Questions about Websites and Domains

[acercon]

Hi, I work with an organization and we are currently in the process of transferring our old website to Squarespace. So after reading the requirements, it looks like we can only connect our domain to SQ. 

Our website is hosted on Geohost.ca (http://www.saveonhosting.com/index.html)

*Note I am very new to this, never done anything with websites.

Questions:

They provided me with FTP Access info, is this just where they store all the files?

They provided me with, Web Host Utilities: Plesk control panel ( I have no idea what this is)

After reading how to connect on SQ's website (https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/205812378) I need to login to my domain provider's site and manage your DNS settings. Do I do this in the  *Client Login* section on geohost.ca?

 

Thanks, if you know lots about this stuff please help me.

 

[JohnMLTX]

What's going on here is two different things: your domain, and your website.

 

Squarespace have their own framework for building websites, and they generally have customers rebuild their website using their tools. They don't officially support copying the existing site over, but you can move everything over manually with FTP and rebuild it on Squarespace. Or, you use their designer to rebuild something similar that does the same job.

 

The domain, that's a bit easier. You'll want to transfer it over, if you plan on going with Squarespace fully for everything with your website. https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/206542037

 

 

[Ralms]

19 hours ago, acercon said:

Hi, I work with an organization and we are currently in the process of transferring our old website to Squarespace. So after reading the requirements, it looks like we can only connect our domain to SQ. 

Our website is hosted on Geohost.ca (http://www.saveonhosting.com/index.html)

*Note I am very new to this, never done anything with websites.

Questions:

They provided me with FTP Access info, is this just where they store all the files?

They provided me with, Web Host Utilities: Plesk control panel ( I have no idea what this is)

After reading how to connect on SQ's website (https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/205812378) I need to login to my domain provider's site and manage your DNS settings. Do I do this in the  *Client Login* section on geohost.ca?

 

Thanks, if you know lots about this stuff please help me.

 

 

Hello there, 

 

First thing first, have your Squarespace website built and ready so your clients/users dont have downtime or get the nice suprise of "Under construction" or a empty website.

 

Keeping it simple, a Domain is a representation of an IP for humans, basically DomainX.com will match IP 000.000.000.000 (examples), but it can match many. That matching is made with DNS (Domain Name Server) which resolves the IPs of a given domain.

 

Now you have 2 options:

- You either keep your domain at your current registrar or
- You transfer your domain to Squarespace (normally involves you paying 1 year in advance for the transfer but the time is not lost, it adds up) like JohnMLTX was sugesting.

If you are happy with your registrar, its ok to have the 2 services seperate (Your Domain Registrar, not sure if it is Geohost.ca too, and having Squarespace for hosting).

In case you want to keep it as it is, what you need is to point your domain to Squarespace servers, that is why Squarespace needs you to set the DNS records on your registrar. 

 

I cant help you much regarding this part because I use Namecheap and I dont know your registrar client area. But normally its a pretty simple thing and their support should help you set up in case of doubt. From what I've seen you just need to setup those records that Squarespace is asking, so 2 CNAMEs and 4 A Records ("CNAME" and "A" are DNS record types, they serve diferent purposes). 

 

Hope it helps,

Best Regards,

Ralms.