My Apology! This is a recap post for an earlier entry with both the same title and URL which was accidentally erased out when I carelessly clicked on a mysql database restore button. In the original post I tabled the details when viewology.net was built up and its following disfiguration problem after I purchased the dedicated IP address 67.20.85.136 from Hostmonster.com in an attempt to let this blog not be censored in some countries where block all sites hosted a shared server with the same IP only if one of them is deemed illegally and also make the search engines better index this blog.
Read the following two sections of conversation with Hostmonster Live Chat staffs, you can get what I encountered before:
Ollie [8:04:30 AM]: Hello and welcome to our real-time support chat. Please be aware that I may be assisting more than one person at a time so there may be a few minutes delay in my response. If you have completely filled out the pre chat survey I’m likely looking in to your request at this time however if you did not fill out the survey please provide your main domain so I may be able to look up your account as well as a brief but complete description of the problem.
Fisher [8:04:30 AM]: hello, sir I registered viewology.net and purchased a one-year plan for this self-wordpress hosted site from Hostmonster.com in mid January. Serval days ago I upgraded to the dedicated IP 67.20.85.136 after I have my account verified. May I know why the homepage is disfigured when using that IP to access my site, while it is totally normal if I directly visit the URL viewology.net? What I should do for my site? Thanks
Ollie [8:06:51 AM]: One moment please
Fisher [8:07:03 AM]: ok
[8:07:14 AM]: take your time, sirOllie [8:13:06 AM]: This is actually related to your wordpress site
[8:13:23 AM]: It uses a defined site and home urlFisher [8:14:08 AM]: so how can I correct that problem, sir? Kind advice is very appreciated
[8:15:07 AM]: I am a newbie of site-buildingOllie [8:15:39 AM]: You’d have to change the site url to the dedicated ip however this would affect the domain name also
Fisher [8:16:48 AM]: If I need to use www.viewology.net instead of viewology.net?
Ollie [8:17:32 AM]: For WordPress Redirects:
This is configured when wordpress is installed. You can change this configuration in the database your wordpress site is using.
In the cpanel choose phpmyadmin then on the left choose your wordpress database (should look similar to wrdp#) from the drop down menu. Next choose the table wp_options on the left column. Then along the top click browse. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click the single right arrow button to go to page 2. Listed near the middle you should see a row with option name “home”, click the pencil icon directly to the left on that row. Then change the option value to read the URL that you intend your links to display, such as: http://yourNewdomainName.com
Fisher [8:19:25 AM]: Thanks, sir. I am going to make the correction.
[8:19:31 AM]: Have a nice day!
When Ollie’s assistance did not solve my problem, I initiated another Live Chat.
Kelcey [9:52:00 AM]: Welcome to our live chat, I will need to get your domain name, the last 4 characters of your password or credit card, and your problem, I do work with multiple customers and my responses may be delayed.
Fisher [9:52:00 AM]: Why was my self hosted wordpress site viewology.net disfigured at the dedicated IP 67.20.85.136? How can I correct the problem?
Kelcey [9:53:28 AM]: what error do you get when you view viewology.net ?
Fisher [9:55:37 AM]: my site is quite normal if I visited at viewology.net, but it is disfigured if i visited at 67.20.85.136
Kelcey [9:56:11 AM]: wordpress is only configured to use the domain name thats why
Fisher [9:57:24 AM]: Another problem is that www.viewology.net doesnot redirect to viewology.net, even I set both of siteurl and home to http://viewologoy.net in the wp-options via PhpMyAdmin
[9:58:07 AM]: ” wordpress is only configured to use the domain name thats why” , so sir, how do I make the re-configuration?Kelcey [9:58:08 AM]: you would still need to have a redirect to it
Fisher [9:58:22 AM]: use .htaccess?
Kelcey [9:58:57 AM]: correct
[9:59:31 AM]: this is a helpful tool on this http://helpdesk.hostmonster.com/index.php/kb/article/000357Fisher [10:01:43 AM]: sir, after .htaccess redirect, will the dedicated IP automatically point to viewology.net?
Kelcey [10:02:02 AM]: the dedicated ip does point there but it will not work correctly
Fisher [10:03:28 AM]: so how can I let the deciated IP work correctly?
Kelcey [10:04:38 AM]: you would need to change the wordpress url to the dedicated ip, that will however break viewology.net
Fisher [10:05:55 AM]: if so, it sounds a dedicated IP is not useful?
[10:06:37 AM]: Or the dedicated IP is only helpful for the full URL?Kelcey [10:07:32 AM]: its useful if you need an ssl certificate or ports open, amongst other things
Fisher [10:15:27 AM]: I see. If I won’t have a SSL certificate, my purchased dedicated IP will alwyas break www.viewology.net or viewology.net ? If that’s case, I am going to consider have that certificate.
Kelcey [10:15:58 AM]: even if you have a ssl your wordpress will never show up with antyhing else besides the site url
[10:16:02 AM]: that is a wordpress flawFisher [10:19:17 AM]: Oh…, then I can only defend on wordpress team to fix this problem
[10:19:26 AM]: thank you, sir
[10:19:34 AM]: have a nice dayKelcey [10:20:09 AM]: If you have any other questions, let us know. Have a great day. Bye!
Oops, a wordpress flaw? I bought a dedicated Hostmonster IP address for nothing? It seemed no way for me to rule out the problem. Before I gave up the hope, I inserted a redirect command which pointed www.viewology.net to viewology.net in .htaccess file. Bang! When I typed 67.20.85.136 again in the address bar of all browsers (Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Explorer) installed on my Dell laptop, it worked perfectly like a charm, no disfiguration for viewology.net any more.
From what I learned from this experience, for webmasters who have a self-hosted wordpress blog (or other sites) and want its site URL to display as example.com instead of www.example.com, it was strongly suggested that add the strings shown below to an existed .htaccess file under the site’s root /public_html/ directory once after one decides to buy a unique IP.
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^example.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://example.com/$1 [L,R=301]
If one’s preferred URL is the default installed www.example.com, a dedicated IP address probably wouldn’t cause the site to break up, advise to redirect example.com to www.example.com, the reason? A small SEO which can make your site avoid being indexed duplicate by a search engine!
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.domain.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com/$1 [L,R=301]
