www doesn't redirect to apex or vice-versa

[Integralist]

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I have a website hosted on GitHub Pages https://classicwwf.com

I'm trying to get the www subdomain to redirect to it (or vice-versa is fine**).

Note

**I was of the understanding that creating a CNAME would mean GitHub would automatically redirect the apex to the www.

My DNS looks like the following currently...

$ dig +nocmd +nocomments +noquestion +nostats www.classicwwf.com

www.classicwwf.com.	14020	IN	CNAME	integralist.github.io.
integralist.github.io.	3220	IN	A	185.199.110.153
integralist.github.io.	3220	IN	A	185.199.111.153
integralist.github.io.	3220	IN	A	185.199.109.153
integralist.github.io.	3220	IN	A	185.199.108.153

Via curl I can ping www and it'll redirect to the apex (and specifically it redirects to HTTPS), but trying that in the browser fails:

$ curl -v -L -D - http://www.classicwwf.com

...
Location: https://classicwwf.com/
...

Where as in Chrome I'll see net::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID.

The curl doesn't work with HTTPS though:

$ curl -v -L -D - https://www.classicwwf.com

*   Trying 185.199.108.153:443...
* Connected to www.classicwwf.com (185.199.108.153) port 443
* ALPN: curl offers h2,http/1.1
* (304) (OUT), TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
*  CAfile: /etc/ssl/cert.pem
*  CApath: none
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Server hello (2):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Unknown (8):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Certificate (11):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, CERT verify (15):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* (304) (OUT), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* SSL connection using TLSv1.3 / AEAD-CHACHA20-POLY1305-SHA256
* ALPN: server accepted h2
* Server certificate:
*  subject: C=US; ST=California; L=San Francisco; O=GitHub, Inc.; CN=*.github.io
*  start date: Mar 15 00:00:00 2024 GMT
*  expire date: Mar 14 23:59:59 2025 GMT
*  subjectAltName does not match www.classicwwf.com
* SSL: no alternative certificate subject name matches target host name 'www.classicwwf.com'
* Closing connection
curl: (60) SSL: no alternative certificate subject name matches target host name 'www.classicwwf.com'
More details here: https://curl.se/docs/sslcerts.html

curl failed to verify the legitimacy of the server and therefore could not
establish a secure connection to it. To learn more about this situation and
how to fix it, please visit the web page mentioned above.

So what am I doing wrong 🤔

Thanks for any help/guidance you can give me.

[Shriharsh-Deshmukh]

Your issue stems from the fact that GitHub Pages does not automatically provide SSL certificates for custom subdomains (e.g., www.classicwwf.com). Therefore, the SSL certificate for *.github.io does not cover your www subdomain, leading to the SSL error.

Solution:

1. Set up an SSL certificate for the www subdomain:

   • Use a service like Cloudflare to handle SSL for your domain. Cloudflare provides free SSL and can handle both the apex domain and the www subdomain.
   • Once set up, Cloudflare will handle the redirection and SSL certificate issues.

2. Alternatively, remove the www subdomain:

   • If you prefer to use the apex domain (classicwwf.com) exclusively, remove the CNAME for www and set a redirect from www.classicwwf.com to classicwwf.com using your DNS provider's forwarding service.

This should resolve the SSL and redirection issues.

[utkbkts]

Have you checked the SSL settings?

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[swimmingbrain]

Hey, try following these steps to solve your issue:

1. Update the DNS Settings:

Make sure you have an A record set up for the apex domain (classicwwf.com) that points to GitHub Pages' IP addresses:

185.199.108.153
185.199.109.153
185.199.110.153
185.199.111.153

Your CNAME for www looks fine, pointing to integralist.github.io.

2. Configure GitHub Pages for Custom Domain:

• Go to your repository settings on GitHub.
• In the "Pages" section, make sure the custom domain field is set to classicwwf.com.
• Ensure that the "Enforce HTTPS" checkbox is selected. GitHub Pages will provision a certificate for your custom domain (classicwwf.com), including www.classicwwf.com, if configured correctly.

3. Redirect www to the Apex Domain:

• You mentioned that you want either www to redirect to the apex domain or vice versa. GitHub Pages can automatically handle this redirection if correctly configured.
• Ensure your custom domain configuration in your repository’s settings specifies classicwwf.com (without www). GitHub should automatically redirect requests from www.classicwwf.com to https://classicwwf.com.

Hope this helps with your issue! 🧠