Are you trying to add special character domain names in cPanel?

This guide will help you.

Recently, one of our customers was trying to add a new DNS zone that contains a special character. But he received the following error.

The domain you have specified does not conform to domain name rules

These are IDN's and we should use the ACE codes for the domain names.

An Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) is a domain name that may contain characters that are not defined by the ASCII standard. These characters are, the common accented letters in many European languages​​, as well as other characters that do not belong to the Latin alphabet, including Arabic or Cyrillic.

Here at Ibmi Media, as part of our Server Management Services, we regularly help our Customers to perform cPanel related installations.

In this context, we shall look into how to add special character domain names in cPanel.

Steps to add special character domain names in cPanel ?

Here, you will learn how to add special characters to the domain name.

Usually, it is not possible to add special characters in domains in cPanel. Because it will result in the error mentioned above.

In order to resolve this, we need to convert the domain name to ASCII before adding it to WHM. Here are the steps for it.

Step 1: IDN to ASCII conversion

First, we need to convert domains from IDN to ASCII. For that, we can make use of any online tool to convert IDN to ASCII like:

https://converter-idn.com/

For example, suppose that the domain name to be added is ibmimedia.com.

IDN: ibmimedia.com
ASCII: xn--ibmimedia-gya.com

Step 2: Add the ASCII domain name to cPanel or WHM

To Add the domain name in WHM:

a. If it is the first domain on the server, then first, we need to create a package. Here are the steps to create a package.

i. First, we navigate to Add a Package

ii. Next, we select Package Name

iii. After that, we create Resource Limitations

Disk Quota (MB)
Monthly Bandwidth (MB)
Max FTP Accounts
Max Email Accounts
Max Email Lists
Max Databases
Max Sub Domains
Max Parked Domains
Max Addon Domains
Maximum Hourly Email by Domain Relayed
Maximum percentage of failed or deferred messaged a domain may send per hour

iv. Finally, under Settings: This is where we can specify if we want the package to have a dedicated IP, offer shell access (SSH), cPanel access (CGI), or Digest Authentication. Typically we can leave the Settings as default.

b. After creating a package, we go to Account Functions >> Create a New Account.

c. Then we fill all required fields (Domain, username, choose a strong password, and Email).

d. After that, we choose a pre-defined package or click on ‘Select Options Manually’ to allocate disk space, traffic, and other features to the new domain/account.

e. Finally, we click on 'Create'.

To Add domain names in cPanel:

i. First, we log into hosting cPanel.

ii. Next, we click on Addon Domains that is located under the Domains section.

iii. Here we enter the domain in the ‘New Domain Name’ section.

iv. After entering the domain, we click The Subdomain field and the Document Root (usually public_html/domain.com) will automatically fill in. Check “Create an FTP account associated with this Addon Domain” if we want an FTP added. The FTP account would only have access to that specific Addon domain.

v. Finally, we click Add Domain.

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