Unable to link the domain name to the new hosting

Domains and Hosting
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1

Hello community,

I’m trying to point my new WordPress site to a new Starter hosting, but it mysteriously remains on the old 100M.

Situation history: I had a mini‑site on 100M hosting for jacquesboussard.net; in June 2025 I moved to another provider that offered WordPress deployment while keeping the domain at OVH; yesterday I opened a Starter hosting to transfer the new site. I copied the files via FTP, also transferred the database, linked both in /www/wp-config.php, and updated the DNS.

Yet jacquesboussard.net now shows the old mini‑site from the 100M hosting instead of the Starter one.
When I try to add it as a multisite to Starter (automatic mode), I’m informed that Une redirection du domaine ``jacquesboussard.net`` existe déjà (champ de type A), then the following message appears: Une erreur est survenue lors de l'ajout du ou des domaines à votre hébergement mutualisé. (this attachedDomain already exists (hosting: ``jacqueg.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net``))… and I can’t delete the site from the 100M multisite list.

Curiously, the “technical” URL of Starter xjnzzff.cluster121.hosting.ovh.net also redirects to the 100M content. However, even more strangely, if I delete index.php, the “redirection” stops and the /www WordPress content displays correctly. Why?

Some technical details

  • The site’s DNS servers are dns12.ovh.net and ns12.ovh.net.

  • The DNS zones are tangled and include, among others:
    www CNAME jacquesboussard.net.
    www A 188.165.53.185 (Starter IPv4)
    www AAAA 2001:41d0:301::21 (Starter IPv6)
    @ A 188.165.53.185
    @ AAAA 2001:41d0:301::21
    @ NS dns12.ovh.net.
    @ NS ns12.ovh.net.

  • The hosting clusters are different, if I go by their names: jacqueg.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net for 100M and ~cluster121~ for Starter, so there should not be confusion due to a single server. identical: same IP, same eu‑west‑gra server, same cluster121, same Filer 2168!

In another thread it is recommended to delete the 100M hosting, but I’d like to keep it to store a redirect if I later change my domain to .org.

That’s all I can do with my limited skills after consulting OVH help and this guide. How can I unblock the situation?

2

Hello @GregoireCB

Redirects are normally set up via the /www/.htaccess file

I don’t see why:

  • You couldn’t perform this operation from the /www/.htaccess file of your Starter hosting
  • Why you couldn’t deactivate this 100 MB hosting.

However, you need to be careful if your EMAIL address is linked to this 100 MB hosting.

3

Hello,

You’re unlucky: your two hosting accounts are on the same cluster121.

As a result, there can be only one association between your domain name jacquesboussard.net on cluster121, and that one already points to 'jacqueg'.

If you want to resolve this yourself, you need to delete the start100m hosting – this also removes the single associated mailbox, and then you have to wait a month before the actual deletion takes effect.

So please submit an incident ticket via your client area. Only support can act effectively in your unlucky case.

Note: you were wondering why WordPress redirects to the other site? Simply by calling jacquesboussard.net …

4

Indeed, I saw afterwards that both hosting accounts have the same IP, the same eu‑west‑gra server, the same cluster121 and the same Filer 2168! Thanks for checking -- how do you have access to this information? I’ll open a ticket.

As for the redirect, why does WordPress circumvent itself like that? As you can see, I’m completely new to the subject.

5

Hello. You mean you just need to point site.net to the same servers as site.org and document that in the .htaccess?

As for mail, I’m not using it yet. That will be another story...

6

WordPress handles its own redirects without needing “Redirect…” lines in .htaccess

It uses two entries found in the WordPress configuration panel, known as the “Site URL”.

Note that in a WordPress installation there is always an .htaccess file which WordPress manages a section of, and that should be left intact. So be careful if you tinker with the .htaccess on a site where WordPress is installed.

7

Okay, it's even more complicated with WordPress then. Thanks for the hints.

I tried to check this redirection in the WP manager, but it gives a 404 error:
http://xjnzzff.cluster121.hosting.ovh.net/wp-admin
What’s that about?

After all, how can you tell whether OVH is pointing jacquesboussard.net to the 100M hosting, or if it actually points to Starter and WordPress then redirects to 100M? I'm a bit lost.

8

To trace a redirect:

wget -d --no-check-certificate http://xjnzzff.cluster121.hosting.ovh.net/wp-admin

---request begin---
GET /wp-admin/ HTTP/1.1
Host: xjnzzff.cluster121.hosting.ovh.net
User-Agent: Wget/1.21.3
Accept: /
Accept-Encoding: identity
Connection: Keep-Alive

---request end---
HTTP request sent, awaiting response...
---response begin---
HTTP/1.1 302 Found
...
X-Redirect-By: WordPress
Location: https://jacquesboussard.net/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fxjnzzff.cluster121.hosting.ovh.net%2Fwp-admin%2F&reauth=1

=================

You have purchased a Starter. I would have suggested trying to install, for example, “new.jacquesboussard.net” on your Starter hosting. But Starter can host only one domain name, which would block you on the day you want to bring www.jacquesboussard.net to the same place.