Setting Up Your URL
For your domain name to work with your Assemble site, you will need to change the 'IP address' that the domain point to. To do this you need to edit the zone file for your domain and change the A records.
Each Assemble site has its own IP address, which you can find in your dashboard.
Assemble does not sell domain names, so you will need to purchase your domain name from a domain name provider (an example would be Godaddy.com, but there are many more). Likewise, when you are read to link your URL to your Assemble site, you will need to do this on the domain name provider website, not on Assemble. Be sure to keep your username and log in for your domain name provider handy!
Note that Assemble hosts the site, so there is no need to purchase a hosting plan.
SETTING UP YOUR URL
In the left hand navigation bar on your Assemble dashboard, visit Settings -> URL Setup
You will be brought to a page that lists your A-records and the domain name that you currently have in the Assemble system (Note that you can change the domain name listed for your site in Settings -> Website settings).
Note the A-Records, and contact your domain name provider. When you give them this information,they will be able to point the domain name to your Assemble page.
Until you pay and go live, the domain name will point to a temporary holding page.
HELP! I DON'T UNDERSTAND
You are not alone: This is complex stuff to the uninitiated, and many people find it hard to get. If this is techy nonsense, you'll need to find out from your domain registrar how to change the A-records for your domain. They always have a help file on how to do this or you can contact them directly for help: Just send them the information on your URL Setup page, and they can explain more.
QUICK VOCABULARY PRIMER
DNS - Stands for "Domain Name System" - what a DNS server does is tell the internet users and other servers where to look when someone is asking for your domain name - either for email or to view your website.
How does this happen? - Computers think in numbers and people think in names.
DNS is the process of converting names into numbers, and vice-versa. Humans can remember simple domain names (such as www.bob.com) and computers can be programmed to communicate with each other with IP addresses (such as 24.65.27.15) - DNS servers take care of this translation for us. It becomes possible to change a server's location in the net without having to teach all the users a new address.
A-Record - An A-record (address record) maps a hostname to an IP Address. So it tells your browser the IP address of the server that a domain name like www.bob.com is on. So when you type in bob.com your computer looks up the a-record for bob.com, finds the IP address and then loads the website from that server.
updated: April 2020