February 24, 20224 yr Dear Anyone. I've done a 5-page website which is called accessibilitypartners.co.uk., we're 2 disabled people who want to make work-life easier for other disabled people. We've bought the name, we've built - after a nightmare learning curve - a PASSABLE website on Google Sites - still hugely learning! - and we've got a Google Domains. Now here's what we THINK we know but you can correct us on any of it because if we were right, this would be working! These are probably-wrong thoughts, not statements! 1.) Accessibilitypartner.co.uk is the DOMAIN NAME. Domain names point to websites. 2.) There's 3 kinds of website names, a CNAME which means Canonical Name and an MX name which is Mail Exchange and is where site E_mails go to. The third one is a mile-long mass of letters with your website name embedded in the middle of it all somewheres! 3.) Complete guess cos we can't work it out (and we're prob. getting something wrong in the above.) The Domain Name should be pointing to the mile-long mass of letters because that's the URL. But there's 2 URLs, aren't there. The mile-long mass of letters and a bunch of numbers separated by dots. We think this is so because we've got both of the latter and they both take us to our site. Remember the above's just what we think we know at the moment and we're here cos nothing's working so we've obviously got it wrong somewhere! We tried typing the numbers separated by dots into the boxes on Google Domains because it seemed logical that that would be what it wanted to point to. Didn't work. Tried the name of our website with CNAME on the end so we had WWW.accessibilitypartners.co.uk/cname (we tried lower case and capitals). Didn't work. Tried the same again with /MX on the end instead - were getting desperate by now! - that didn't work. Found a YouTube video that carefully detailed the whole process on GoDaddy, discovered Google Sites doesn't work the same way as GoDaddy! Couldn't find a YouTube (or anywhere else) vid. detailing the process on Google Sites. (WE THINK we're WWW. We're a bit lost as to whether we're WWW, HTTP or HTTPS.) Which is why we're here. We are flat, totally, completely out of ideas. We know more about next week's Lottery numbers (they're all between 1 and 50. Fact!) Please, could someone use totally dumbed down idiot speak to tell us what the BLEEP we're doing wrong and what we should do? Just to make you laugh, I've achieved something that would be fairly impressive if only I knew how the heck I'd done it. I use Firefox. When I do CTRL-T, as you know, I get an empty page full of ads. and links. I'm going to attach a screenshot of one of the links. It looks like a Facebook link. The address under it looks like a Facebook address. On my browser - not tried it on anybody else's! - clicking on it takes me to my site, not Fb! But typing in the addy under the link doesn't. Got zero idea about that either, but I'm attaching a screenshot anyway.
February 24, 20224 yr Author Sorry guys, only just thought of this. We've heard of 'propagation' with websites, that it can take up to 48 hours for changes to take effect, is that right? Is the problem that at one point we DID have it right, but we hadn't heard of propagation then and didn't wait long enough? That's just a vague thought, personally I don't think we ever got it that far. But it MIGHT be a factor, we flat dunno! Yours hopefully again Chris.
February 24, 20224 yr Author Very, very sorry and this is NOT a bump, it's just I keep thinking of stuff I should've put in the original. I'll go after this! If any of you web experts give us a clue as to what to change, please could you tell us if the changes will work right away or if we have to wait a few days because of this propagation thing? Just so we're not doing the change, it's not working, instantly trying something else.... when it would've worked if only we'd waited! I'm going now. For real! Chris.
February 24, 20224 yr There are two components you need to consider here: 1. Domian registration 2. Hosting When you register a domain you have something call the nameservers. This tells the whole world where your site is located. When you build a website you will be told the address of the nameservers. It looks like you have registered the domain name with google so it should point automatically to the google hosted website. So remove everything you have done to the various records and just wait until Google and everyone else catches up.
