Why hasn't this CNAME WORKED?

Higys,

This is my first post here and I have a question about DNS, something I don't know a lot about.

I have bought hosting from a company called 1and1 in the UK. with the hosting, they gave me a subdomain of s105498177.websitehome.co.uk.

I have a domain www.solihull.nhs.uk which is managed by the NHS Information Authority. They manage the DNS for the domain. I assumed that all I had to do was ask the Information Auhority to create a CNAME record for the domain pointing to the hostname above. This has now been done however it does not work (if you go to www.solihull.nhs.uk, ou get a 400 error) yet if you go to s105498177.websitehome.co.uk you get the website I want to tie the domain too. Why hasn't this worked? I know that it isnt possible to create an Arecord pointing to the IP address of the hosting because this is the IP address of the server that hosts many of 1and1 shared hosting packages (if you type this IP address of 212.227.124.20 in, you get the same 400 error as you do when you type in the CNAME'd domain (www.solihull.nhs.uk) in.

So, am I right in saying if I purchase dedicated server hosting, where I get my own static IP address, then ask the Informaion Authority to create an ARECORD on the domain pointing to the IP address, will this definately work?

Jhust incase y're wondering, the Info Authorty do not allow transferring of nhs.uk domains away from then and only allow changing of ARECORD or CNAME records - all other DNS info i.e. for e-mail, cannot be changed as this is managed centrally for the national e-mail system.

Please help me.

Thank you,

Mark.

the CNAME works fine, both domains resolve to the IP address. However, the webserver is treating the 2 domains as separate websites. It returns a 400 error with your domain cause it's not configured for that website. You need to configure the webserver to use your domain as an alias of the original domain or visa versa. Essentially this isn't a DNS problem.

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

Unfortunately, having spoke to me host., they say they are not willing to configure the shred hosting server because they do not support the nhs.uk suffix.

So, now my option is to upgrade to Dedicated hosting where my server will have its own fixed IP address. When I get the IP address, can I simply set the Arecord on the nhs.uk domain to point to the IP address of the dedicated server? Will this definately work? I don't see any reason why it shouldn't?

Thank you for your help so far.

yes, that would work fine.

So, just to check., are there any circumstances where this wouldn't work (i.e. something that the host could do to disallow this - being cynical?)

Thank you for your help.

1and1 would have to do something special to prevent your domain from working. With dedicated servers you have total control, it is counter productive to handicap dedicated servers. There's no reason it won't work provided you do everything right in terms of dns and web server config.