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This is Making a DNS setup for 20+ domains hosted on the same IP-address more manageable continued.

We're already using the www version as primary. Each www is a CNAME to @, and it's @ resolves to an IP address.

For convenience, I consider resolving each www to a common, shared CNAME, and dropping @ altogether because it can't be a CNAME.

Provided the website doesn't link to example.com anywhere internally, is it a good idea to only keep www.example.com. I figured if someone types example.com and it does not exist, the browser will auto-try www.example.com, right?

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    Browser doesn't auto try www, it's DNS system who redirect traffic from naked domain example.com to www.example.com
    – Goyllo
    Dec 30, 2019 at 12:39
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    @Goylio DNS can't do redirects on its own. Its always a web server that does the redirects.
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    Jan 2, 2020 at 1:15

1 Answer 1

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Some browsers may fallback to www. For example in firefox it's controlled by browser.fixup.alternate.enabled=true and browser.fixup.alternate.prefix=www. But rely on this behavior is a bad idea, at least for two reasons:

  1. There is no promise that all browsers will fallback to www or it will be enabled in firefox.
  2. It will take an extra request and extra time.
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  • I don't think any browser auto tries for www version. If naked domain is unresolvable; it will be simply error.
    – DavChana
    Dec 30, 2019 at 23:29
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    @DavChana This answer is correct, Firefox does auto-try the www dpending on settings. I've personally always found it to be very annoying.
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    Jan 2, 2020 at 1:20

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