February 24, 20224 yr Author So it's propagation? How about making the popup actually popup and not just sit in plain view all the time? We pasted the code where we were told to, embedding it in the page, and it's definitely code, not a URL. But it just sits there. It never goes away and because of that, it never pops up. And it's MASSIVE!! Far bigger than on the designer site. If you use the nodes around it in design view, it doesn't shrink it, it crops it. No idea why. So I can't get it smaller with the nodes. If you know a site where popups DO work, I'd happily dump my one and start again on yours. I just wanna get this thing working, so we can get it out there, and work on decorating it better afterwards! Just noticed. You gotta Clanger! I loved the Clangers, how all the little things were characters in their own right. There was even a band called the Soup Dragons once! She was lovely, wasn't she? Big, motherly and very kind dragon. I'd never be scared of her. Yours hopefully Chris. Edited February 24, 20224 yr by ulrichburke
February 24, 20224 yr Until I see the site it’s not possible to answer the question about the pop up. Because you are using google sites you are very restricted in what you can do. Which is why most disability support sites use something like Wordpress. The other question is: do you need the popup? Anything that prevents access to the site should be avoided.
February 24, 20224 yr Author Dear Fisicx. Well - Mandy chose Google Sites. I'd used HTML before but years back, didn't realise how much things had changed! Never done a whole website from start to finish before, just bits of websites using HTML2 and 3. She'd bought the name - the domain - before she asked me to make the site. I don't understand why I'm restricted because I'm using Google. It's Google, man, they're about the biggest thing on the Internet, aren't they? So surely you should be super UN-restricted because you're using the biggest company? And Mandy asked for the pop-up - I thought the point of those things was to keep people ON your site. Why does a pop-up restrict access? Got no idea about that at all, you'll have to explain, thought it would be the opposite! Sorry I'm so ignorant, but thanks for all this help. Yours respectfully Chris.
February 24, 20224 yr 5 hours ago, ulrichburke said: I don't understand why I'm restricted because I'm using Google. It's Google, man, they're about the biggest thing on the Internet, aren't they? So surely you should be super UN-restricted because you're using the biggest company? That's because Google (and parent company "Alphabet") is an advertising company, not a web site building platform, they won't give you much unless they can gain from it. I suggest two options: 1. Get someone to build you a site, with a CMS so you can publish information 2. Buy some proper web site hosting that supports or offers Wordpress 1-click installation if you want to DIY (many hosts offer this) Disclaimer: I don't use Wordpress myself but it would be a good fit for you. Edited February 24, 20224 yr by BlueDreamer
February 24, 20224 yr Google want you to spend money on adverts. They want you to give them all your data. The free site they offer is the hook to get you using all their services so they can make money from you. A popup will never keep people on the site. All it will do is annoy people. People will only ever be on your site because they want what you offer. So don't put anything in the way of this. As @BlueDreamer suggested. Go get some cheap hosting (godday has a £1/month offer) and install wordpress. It's all done with a few clicks and you soon have a site you will find much simpler to manage. You will have to change the nameservers on your google control panel but that takes seconds. If you get stuck just ask for help.
February 24, 20224 yr Author God, the IGNORANCE of the question I'm about to ask.....!! First of all, I'd no idea Wordpress was something you installed. Thought it was a blogging site! So what is it, a program? I install it on my computer to use it online? Can people who don't have it installed see my site? (I ask this because I use Bluestacks to see sites I couldn't see without Bluestacks, so I kinda know about that one!) Secondly - would I have to totally redo the website from scratch and change all the widgets/plugins (not sure which is which but we're using Jotform and Mailchimp stuff) to match the new site/hoster? Thanks for all your help, guys. Trying to wrap my head around it all, honest! Yours respectfully Chris.
February 24, 20224 yr Wordpress is a Content Management System (CMS) that is installed on a server. It's not something you can install on your PC and get to work without a lot of faff. Most hosting companies offer a one-click install that takes a couple of minutes to complete. After that you login and start writing. You will have to start all over but if you can copy and paste it doesn't take long. You can use jotform and mailchimp if you want but you will discover thousands of free plugins that can do all sorts of things. And thousands of free themes to change how your site looks. The benefit of a CMS like wordpress is you can switch themes without having to redo your content and navigation. Most wordpress themes are accessible which means they work well with screen readers and other aids. For everyone else it's no different to any other website. Over 30% of all websites use wordpress so it can't be that bad. Pay for some hosting follow the instructions and you can have a site up and running in 5 minutes. The only bit of faff will be updating the nameservers on Google. But even that doesn't take long. Edited February 24, 20224 yr by fisicx spelling
February 25, 20224 yr Author Dear Anyone. I THINK I've done it. Can anyone who reads this tells me if the picture looks right to them? I found something called Google Admin Console, never heard of it, found it through a YouTube vid. Found the Custom Names bit and used it and ended up with this.... Does this look right to you experts? And is the PENDING thing the site being propagated, do you think? Yours hopefully Chris. Edited February 25, 20224 yr by ulrichburke Missed out an important (to me!) question.
