Setting Up a Custom Domain

This article describes how to set up Custom Domain Hosting for your Forth account. This article is organized into the following sections:

• Overview
• Setup
• Add the Security Record (DCV)
• Add the Connection Record (Forwarding)
• Troubleshooting
• Examples

Overview

This process allows your team to access Forth using your own company domain (like crm.yourcompany.com) instead of the default address. 

Note: This feature requires the Custom Domain Hosting enhancement. If you haven't added this service yet, contact sales@setforth.com to get started.

Setup

To make your custom site work, you need to update your domain's DNS settings. You must add two (2) CNAME records for every site you host with us.

1. Security Record (Domain Control Validation or "DCV"): Creates a digital Let's Encrypt (SSL) certificate to keep your site, used by the client and Forth's web traffic, secure.
2. Connection Record (Forwarding): Points your custom domain to our hosting environment (i.e., servers).

Important: If you have multiple sites (for example, a CRM site and a Client Portal), you must repeat both of these steps for each one. Therefore, if you have a CRM and a portal site, you will need to make four (4) entries. 

Add the Security Record (DCV)

This record allows us to automatically secure your site with an SSL certificate.

Warning: Do not delete this record after setup. It must remain in your DNS settings permanently. If you remove it, your site's security certificate will expire after 90 days, and users may get security warnings.

1. Log in to your domain registrar (such as GoDaddy, AWS Route53, or Namecheap). We are using AWS Route53 in our examples below.
2. Navigate to your DNS Management or DNS Settings page.
   
3. Create a new CNAME record.
4. Enter the following information. (Replace subdomain with your specific site name, such as crm or portal).

Add the Connection Record (Forwarding)

This record directs your web traffic to the Forth environment.

1. Create a second CNAME record in your DNS settings.
   
2. Enter the information below based on whether you are a Forth customer or a CTX customer.

Troubleshooting

Every domain registrar uses a slightly different layout. If you cannot find where to add a CNAME record, look for their "DNS Management" help documentation.

Once you save these records, changes can take up to 48 hours to appear across the internet, though it usually happens much faster.

1.  However, because of this process, clients no longer need to provide a yearly SSL certificate for purchases. 

Examples

Here are examples of setting up the DCV CNAME and regular CNAME.

For a CRM site, such as crm.example.com. 

1. DCV CNAME
   1. CNAME: _acme-challenge.<subdomain>
      1. In our example domain, it would be: _acme-challenge.crm.example.com
   2. CNAME Value: <fulldomain>.b6ac64a870f2da4d.dcv.cloudflare.com
      1. In our example domain, it would be: crm.example.com.b6ac64a870f2da4d.dcv.cloudflare.com
2. Forwarding or Pointing CNAME
   1. CNAME: CRM
      1. In our example domain, it would be: crm.example.com
   2. CNAME Value:
      1. For Forth Customers: scweb.forthcrm.com (see example below)
      2. For CTX Customers: scweb.centrexsoftware.com
3. Jira Ticket

   1. Give Domain (thednsway.com)

   2. Give Subdomain (crm)

   3. Flexmonster Key

For a Portal site,

1. DNS Entries

   1. DCV

      1. CNAME: _acme-challenge.portal

      2. CNAME Value: <portalname>.thednsway.com.b6ac64a870f2da4d.dcv.cloudflare.com

   2. Forwarding CNAME

      1. CNAME: portal

      2. CNAME Value: scweb.forthcrm.com

2. Jira Ticket

   1. Give Domain (thednsway.com)

   2. Give Subdomain (portal)

   3. Give Portal site type; Debt Settlement, Tax resolution, Student Loans, Business Loans, Debt Validation

       

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