Domain Does Not Exist

[femifitn]

So, I was trying to understand https settings and I changed my site url in WordPress to https. Nothing showed up when I navigated to the site, so I just went and changed it back to http. However, since then I've been unable to access my site and now get the message "Domain does not exist".

I've already made the url changes in the database and also in wp-config, but still cannot access my site.

Does anyone know what I might be doing wrong? Please help!

 

[lylex10h]

The first thing you are doing wrong is not supplying the domain in question in a "Domain Does Not Exist" support thread.

 

[femifitn]

Thanks for your snarky 'response'. I think I've described the issue enough though for anyone with some insight on the problem to provide some directions. Naming "the domain in question" is hardly that relevant.

 

[rmsx10ho]

So you've edited the wp-config (which means the WP files are still on the host)
and manually checked the database _options siteurl, home .. well there's not much more from the host side.

Open note pad and type "hello snarky world" in it, then save the file as test.html and upload it to your public_html folder

http://yoursite.com/test.html

If you can't see a basic page like that, then it's a domain host issue..

Check the .htaccess file as well.

Are you using a paid domain or the x10 free subdomain?

 

[femifitn]

So you've edited the wp-config (which means the WP files are still on the host)
and manually checked the database _options siteurl, home .. well there's not much more from the host side.

Open note pad and type "hello snarky world" in it, then save the file as test.html and upload it to your public_html folder

http://yoursite.com/test.html

If you can't see a basic page like that, then it's a domain host issue..

Check the .htaccess file as well.

Are you using a paid domain or the x10 free subdomain?

Hi rmsx10ho,

Thanks for this suggestion. I know it's something to do with me muddling that whole SSL thing. "test.html" does load fine. It definitely is something to do with my WordPress installation and me changing those configurations to https. I'm just stumped that even after manually changing wp-config and database_options, it's not working. When I type in http://mysite.com/, my browsers now automatically 'redirect' to https://mysite.com/ and of course that returns an error message "an ssl protocol error occurred". I can't even 'force' my browsers to navigate to http://mysite.com (and I checked using several different browsers with different ISPs). I even did a DNS flush on one of my machines, just to be sure.

My suspicion is there's a mixed SSL/non-SSL thing going on...

 

[rmsx10ho]

You using cloudflare and their SSL?
If so I'd turn it off while trouble shooting.

 

[femifitn]

Sorry, I forgot to mention I'm on x10hosting's free subdomain.

No, not using cloudfire (at least, not to the best of my knowledge). My domain provider gives you a free SSL starter pack that I thought I'd experiment with (see image). I'm pretty sure even if that were supposed to work in a public-facing site, I didn't configure it correctly.

I actually just deleted all the files/folders under my public_html and re-installed WordPress under a subfolder within public_html ("http://mysite.com/wordpress/). That works fine. I'm able to get to that site. But if I try navigating back to "http://mysite.com", I'm instantly redirected to "https://mysite.com" with returns an error message.

P.S: All references to "mysite" here actually refers to "mysite.x10host.com"

 

[rmsx10ho]

So the test.html works on the domain name.

Re-direct issue somewhere.

I'm presuming you never went into cPanel and manually created a redirect in the domains area.

Cranky WP security plugins can screw things up sometimes.
Have you checked the .htaccess file for any odd looking redirect info?

Just my guess .. seeing as the test.html works, the fresh WP files in public_html should as well.

In cPanel file manger..

• I'd move the fresh WP files to the root (if that's the end goal) and edit the wp-config and database _options on the fresh setup and see if that works.

 

[femifitn]

Thanks a million, rmsx10ho! That actually worked - moving the fresh WP files to the root and editing database_options.

I think part of the redirect issue now may be just the browser cache. The new WP site is up and running and when I navigate to http://mysite.com (on a browser with cleared cache), it's fine. Thanks so much!

I'm still really curious though as to what exactly needed to be changed to get the original install back. Good thing I had a full backup of my WP site locally, otherwise, this fresh install option wouldn't have been ideal. It'd be nice to know where that hard stop was for future references. Meanwhile, thanks again, buddy!

 

[rmsx10ho]

all good