February 25, 20224 yr The pending means there is a problem with your account: https://help.101domain.com/email-services/google-workspace/google-workspace-shows-pending
March 2, 20224 yr Author Dear Fisicx and all. I'm back (AAARRRRGGGHHH!!! they cry. "We thought we'd gotten rid of this loser...." I can't find my A-name for love nor money nor pinging. Have a look at this. (I'm hoping the graphic will appear in the gap, if it doesn't, I mean the enclosed graphic wherever it is!) As you can see, I've learned the wonders of the word Ping. So I tested it on Google and got the Google A-name back. Yayy, thought I, I'll do it on mine. So I did. And Ping doesn't believe it's there. Yet when I type it in manually, I get taken there. Please, why can't I get my A-name by pinging? And as I can't, how do I find it to use it? I've got totally zero idea where to look for the thing. I'm in Google Domains. The site's built in Google Sites. We are Google Central!! And Google is magnificent at listing how to do everything apart from the One Necessary Thing, it pulls this trick alll the freakin' time. So yes I've found the help page walking you through doing it. It tells you where to put your A-name (anatomical details censored!) It does not tell you how to find the flamin' thing in the first place!! Pinging works for lots of sites I tried. Why not mine? Yours puzzledly Chris.
March 2, 20224 yr Author Dear Everyone. This is NOT a 'bump', sorry for 2 posts so close together but this is getting even more puzzling (and frankly, frustrating on the 'let's-change-our-name-to-Bruce-Banner-and-go-green!' level!) This IS our domain name, bought and paid for! Why is it saying it doesn't qualify? I mean if you type it in, it takes you to the site so why do none of these info-finding sites - or pings - believe it exists? And AS they don't believe it exists, how do I find it's flippin' A-name!?! God, I'm lost! I am soooo determined to get this website working........ Yours frustratedly Chris.
March 2, 20224 yr Why are you looking for the A-name? have you undone everything you have done with the various records? Have you made sure the DNS is pointing to the google name servers? Have you checked the things google suggests in the link I provided? something you have done has broken the link between the domain name and the site. You shouldn’t have had to do anything for the site to work. It may be you have to pay someone to fix this. Or better still don’t use google.sites
March 2, 20224 yr Author Dear Fisicx. Remembering I'm clutching at straws and don't know anything - you said 'when you build the site you'll be told the address of the nameservers'. That's the A-name, right? I read THIS in Google.... What does an A record do? https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR8YE-0EI14kewHE1UFjXLPf4WKgr9sk4z0to7q2zLw&s The A-record or Address Record provides information about the IP address of your host / domain name. For example, it is the link between the name of your website and the IP address of the server on which your files are located.11 Mar 2020 So as far as someone who knows nothing can see, I need it to link my website to the server, in other words to point the website addy, accessibilitypartners.co.uk, to the sites.google name, am I right in that? I've carefully checked all my E_mails and I haven't got anything from Google Sites or anyone telling me my A-record, which I take is the same as A-name, am I right? So I can't link the two names without it - if I'm wrong, tell me, cos I'm seriously clutching at straws with this right now, you'd think they'd make this easier but it's a frickin' nightmare - so obviously I need to find it. When I learned about pinging I thought I could just ping it from my CMD prompt - but nope, it doesn 't ping. Nor does the posh site find it. But if I type in the sites.google name I get taken there so the thing does exist. If there's another way of finding Google nameservers, which I understand to be the mainframes that link the sites.google name to the accessibilitypartners.co.uk name, and a way to use them that DOESN'T involve putting the A-name in somewhere - as I read above, it's the link between my website's name and Google Sites, isn't it, am I right there? So as it's the link, wouldn't that be the reason the two aren't talking to eachother, because they don't have the connecting A-name which seems to be unfindable? Or am I missing something here that's obvious to all you guys but not to this beginner!?! I know I can trust you guys so if there's anything you want to see screenshots of that might explain where I've naffed up, just tell me. I know where the Admin. Console is, where the DNS site is, where all the rest of it is, it's just this last bit of making 'em all talk to eachother nice that's killing me! Still trying to wrap my head around this. And as you can see, still lost! Yours sorrowfully Chris.
