Domain help

[idgeit]

Hey all, currently i have a domain registered with godaddy.com, thats all well and good. And i used to just foward to the page that i wanted.

But recently i decided im going to start a server. and i want to have a TLD for it. When ever i foward the domain, its a foward so the name in the url bar would always be www.example.com even if i went into other pages.

I would like to have the TLD so when ever i go into say example.html, in the url bar it would also change to /example.html

Im fairly lost of where to start,

Thank you kindly

Idgeit

[idgeit]

Id guess its a domain name server i should be after?

[johnd12]

If I understand your request correctly, then I don't think you can do this with traditional URL forwarding. With traditional URL forwarding, you have two options:

1: No masking: When forwarding from page1.com to page2.com, the URL in the browser will say page2.com/abc (with abc being the file name, such as index.html). You will never see page1.com in the URL bar.

2: With masking: When forwarding from page1.com to page2.com, you will always see page1.com in the URL bar, but the file name (such as index.html) will not be visible. You will even still see page1.com in the URL bar if the user navigates out of page2.com through a link. So the user may already be at google.com, but it still says page1.com. That is why you should only use masking if there are no links that point to sites outside of the domain

I think you want to see page1.com/abc (with abc being a file name such a index.html). This is not possible with regular URL forwarding.

The way to accomplish this is to have page1.com as an alias to page2.com in the hosting setup, meaning that page1.com and page2.com would point to the same content and you could see page1.com/abc or page2.com/abc, depending on where the user initially navigates. This alias setup however can only be done by the entity controlling page2.com.

If you are the owner of page2.com yourself and you are hosting with GoDaddy, then you can maintain page1.com as an alias yourself. You go to the hosting maintenace within your GoDaddy account and there you can setup an alias for that hosting account. Look at this help file: http://help.godaddy.com/article.php?...46&topic_id=&&

You can also call or email GoDaddy for support, they are usually pretty good.

Let me kow if this helps.

John

[idgeit]

thanks for the help above,
If i had say a Masked url, I understand it would stay example.com
Im running the server myself. (Currently just got an I.P), and want to have a .com for it. So when ever say i navigate to 2.html, in the browser it'll also change to www.example.com/2.html.

Thanks again

[johnd12]

If I understand you correctly you have a domain at GoDaddy.com and a hosting package at another provider. What you need to do is:

- Deactivate forwarding at GoDaddy.com
- Obtain the two name servers that your hosting company uses
- Maintain these two name servers at GoDaddy.com under your domain settings (see this help article: https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/faq/f...&topic=Domains)
- Wait for up to 48 hours as the change needs to propagate through the internet

You should now see your hosted pages using your domain name instead of your IP address ;-)

Cheers.
John

[idgeit]

thats pretty much most of what i needed to know thanks!, the only difference is, im running the server at home. Its only a basic apachie server.

[Domainer]

You will need a dedicated IP assigned to you by your ISP. In my case, I can pay $5.00 a month with my DSL company or get a dedicated IP from my Cable company for $20.00, but I get extra upload bandwidth with that package.

Once you have the dedicated IP, you have to set your router or computer up to use it correctly. Your ISP can provide you instructions on what settings you will need to change. The router manufacturer will provide the instructions on how to access your router settings page and configure them. Or your ISP can walk you through setting them up on your PC, but I STRONGLY encourage you to have a router with a few good secure hardware firewalls active.

Note that you need broadband to do this.

Note that visitors will eat your own internet browsing bandwidth.

Note that your DSL or Cable ISP provider may see your operation as a business unless you are operating a gameserver (and not all the time 24 hours per day).

Note that if you are planning a web hosting company you will not be offering much of a service. Consumer broadband is reletively slow and you are lacking all sorts of monitoring equipment and load balancers.

It *IS* Perfect for a private home site, however!

For this part, there ay be other ways, but I would Install Apache HTTP Server and set it up using the IP your computer is assigned by your router as a Name Server. There are some great PHP/MySQL/Apache installers. Or dedicate an old PC running Linux exclusively.

Anyway, you will have to find the IP that your router assigns your computer each time and then you go to your Registrar...

You will have to go to the domain name you want to use as the name server (must be set up and active in Apache as such).

In any DN Registrar offering Total DNS control, you can create a Name Server for that Domain by entering the IP #. You will then add the prefixes that configured for its DNS Zone in your apache hhtpserver... probably something like NS1. and NS2.

So Example.com would wind-up with NS1.EXAMPLE.COM and NS2.EXAMPLE.COM

You are creating a set of Name Servers, so not only does the Internet know where to access these name servers (your IP address), but your web server (apache httpserver or whatever you use) has to be configured with this information correctly.

If it is, you should be able to find Example.com and see the web pages on your HD.

This complicated is the reason even personal pages are on a hosted server in a NOC.

You also open yourself up to possible sophisticated hacking. So, be warned.

But in a VERY simplified explanation, that's how to do it.

Good Luck! -Doug

[Domainer]

OH, also check to make sure that once you have the domain set as the name server, you also have the domain set to use those name server addresses. BUT I think GoDaddy does this for you once you have made the Domain Name Server successfully.

Just want to make sure. -Doug

[idgeit]

thanks for all that!, you have explained it very well!

- idgeit

[Domainer]

Glad to help.