What is a subdomain?
Introduction
Subdomains can be used to improve the organisation of your website. They are useful if you want to split a website into different parts. For example, you might want to have a online store, a forum, a blog or a support section which you want to store separately to your main website. A subdomain is basically a folder under your (main) root directory. A different URL can be used to access a subdomain. Here are some examples of subdomains and their links you could setup:
http://forum.example.com
http://store.example.com
http://support.example.com
http://blog.example.com
Subdomains are the third level domains. Looking at the first example above, ‘.com’ is the first level domain; ‘example’ is the second level domain and ‘forum’ is the third level domain. Each subdomain can have its own FTP account, so you can publish files or folders directly to a sub-domain.
Some web hosting companies limit how many subdomains you can setup or charge you extra for each one you want to create. Here at chillidog Hosting, customers are free to setup as many subdomains as they want, within the existing bandwidth and disk space limits.
How to create new subdomains
You can easily create subdomains yourself, through your Chillidog Hosting account. Start by logging into your CPanel (control panel) using your normal username and password combination. In your control panel, scroll down and open the Domains section, pictured below.
Domain settings in CPanel
Click on the Subdomains option shown. On the next page, type the name of the subdomain you want to create in the first box. From the drop-down menu, choose which domain name you want this to be a subdomain of. When you place your cursor in the Document Root box, it should update automatically for you.
Create a subdomain
The document root can often be left as it is. Conveniently, this is the same path or root to use in your FTP software, if you want to publish files or folders directly into the subdomain. Click on the Create button when done.
New subdomains are normally created instantly, although there may be a slight delay of a few minutes while your instruction is sent to the webserver and processed. So be patient. When the new domain is created, you’ll see a notification like this on the sreeen:
Subdomain created
Click the Go Back button to continue. Subdomains are shown in the table below the create box. When you login to your web server via FTP, the new folder for the subdomain will be shown at root level. From this point onwards, you will be able to place files and folders into this subdomain, plus install software like Wordpress or Concrete5 into a subdomain. Subdomains have the same level of access to hosting features like PHP and MySQL.
How to publish to a subdomain
Publishing to a subdomain is not much different to publishing to a normal domain, which is what makes subdomains very useful. Your normal server name, port number, username and password settings can all remain the same as before. The only thing that changes is the root or path.
Important: Most FTP software supports a root or path box. But as is the case in Cyberduck FTP and RapidWeaver, this may be hidden by defualt under an ‘Advanced’ or ‘Options’ tab or similar. So you may need to toggle that open first, and then type your subdomain name in the box.
The subdomain formed as a path in Cyberduck FTP
Whereas normally you would leave the root or path field in your FTP software blank, with a subdomain, you type the name of the subdomain in this box. So if you were publishing to a subdomain named store, you would type store in the path or root box (as shown above in the picture). This is because you want to directly access the /store/ folder, on the main domain. And that is just about all there is to know.
One thing that some people prefer to do is to create new FTP accounts linked specifically to a subdomain. That way, the FTP account can only access the subdomain, and nothing else on the server. If you are publishing to a subdomain (using an FTP account exclusive to a subdomain), then you probably don’t need to provide a path or root.
Deleting subdomains
Unused subdomains should be deleted, to keep your hosting account secure and tidy. To do this, follow the same steps above to log into CPanel and access subdomains. In the Modify a Subdomain section, find the subdomain you want to delete. Click the corresponding Remove link, in the table. On the next page, confirm if you want to delete the Subdomain. Then click the Delete Subdomain button.
Subdomain created
As was the case with creating new subdomains, it may take a couple of minutes for the web server to receive your instructions and process the deletion. A success message will be displayed, after the subdomain remove has completed.
Concluding notes
Subdomains are URLs for different sections of your website. They use your main domain name and a prefix. For example, if your domain is example.com a sub-domain of your domain might be support.example.com. You can setup and remove subdomains at anytime yourself, in CPanel.
