Control Panel

Site Access

Banning a Commenter

You may wish to ban certain visitors from commenting on your site based on the content of comments that they have submitted to your site.

To ban a commenter, click the Control Panel tab to access your Control Panel area. Then click the Site Access tab to enter the comment banning area.

On the Comment Banning page, you can enter the number for their IP address into the “IP Address” text area. You can also enter a note with the banned IP. Press the “Add” button to add the IP to your comment ban list. IP Addresses that are listed in your comment ban list will not be allowed to comment on your site.

An IP address is the unique identifying number of your visitor’s computer. Some visitors have different a IP address each time they connect to the Internet. Therefore, it may sometimes be difficult or impossible to completely ban a visitor based on one IP address.

Finding out the IP Address to Ban

If you have email notification for comments enabled, the commenter’s IP address will be in the message you received.

Or, follow the instructions below for deleting comments on your posts to access the Edit Comment page for that comment and you can view the IP there.

Removing a Banned IP Address

To remove a banned IP address and allow that IP to comment on your site again, check the Remove box in your comment ban list next the IP that you would like to allow to comment again, and then press the Remove button.

Deleting a Comment

See Deleting Comments on Your Posts for information on removing a comment from your weblog. Before you delete the comment, note the IP address of the commenter if you would like to add them to your ban list.

[top]

Setting Up Password Protection

With TypePad, you can choose to password protect either your entire web site or individual weblogs or photo albums.

If you choose to password protect your entire site, visitors will be prompted to enter a username and password combination to access any page off your main site (this includes your about page, all weblogs and photo albums, and any of your feeds).

If you choose to password protect a particular weblog or photo album, your visitors will be prompted to enter a username and password combination for only that particular area of your site.

Adding the Password Protection

Click the Control Panel tab to access your Control Panel area, then click the Password protect a site link in the Control Panel Shortcuts to enter the password protection setup:

1 Choose what to protect

Choose “I would like to password protect my entire site” or “I would rather password protect certain areas of my site”.

2 Check the “Protected?” box

Click the “Protected?” check box next to your site or next to the name of the weblog or photo album you wish to protect.

3 Enter the user name and password to set

Enter the user name and password that you want visitors to use to access the pages.

4 Press “Save Changes”

The new protection takes effect immediately and visitors will need to enter this user name and password to access the site (or weblog or album).

Changing the User Name or Password

To change a user name or password, simply enter the new text in the appropriate field and press “Save Changes”.

Why can’t I log in to my password-protected weblog or photo album?

Make sure that you are typing the user name and password correctly. The user name and password are case sensitive, so if the user name you have set is foo, entering Foo will not work.

If you are still unable to log in, try re-entering the user name and password (see Adding the Password Protection above) to confirm that the information you are trying to type in the password box is correct, or remove the password protection to try again.

Removing Password Protection

Click the “Protected?” check box next to the name of the weblog or photo album you wish to remove the protection from, so the box is unchecked, and press “Save Changes”.

The protection will be removed immediately. Your user name and password will be cleared automatically when you save the changes.

[top]

Setting Up Domain Mapping

(Domain mapping is available with Plus and Pro membership.)

Also see the Domain Mapping Requirements.

Domain Mapping is the process of pointing a registered domain name to a TypePad site, weblog or photo album. Domain mapping is more than domain forwarding, because your permalinks and URL contain the address of your domain (www.example.com), and not your TypePad sub-domain (example.typepad.com).

Once the mapping is complete, visitors will be able to visit your weblog at www.example.com while still being able to view it at the original example.typepad.com (or example.blogs.com). Any links that you had coming in previously will not be broken.

Domain Mapping Configuration

To configure TypePad for domain mapping, click the Control Panel tab to access your Control Panel area. Click your Site Access tab, then click the Domain Mapping link to open the Domain Mapping setup:

1 Press “Begin Here: Map a Domain Name”

Press the button to begin the mapping setup and the popup window opens where you will enter your domain information. Select I already have a domain name registered and click to the next step.

Next, enter your domain name and press “Get DNS Settings”. Note: Enter your domain without the www in front (such as example.com), or you can also enter a sub-domain (such as weblog.example.com).

TypePad will return the recommended settings to use to configure the DNS for your domain. If the domain was just registered, you may get a message that This domain does not have any DNS records associated with it - you can still continue.

Leave the popup window open so you can view the settings to enter at your registrar in step 2.

2 Enter the advanced DNS settings at your registrar/host

Now, go to your account at your registrar/host to configure the advanced DNS settings for your domain using the settings provided in step 1.