March 2, 20224 yr Forget all about A-name. It's a red herring. There was no need to touch anything. When you registered the domain name with Google they will have automatically set up the nameservers to point to google.sites. If you had tried to visit your site you would have seen a Google holding page. When you then built the site the holding page would have been replaced with the new site. Because you have been fiddling with the various records you have broken something. Without access to the account all we can do is guess. You need to reset everything and then follow these instructions: https://support.google.com/domains/answer/9809140?hl=en
March 2, 20224 yr Author So full of thanks for your help, Fisicx. One word answer needed. If I change/reset the records, will it wipe out the actual website? So I'll have to build it all over again? I mean if I have to, I have to, just want to be prepared for it! Here's a pic. of the DNS part of Google Sites, if I've naffed up anything there tell me. Pretty sure it was the only bit I changed stuff in - not 100% but pretty sure! Yours hopefully Chris.
March 2, 20224 yr No. The website will still be exactly where is it. Looking at that screenshot and there are all sorts of errors. You have quote marks on the TXT line. And periods in the CNAME line: https://sites.google.com/.accessibilitypartners.co.uk should be: https://sites.google.com/accessibilitypartners.co.uk and ghs.googlehosted.com. should be ghs.googlehosted.com But as I said, you shouldn't need to have set any of these. They are only used if you have a custom URL.
March 2, 20224 yr Author Thanks, Fisicx. Knowing I won't delete the actual website's a huge relief. I'll change all the mistakes - it's my first try, I didn't realise the fields were automatically set and I used inverted commas with the TXT because it had them in the Google thing I looked up, didn't know they weren't needed in reality. I'll head over, make the changes, if they work - in other words if that's all the changes that need to be made - will I then be able to type in accessibilitypartners.co.uk and go to the website, or do I need to preface that with HTTPS or HTTP or WWW - I'm happy to try all 3 till I hit the right one! Glad you're on my side! Yours respectfully Chris.
March 2, 20224 yr A single character in the wrong place can wreck a website. hopefully the site will be live soon.
March 2, 20224 yr Author Dear Fisicx. You're gonna hate me.... I can't make the changes stick. I can get at the inverted commas long enough to take them off, then I click on SAVE, it goes through the saving process, the screen blinks - and they're back again! The one with the extraneous fullstop won't let me access it to take the fullstop out. I've tried clicking on it, clicking on up/down arrowheads nearby - no joy. Been to Google Admin., can't see any obvious way to take it out there either. If you hit those problems, other than chucking a computer at me, how would you handle them? I'll try anything! Yours frustratedly, Chris.
March 2, 20224 yr Delete everything! Remove everything you added to settings. If this doesn’t work you are going to have to get support from google sites. If that bears no fruit plan B is to build a proper site.
March 3, 20224 yr Author Dear Fisicx/Everybody So I've FINALLY got the site showing up in the site checker box by using URL Forwarding.... ... the graphic will show up here somewhere. It's the first time I've had the site showing up in that little picture tester box, feeling very surprised! Thing is, it's STILL not showing up under www.accessibilitypartners.co.uk If you use Site Forwarding, do you have to wait for propagation or have I messed something else up? Like I said, never had it showing up in that box before so I'm feeling hopeful, should I be? Yours timorously Chris.
