WORK CORRECTLY. (Info on accessing and emptying a WordPress site’s trash here on WordPress.com site)
You also have to delete all the PAGES as well as the POSTS, and EMPTY THEM FROM THE TRASH before going to the next step.
Then add the WordPress plug-in WordPress Importer.
To do that, go to Tools/Import/WordPress:
Install Importer:
Activate and run the importer:
Import the altered XML file:
I re-assigned all the posts to my user name:
I told it NOT to re-import all media (since it was already in the folder, my wormcoin.bit domain is an add-on sub-domain of the IP that freedomfeens.com is on, so it’s resolving via IP through the Namecoin DNS I’m using).
As soon as this is done, voilà! The .bit WordPress site works perfectly. All the internal links work, for images, MP3s, pages, categories, archives, etc. Even the PodPress player plug-in kept its configuration and properly played the files from the .bit audio file.
The only thing that didn’t work perfectly for some reason was the RSS widget. Even after re-adding it, the RSS widget displayed this error:
RSS Error: WP HTTP Error: Couldn’t resolve host ‘wormcoin.bit’
Which is probably because WordPress is trying to resolve a Dot-Bit domain on the server side, seeing as the feed I entered:
shows up fine in a browser and works, with the image attachments properly listed and working at the Dot-Bit URLs.
And that RSS feed also worked when I added the URL into iTunes. It subscribed to my “podcast”, showed both “episodes” (test MP3s, songs) and downloaded the first one.
I finally fixed it, I just had to use a different feed widget, the PodPress one that installs with PodPress. I had to enter the new .bit feed URL and save it, and tell it to display the button.
But even with that one issue (which I solved), the above is a perfect way to transfer a .com WordPress install to a .bit domain only.
After doing all this, the site will operate perfectly on the .bit, as long as you and the viewers are set up to view Dot-Bit. You can edit, do new posts, all of that. I added one page and one post after changing from .com to a .bit site.
I assume all this would work with a site with hundreds of posts and podcast episodes, like FreedomFeens.com
And I assume it would work transferring a site with hundreds of posts and podcast episodes to a different domain (not just Dot-Com to Dot-Bit), like transferring
freedomfeens.com
to show up at
feens.bit
If you used those as the Search and Replace fields in WordPad on a huge site’s XML backup, I’m pretty sure it would work, but I haven’t tried it.
EXTRA TIP REGARDING RSS WIDGETS:
You can make your own RSS feed widget in WordPress, using HTML in a text widget. With a lot of widgets, I like the button image they use, but don’t like some other feature that can’t be turned off.
Go in your WordPress Dashboard to Appearance/Widgets. Drag a blank Text widget from the left (“Available Widgets”) over into a sidebar field on the right. Open it up and put in this code:
<a href="http://www.wormcoin.bit/feed/"> <img src="http://www.wormcoin.bit/wp-content/themes/carrington-blog/img/rss-button.gif"></a>
with it adjusted to your domain and theme. Hit “Save” on the text widget.
You can find the RSS button image URL for your WordPress theme by putting in an RSS widget, viewing it on the page, right click on it, and “Copy Image URL.” Then paste the image URL into the above code, save the Text widget, then delete that other RSS widget.
Even if you later switch to a different WordPress theme, as long as you still have the first theme still installed, the Image should be available.
I’m using this tip on this blog.
If you do this, please don’t serve the image from our server. We’re getting slammed with traffic on this site already, and want to keep it up and running for the benefit of everyone. So if you like that RSS image, save it and upload it to your own server. Thanks!
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