The CNAME will always be your main TypePad URL (such as example.typepad.com).

You will have the opportunity to select a specific weblog or photo album to map to (if not mapping your entire site) when you complete the final step of the mapping process in TypePad.

The A and MX records will continue to point to your server, not at TypePad’s servers. The reason for this is so that services like email (if you’re using it) will continue to work even after your domain has been mapped to your TypePad site.

Save the settings with your registrar and go back to TypePad for the rest of the setup.

3 Choose where to map the domain

Now press the “Complete Final Step” button in the TypePad domain mapping popup window and make the selection to map the domain to your main site or to a weblog or photo album.

Mapping to your main site will make all of your weblogs and albums (and About Page) show at your domain, while mapping to a specific weblog or album will map the domain directly to that weblog or album only.

4 Press “Add Domain”

Click to add the domain to TypePad, and you’ll now see it listed on your TypePad Domain Mapping page.

5 Wait for the DNS change to come through

While the process on TypePad’s end takes about two hours to complete, the process on your registrar’s end can take 24-48 hours.

6 Activate the mapping in TypePad

When you can type in http://www.example.com (your domain) and see your TypePad site, you can make the mapping active in TypePad. Do this by checking the “Active” box next to the domain in your mapping list in TypePad and press the “Set” button.

7 Republish your weblog or album

Setting the mapping as active sets it so that when you republish your site your permalinks on the pages will use www.example.com instead of example.typepad.com.

Republish your weblog or album that has been configured with the mapping to update your links. If you mapped your entire TypePad site, then publish each weblog and album. There is a Publish button on the Design tab for each weblog or album, and you can select to Publish all files there.

Now your domain will come up when you click “View Weblog” and your permalinks will use your domain name.

Setting a Redirect

Domain mapping maps www.example.com to your site, weblog or photo album. To enable example.com (without the www) you would set a redirect from example.com to www.example.com. How this is set exactly depends on your registrar/host.

Additional Domains

You can set up additional domains to point to weblogs or albums by repeating this mapping process for the next domain.

Unsetting a Domain Mapping

Unset a mapping by going to your TypePad Domain Mapping page and unchecking the “Active” box for that domain. Press the “Set” button to set the mapping as inactive. Republish your weblog or album to put it back to the default setting.

[top]

Domain Mapping Requirements

You can map a domain to your TypePad site with the Plus and Pro levels of TypePad.

Domains are set up with a registrar separately from TypePad. In order to use domain mapping, your registrar--the company where you register your domain name--must support “custom DNS services”. This means that your registrar must give you control over the DNS records that describe your domain, and that you must have the ability to create and modify A, MX, and CNAME records.

If you’re not sure if your registrar supports custom DNS services, you can send them this email message:

Hi,

I’m using TypePad (http://www.typepad.com/) to host my weblog. TypePad supports a feature called domain mapping, where my domain can be pointed at their servers. In order to use this feature, my registrar must support custom DNS services--I need control over the DNS records that describe my domain, and I must have the ability to create and modify A, MX, and CNAME records. Do you offer such a service? Please send me more details on how it works and how I can turn it on for my account.

Thank you.

If you do not have a domain registered already, here are details for four popular registrars:

pairNIC http://www.pairnic.com/: pairNIC calls its custom DNS services “Custom DNS”. Custom DNS is included with every domain registration for no additional charge. Instructions on enabling Custom DNS are available on the pairNIC site. pairNIC also provides some tips and suggestions for using custom DNS. pairNIC also offers a feature called "Domain Parking" to easily set up domain mapping with TypePad, which you may find easier to use than Custom DNS.
dotster http://www.dotster.com/: dotster calls its custom DNS services “DNS Management”. DNS Management is available if you use dotster’s name servers for an additional yearly fee. dotster offers instructions for setting up DNS Management services for your domain.
GoDaddy http://www.godaddy.com/: GoDaddy’s “Total DNS Control” is included with domain registration and gives you control over custom DNS services for your domain. Instructions on setting up Total DNS Control are available at GoDaddy’s site.
Network Solutions http://www.networksolutions.com/: Network Solutions calls its custom DNS services “Advanced DNS”. Advanced DNS is available for an additional yearly fee. Instructions on setting up Advanced DNS are available at the Network Solutions site. If You Are Registering a New Domain

You can choose from any of the above registrars or from another registrar that you know to support custom DNS services. Then, continue with Setting Up Domain Mapping.

[top]