March 3, 20224 yr It’s immediate. I can see your site. however…. The url tells me it’s google sites not your site. And some pages look broken. But well done for getting it to work. Edited March 3, 20224 yr by fisicx
March 3, 20224 yr Author Dear Fisicx. You'll be glad when you're rid of me! Don't get 'the url tells me it's google sites not your site', my site's ON Google Sites, I used Google Sites to create my site, wasn't I clear enough about that? (NO sarcasm meant there, I've got Asperger's so I can sound sarcastic but I never mean to.) Still isn't showing up in reality if I type www.accessibilitypartners.co.uk into a browser but I'm not sure if that's propagation or not, if I've stuffed up something else, tell me what it might be. Never gotten it showing up in that little window before. I've TRIED editing things in Google Domains like people tell me but Google Domains won't let things STAY edited. I took out the fullstop from the end of the URL that someone pointed out to me, pressed SAVE and it immediately put the fullstop back in again. Same with the inverted commas around the GHS name someone told me to take out, they won't STAY taken out, it just puts them back in again. I spent ages and hours trying to work out how to make editing stick, couldn't do it, read about website forwarding, tried it that way and the result's what I showed you. But it's still not showing up in reality yet. If you know how to make changes STICK in Google Domains, or if I'm trying to change the wrong things and that's why they're being changed back again...... Yours hopefully Chris.
March 3, 20224 yr I entered accessibilitypartners.co.uk into my address bar and ended up here: https://sites.google.com/accessibilitypartners.co.uk/accessibilitypartners/home/ Which means something is working. What I expected to see in the address bar is https://accessibilitypartners.co.uk Your problems all began when you started fiddling with the settings. But you got it working now so that's good. The bad news is the site has a whole bunch of issues. Most people will be using their phone to access the site. This means your homepage image gets squished and almost unreadable. And there are a whole long list of accessibility issues (mainly because of Google's awful page builder). So while it's great that the site is live you do need to consider using a different platform. Long term using Google is going to become more and more of a burden.
March 4, 20224 yr Author Dear Fisicx. Yup, it's working (to a degree!) and I'm just glad I've got it that far! I did it with a 'forwarding' in the end, from Admin Console. Took about 10 hours to propagate, didn't realise it would take that long, wasn't working yesterday teatime then I tried the address this morning more for a laugh than anything else - and the site came up! I know it's coming up under the wrong address in a way, that's because I'm doing it via forwarding I THINK - if you know any other reason that might be happening, tell me and I'll try to check it out. I'm still climbing the learning Everest on this thing, don't forget! You got me on mobile phones - I don't have a smartphone to my name so I can't check it on smartphone. Can't afford a smartphone - am on disability benefits! If you'd like to list some of the accessibility issues I'll try to sort them out, won't be right away because I'd have to learn HOW to sort them out first! And I've no idea if Google's page builder is awful or not, never seen another one anywhere. Mandy bought the Google domain name, so that was all I knew about. First time I'd ever used a page builder anywhere. Last question for you. The site's propagated so it's up - took about 10 hours like I said. If I make any changes - like add more pages, change links, whatever - will the changes also take 10 hours to percolate through? And will it result in different versions of the website appearing to different people at different times as, while the 'percolating' is happening, surely some mainframes would have Version One of the site while others have Version 2, they couldn't all have the same version simultaneously, could they, cos the website would have to be copied across to all of them, wouldn't it? So ASSUMING that to be the case, unless you say otherwise, would it be better to do alterations/additions in batches, so they're all percolating through simultaneously? I know that ended up as more than a single question, sorry! If you feel like listing the issues, like I said above, I will try to sort them all out. HOPEFULLY none of them will mean I have to bother you guys again, I'll do the best I can and only bother you all if I really need to. Thanks for putting up with a first-timer! Yours respectfully Chris.
March 4, 20224 yr Most browsers have an 'inspect' option where you can simulate how it looks on various devices. 70% of all browsing is not done using mobile phones. You can't sort out the accessibility issues if you use google sites. If you want a fully accessible site don't use google sites. In fact don't use any sort of site builder. Propagation depends on Google. Changes should be instant but google may have a different way of doing things.
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