Domain name not linking to web server host correctly

[jodehillman]

What is the name of the domain?

hillmandecoys dotcom

What is the error number?

no error number

What is the error message?

no message

What is the issue you’re encountering

My domain name is not forwarding to my website host properly

What steps have you taken to resolve the issue?

created forwarding rule

What feature, service or problem is this related to?

I don’t know

What are the steps to reproduce the issue?

After having a functioning domain name and website for 20 years, recently it stopped responding to queries. It would receive an error message of " browser is no longer connected to the internet" After multiple refreshes, sometimes the page would load. I tried contacting lycos support and received no reply whatsoever.

I decided to move my nameservers to clouldflare in an attempt to resolve the issue. I followed the tutorial to do so. During the process I deleted some DNS "TXT" t records that appeared underneath the orange cloud "verified " records. I also turned on https protocol in the process.  After everything was active, typing in my domain name would lead to the web building page of my site, not the actual content itself. This page is not available to the general public, and you would only see " a page coming soon" message.  

In desparation I added a forwarding rule in cloudflare to go to https://jode-hillman.tripod dot com which would then properly load the content ( yay!) I know tripod is a dinisaur and sooo old, but the basic site has served me very well over the years.

Is there any way to get hillmandecoys to forward to the appropriate content without the rule? My concern is hillmandecoys has 20 years of search engine weight and history in topics that are important to me. It ranks near top of the results That need it too. I don’t want to lose that with all my page extensions being "tripod dot com instead of hillmandecoys dot com because of the rule. Please help a confused, out of his league page builder. Thanks Jode Hillman

[sdayman]

I’ve tried all different combinations at hillmandecoys, and your forwarding rule looks good. I tried various combinations of HTTP/HTTPS, www/no-www, and random paths. They all forward to the same place: jode-hillman. And then that site loads.

The only downside I see is that it keeps the path in the redirect, which may lead to a 404.

A simple “Static” (not Dynamic) redirect to your tripod homepage should be sufficient.

[jodehillman]

Ok thanks, I changed the redirects to static. I’m happy I finally got it to at least forward correctly. My only concern is now is loosing my accumulated search results now that the page extensions are tripod dot com rather than hillmandecoys com as they were for years.

I’m not even sure this us a valid concern or not, as I’m not sure how Seach queries work.

I did screen shot all my old whois info before the switch, and the only difference i see is a “SOA” record that was not populated on the Cloudflare search.( not sure this matters) tried to attach

[jodehillman]

ok so I found out putting the 301 redirect in place as I did in the rule should preserve most of my SEO . thanks all!