c-name : Short for canonical name, also referred to as a CNAME record, a record in a DNS database that indicates the true, or canonical, host name of a computer that its aliases are associated with. A computer hosting a Web site must have an IP address in order to be connected to the World Wide Web. The DNS resolves the computer’s domain name to its IP address, but sometimes more than one domain name resolves to the same IP address, and this is where the CNAME is useful. A machine can have an unlimited number of CNAME aliases, but a separate CNAME record must be in the database for each alias. You can enter the CNAME in the DNS page of your personal domain name provider. Wikipedia : domain name , domain name systemhttp://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/DNS.htmlhttp://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/IP_address.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_namehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_systemshapeimage_4_link_0shapeimage_4_link_1shapeimage_4_link_2shapeimage_4_link_3

Or like this on your MobileMe Account web page.

Step 1. Direct your Domain Name to your website on Mobile Me

Then go to the administration page of you Domain Name (DNS) on the website of your registrar.


As an illustration, I’ll use screen-shots from  2 registrars to enter the MobileMe cname : Register.be and NamesCo. Why these 2 ? Well, the 2nd one is to illustrate how simple it is (should be). The first one is to illustrate that sometimes things even seem to do double work. On top of the cname, I had to activate URL forwarding to get things working...


Info for GoDaddy, KPN, 1&1 see bottom of this page.

Enter the path to the root of your website on Mobile Me. (ex. for site49)

At this point you may want to enter additional data. Do NOT select Framed redirect (Sometimes referred to as Web-forward with Cloaking or Masking. More info at the bottom of this page)


When ready : go back to the previous page

Step 2. Link your Domain Name to Mobile Me.

Enter ‘web.me.com.’ in the c-name field (as you can see in this screen-shot, I’ve already done that)

Every registrar has it’s own style of web interface to let you administrate your domain name.

If you don’t see a field ‘cname, look for the fields ‘alias’ and ‘actual name’ or ‘host name’.


alias = yourdomainname (at many registrars that is without www. but with .extension ex.: site49.eu. Sometimes you have to specify your domain name with and without www, look for A records.


host name or actual name = web.me.com. (The period at the end of the address depends on your registrar : if ‘web.me.com.’ doesn’t work, try ‘web.me.com’ without the period at the end.


For more specific instructions, contact your domain name registrar.

Do you have more than 1 domain name? Redirect them to the one you just configured.


ex. I just configured www.site49.eu to go to my MobileMe.


Now on the configuration screen for my site49.be account, I redirect this name to www.site49.eu

site49.be redirects to site49.eu and site49.eu redirects via CNAME to MobileMe.


The URL will be : http://www.site49.eu/the_name_of_that_page.html


http://www.site49.eu/Site49/Portal.html (our main index page)

http://www.site49.eu/Leo/Tips4Mac/Entries/2008/8/3_Personal_Domain_Name.html (this page)

So keep in mind that you have to use your final domain name to redirect with CNAME and all others to ‘simply’ redirect to the final one.

About framed redirect (Sometimes referred to as Web-forward with Cloaking or Web-forward with Masking) :

This is useful in very specific situations only (ex. a kiosk). Whatever the page you’re on, the URL will only show your domain name and mask or cloak all what follows.


If you’re on www.mydomain.com/section/page.html => you’ll only see : www.mydomain.com in your browser.

When all’s well, it looks like this on the bottom of iWeb:

More (free) info about iWeb and MobileMe:

  1. -Apple support for MobileMe here

  2. -Apple users discussions on MobileMe iWeb and Personal Domain here

  3. -Roger Wilmut’s Technical Help articles on MobileMe here

  4. -Cédric’s iWebFAQ , in English, Italian and German here

  5. -looking for info in French ? see here (21 Feb 2009 : corrected broken link)

  6. -you can open an iChat session or use my contact form here

English, Nederlands, Français, Deutsch

  1. -KPN configure a personal domain name, see Wyodor’s website here

  2. -GoDaddy configure a personal domain name, see GoDaddy’s Help Center here

  3. -instructions on how to setup your personal domain using Godaddy, posted on Apple users discussions on MobileMe iWeb and Personal Domain here

  4. -1&1 configure a personal domain name, see 1&1 FAQ here

Illustration 1 : screen-shots from Register.be

Illustration 2 : screen-shot from NamesCo

The period at the end of the address depends on your registrar => if ‘web.me.com.’ doesn’t work, try ‘web.me.com’ (no period at the end)

16 Feb 2009  Video from MacMost : general info and screen-shots from GoDaddy

Updated on 21 Feb 2009