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Any upgraded Photo Finale or , Foto Depot, or Proofing Gallery site (standard PF, Photo Finale Managed or Photo Finale Enterprisesingle page PFSR or multi-page PFE) may opt to have a custom domain (fees apply).  This means, that instead of yoursite.photofinale.com or yoursite.fotodepot.ca, your store's web address would be www.YOURSITE.yourphoto.com or yourphoto.yoursite.com and all links would use that URL. 

How to set up a custom domain for your site:

1. Opt In: Purchase the custom domain option from Photo Finale and reserve your domain name.  This is a one-time fee; your sales rep will be happy to provide a quote.  Domain names must be unique across the platform and cannot utilize reserved terms (see list below).
   Buy Domain: If you haven't already registered the domain you want to use, buy it.  Your custom domain name must be pre-approved by Photo Finale to verify that it is unique on our platform and that it follows our guidelines. You can buy this from a provider, such as GoDaddy.
   Set up DNS: Now that you own the domain name, you need someone to host the DNS for it.  When a user types your domain name into their browser, a DNS service is used to translate that name into the appropriate IP address.  You can host and manage DNS yourself by paying your provider to do it, or you can let Photo Finale host it for you for free.  If you don't have a reason to manage it yourself, we recommend that you allow us to do it.  Please let your Account Manager know what you decide.  Based on your decision we'll send you the appropriate instructions to complete this task.
   Buy SSL: In order to use your custom domain for ecommerce sales, the site needs to have a valid SSL certificate.  The SSL certificate will need to be for your exact domain name, which is typically www.YOURSITE.com (don't forget the "www").  There are numerous SSL vendors and various levels of SSL certificates available.  Generally the most basic level of SSL certificate is sufficient, however the premium Extended Validation ("EV") certificates may be worthwhile for dealers that do a very high volume of sales online.  You can select whichever duration suits you, although we typically recommend 2+ years to minimize your effort to renew it and chances that you may forget. You can buy it from any registrar service, but we recommend SSLs.com.

   1. Now that we are HTTPS Everywhere there is more of a case to be made for dealers to splurge a bit and get the EV certificate, if you do a reasonable amount of business on the web.  Depending upon what you want to spend, the recommended options are: 

      1. BEST: Extended Verification - $158 for 2 years: https://www.ssls.com/ssl-certificates/comodo-ev-ssl

      2. GOOD: Domain Verification - $15 for 3 years: https://www.ssls.com/comodo-ssl-certificates/positivessl.html

   Submit CSR: Photo Finale will provide you with a Certificate Signing Request ("CSR") file that is an encrypted text file that includes information on the exact domain name you wish to protect along with our servers' public encryption key.  Please contact your Account Manager or technical support if you have not received this from us.  You will upload the CSR file to your SSL vendor in order for them to generate the SSL certificate. If you are asked what type of server the certificate will be installed on, choose IIS7 or IIS8.  
   NameCheap. Domain names (or subdomain names of your main domain) must be unique across the platform and cannot utilize reserved terms (see list below).
   
   

2. DNS & SSL: We will purchase and keep the SSL certificate for your site up to date. We charge a yearly fee of $50.
   
   In your DNS, you will need to add these entries to your zone.

   For a main-level domain:

   Name	Type	Value	TTL
   @ (root/naked domain)	A	165.254.179.34	21600
   www	CNAME	customdomain.photofinale.com	21600

   
   

   For a sub domain of your current main site: 

   Name	Type	Value	TTL
   [photo-vdir].[mainsite.com]	CNAME	customdomain.photofinale.com	21600

   Send Us SSL: Once your certificate has been generated, please download the file from your certificate authority and email it back to us.  It will be a downloadable as a zip file.
   Schedule Go-Live: Once we have loaded your new SSL certificate onto each of the servers across our clusters, we will then coordinate a go-live time with you to make the DNS switchover for the new site address.  Typically this step can take 2-4 days.

   
   

If you have any questions on this please feel free to contact support@photofinale.com. 

Reserved Generic Names

Custom domain names may not use these reserved, generic terms as their domain or subdomain.  Plural and gerund forms of these terms are also reserved.

• album
• android
• app
• book
• builder
• buy
• ca
• calendar
• canada
• canvas
• card
• cart
• collectionscollection
• checkout
• create
• engine
• enlargement
• event
• gallery
• gift
• help
• html
• ios
• lab
• member
• membership
• mobile
• mug
• my
• myphoto
• myprint
• myproof
• mystudio
• online
• order
• passport
• photo
• portfolio
• portrait
• poster
• print
• pro
• project
• proof
• session
• share
• shop
• sports
• store
• studio
• uk
• us
• web
• wedding
  
  

Photo Finale must pre-approve all domain names and reserves the right to disallow specific names for any reason.