Second level domain, not supported, but what IS that anyway?

In the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy, a second-level domain (SLD or 2LD) is a domain that is directly below a top-level domain (TLD). For example, in example.com, example is the second-level domain of the .com TLD.

from:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-level_domain

This means, you can not assign Docebo to company.com, you have to create a third-level domain, e.g. learn.company.com

If I read this article correctly, ANY web address without the www is considered a second level domain. So google.com would be a second level. Whereas www.google.com would be a first level.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-level_domain

Did I get that right? 

Let’s take a look at this community…

community.docebo.com

In this address - the  .com  is called the top level domain.

The  docebo  is the second level

The community is the thirdlevel.

Second level is pretty much usually your main organization. In this case docebo.

Hopefully that makes some sense.

I think so.

Basically if you have a site that you created. Let’s say  www. mysite .com

Docebo will not support going to simply  mysite.com.

It would need to go to a third level such as  learning.mysite.com

This would also be referred to as a subdomain.

Adding the www to google .com makes it a third level though, not a first level.

@gstager  ok, so it reads from right to left. But I notice there is no mention of the www. Using your example I can type either www.community.docebo.com  or community.docebo.com.

So, the www is not considered part of the level structure?

@gstager We must have been typing at the same time. So the www is considered part of the structure.

I would have expected the www.mysite.com  to be the more common structure for your custom domain.

www.mysite.com  to an end user is the same as mysite.com . They don’t know boo about do I have to type the www.

The point there being, did the move to no second level domain cause some issues?

Technically, the www is a subdomain of  mysite

Often folks will configure the DNS for the second level and the www to point to the same place.

@gstager Now my head hurts. :) Thank you for being patient with me.

I’m still trying to wrap my brain around the impact of having a shorter url.

For those folks using a www.mysite.com  style url as a custom domain….

Does having both the DNS entries point to the same place still work for you?

Have you seen anything odd, where the reset password link from a shortcode or forgot password link uses the short url?

What are you doing for your customers, whose DNS is outside of your control?

Well - for me personally - I only have www and my second level domain point to the same place, which is basically the home page I want my visitors to see when they go to my site.

I don’t have www and any of my third level domains route to the same place.

The DNS entries will help me to configure the behavior on my end of things.

When a visitor requests a reset password link - it would use their email address but not their DNS. The link they click on to reset the password should be a link that points back to your platform.

In my case - while I am not in charge of our company DNS entries - I know that our www and second level domain point to our customer facing website. 

Our learning platform has a third level that is “stand alone” I guess you could say.

Does that help?

Well - for me personally - I only have www and my second level domain point to the same place, which is basically the home page I want my visitors to see when they go to my site.

I don’t have www and any of my third level domains route to the same place.

That feels like a contradiction, I’m not following.

Are you using 2 different domains, one for customers one for internal?

To be clear: I have been assured by Docebo support that our DNS entries are configured correctly. I do not control our DNS, and the appropriate people were on a call to hash that out. I have no reason to think that we don’t have the setup you described.

What I am seeing is the link sent to customers in the shortcode in a notification (like the activation email) or the passwordreset is similar to this

https://link.edgepilot.com/s/bunchofletters/bunchmoreletters?u=http://mysite.com/learn/user/reset

Note the unsecured short form url at the end?

So that means my customers get a nasty message about visiting an unsecured site when they click the link.

And my internal users, who are used to just typing the short url, find that SSO doesn’t work, because it thinks it’s unsecured.

I’m trying to figure out if it’s just me. And if it is just me, what am I doing wrong.

LOL - this ended up going a bit deeper that just identifying what second level domain is… no worries - I will try my best.

The way I see it - we are a people of brevity and shortcuts - we always seem to strive for efficiency. In this case - I might suggest that  mysite .com  and  www. mysite .com  have become pretty much understood as the same thing. As such I might say to you

“Yeah, just check out mysite dot com and check out all we have to offer...”

Again - for many people - the www is understood but I might type it without the www.  you know… for brevity… My website would be the exact same site for anyone but to facilitate things for my customer I will configure my DNS so that if they type it with or without the www - they will still hit my homepage. If it isn’t configured properly then those addresses would lead to different results.

Umm… maybe think of it like a post office box… there is my home address and my PO Box and no matter which one you send to the end result is that it gets to me… as long as the Post Office (DNS) knows the end result that PO Box is linked to. So we don’t have different sites - just different addresses that are configured to point to the same site.

Now there is something else going on here as well - that is the  http://  and https://

The http:// is unsecured where the https:// is deemed secure (note the S)

When using a secured site - you’ll need a valid security certificate in place. That will help your visitors to not see the nasty-gram about being unsecured. There is an app for you to get this in place so that
http :// learning .mysite. com  can become  https :// learning .mysite .com

Your IT department should be able to help take care of that.

Thank you for digging in with me. Sorry to drag others into the mystery. I was hoping it was just a case of me being clueless, which is why I started with that question.

On to the details!

The SSL for the site exists and includes both the www and non www  addresses. Also confirmed by Docebo support to be correctly setup.

The https app on Docebo only allows you to configure one, so it is set to the www one. (unless I totally missed something, always possible.) Was that the app you meant?

There is an app for you to get this in place so that

The post office is setup to translate the address and send it on the right path, but the mail carrier seems set in his ways and refuses to cooperate (my attempt at humor there).

For anyone wondering why this whole conversation isn’t a support ticket….it was…..

For us it is just the third level only…

https :// learning. mysite .com

This is dedicated to the learning platform.

mysite .com  and  www .mysite .com  are used for the main company website.

From the website - folks are able to find a link to the learning platform found at  learning .mysite .com  or folks can hit the learning platform directly with a bookmark.

Perhaps it is there that the confusion lies.

You only have one of those configured for https and you said it was the  www one.

I notice in the link you shared above that it is the  non-www  one. Remember the start of this conversation… mysite.com would be considered second level and not supported.

I don’t know that I can help fix that as it stands other than to say perhaps the best course of action would be to define a single third level domain such as  learning .mysite .com  and go from there.

I wouldn’t use www if it also shares your company website.

This is dedicated to the learning platform.

mysite .com  and  www .mysite .com  are used for the main company website.

OK, so you were NOT saying that you use a www.mysite.com  to point to a learning platform of any kind. My misunderstanding there.

The www doesn’t share our company website. It’s just the url we have used for a decade and are loathe to change.

Thank you for trying to point me in the right direction. I appreciate it.

So  www. mysite .com  has always pointed to your instance of Docebo and nothing else?

@gstager  Nope. We just migrated off another platform. We broke the connection for the url to point to the old one and intended to drop it in place with Docebo. Minimal interruption for our users. It was a great theory.

And a decade is a slight exaggeration, it’s been in use sixish years.

Hi everyone, we are going to change our custom domain. Instead of using learn.domain.domain , we are considering www.domain.domain as our plan is to have our website embedded into the platform so essentially the platform will act as a website as well - basically two in one. Anyone here who is also using www as part of their custom domain? Is there any issues that we should be aware of, in the case that the www isnt sharing our company/organization website?

TIA!

And let’s say if we decide to use www.domain.domain, would users be able to just drop www. and use domain.domain to reach to our platform? Just like how it works for most URL nowadays people dont put www. anymore. TIA