NS1 hooks you up with basic support when you want to forward your domain. But, it's missing some important features, like HTTPS and Analytics.
When you set up your redirect at NS1, you still have to manage SSL certificates yourself if you want your website to be secure. Without proper SSL management, errors will turn up when visiting the domain via HTTPS.
So, how do you secure your website with HTTPS in NS1?
Easy, with redirect.pizza. We handle the SSL certificates for your site without any effort from your side. We ensure they’ll be up to date. And there's more good stuff. Redirecting your apex domain to the www. version, for instance, just takes a few clicks.
How to set this up? We’ll guide you through the steps with this walkthrough, so let’s get started!
Step 1: Create a redirect.pizza account
Get started today by creating an account: https://redirect.pizza/register.
Step 2: Add your domain to redirect.pizza
Add your domain you wish to redirect. For our example, we have a domain with NS1 'redirect-pizza-forward.xyz'. Add the domain to the 'Source URL' field. We recommend adding www & the apex (non-www).
You see the DNS 'checking' as the detected & required values are different.
Step 3: Navigate to NS1
To allow redirecting via redirect.pizza, we need to make a one-time DNS change at NS1. Login with your NS1 credentials. From the menu click on 'DNS'.
From this screen click on your domain.
Step 4: Changing the DNS
We are now ready to change the DNS.
Before adding the correct DNS records, make sure any existing A record for 'www' and '@' / root are removed. All other records may remain intact.
When you've successfully deleted the records named above, add the following records:
- Record with Type 'A' on root level (leave name field empty) and answer '89.106.200.1'
- Record with Type 'CNAME' name 'www' and answer 'edge.redirect.pizza.'
Below are two screenshots of how your records should look like:
Step 4: DNS verification in redirect.pizza
The DNS changes have been made! This takes some time before the internet picks up these changes. In most cases, it should be done within a few hours, depending on the TTL set on those records.
redirect.pizza will automatically keep checking the DNS records. If it's detected to be correct, a SSL certificate will be automatically requested & installed.
Closing: redirect.pizza is now set up with automatic HTTPS!
Now you’re all set! You've successfully set up redirect.pizza with NS1. The domain now has full HTTPS support and is redirecting via redirect.pizza. This means all your URLs will be automatically redirected to the HTTPS version of your website. All your SSL certificates will be automatically renewed, so you’ll never have to worry about the security of your website again! This is all part of our Automatic HTTPS feature.
Optional: redirect all pages to the apex or www. version of your website.
Once you’re all set, make sure to think about how you can get the most out of our service! You can, for instance, redirect all your pages from your apex domain (also called naked or root domain) to the www. version of your domain. (Wonder why you should? Take a look at our use case!). It also works the other way. If you want to redirect all your pages from the www. version to your apex domain, you’ll be good to go in just a few clicks! (Check our support page for more details).
Consider subscribing to one of our paid plans to help us out! ❤️