123-reg - Pipex

[Yek]

Ok, so heres the question:

I have hosting at:
www.mysite.com/abc

I register the domain

www.mysite2123.com
without hosting.

I hear 123-reg offers Url redirection with their names, so would www.mysite2123.com be a masked version of www.mysite.com/abc ?

Also if i have the file www.mysite.com/abc/file1.html would
www.mysite2123.com/file1.html take me to this?


Thanks, i have tried to explain a simply as possiable

 

[Kubel]

URL redirection/masking is simply a single HTML frame with your masked site inside the frame. A frame is simply a page inside a page. No matter what page a user visits inside that frame, the URL will always be masked as http://www.mysite2123.com because that is the URL of the frameset. If a user types in http://www.mysite2123.com/file1.html, chances are, it wont work, since there is no file1.html at the location of mysite2123.com.

Most hosts let you add on or park multiple domains to your hosting account at no extra charge. Try contacting your current host and ask if this is possible or see if it's available in your hosting control panel.

 

[Yek]

so could i get mysite.co.uk/123
to point to mysite2123.co.uk ?

 

[Brinson]

You could, but not with most "url redirections". You want a host that offers multiple parked domains. Most "free" hosts won't do this for you. If I were you, I'd spring for $30 ish for hosting for a year.

If you can suffice on a free host you'll only need a very cheap one. Cleverdot.com offers a $30/year package which includes a domain and hosting.

Put your own ads up like free hosts do and its likely you'll end up making that back pretty soon.

Edit: there are prolly better deals than cleverdot, that's just where I register my domains so I see it all the time.

 

[Kubel]

so could i get mysite.co.uk/123
to point to mysite2123.co.uk ?

You want your old site address to point to your new domain? You can do this with html, javascript, or (the best way) through your server by using something similar to modrewrite (for Apache)...


Type this in .htaccess:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^.*oldwebsite\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.newwebsite.com/$1 [R=301,L]

I'm not sure what windows equivalent of modrewrite is, so you might want to google it if you don't have a linux host.

 

[Brinson]

Do many free hosts give you access to .htaccess?

 

[Yek]

Ok here is the question?
What does 123-reg offer you in the terms of your domain?

 

[Kubel]

They should give you full DNS control, which is all you really need.

Ask your host what their nameservers are. (something like ns1.yourhost.com, ns2.yourhost.com)

Enter those nameservers in your domain registrars DNS control page.

Wait 24-48 hours for it to propagate.

Enjoy the domain.

Free hosts probably won't allow you to park domains. I suggest spending a few bucks a month on some quality hosting. If you invest a few bucks a year into a domain, you might as well invest a few bucks a year into professional hosting.

 

[Yek]

i already have a host, and i know the nameservers, but if the ns are the same for eveyone how does it know its your site?
I must be missing something

 

[Kubel]

Your hosts server has a nameserver (or two, or three... for redundancy). They generally take the form ns1.yourhost.com, ns2.yourhost.com, etc.... Everyone on that host uses that/those nameserver(s). Inside the nameserver are records, which point a certain domain to a certain location on the server.

When you register a domain, you provide your registrar with your hosts nameservers. That is what links your domain (at one place) to your server (at another place).

So it goes like this. You type in yourdomain.com in a browser. Your registrar 'directs your call' to your hosts nameserver. That nameserver has hundreds of domains in it, finds your domain, and sees that your domain points to you servers IP address.

To add to the complexity, web servers often support a thing called 'virtual hosts', which allows multiple accounts to reside on one IP address. Traditionally, the nameserver simply points a domain to an IP address. When using a shared server, there are dozens of clients using the same nameserver and same IP address. So your question is, how can it know where to direct the domain traffic if everyones on the same IP address and using the same nameserver? That's where virtual hosts come in handy. Most servers can assign multiple domains to one IP address to multiple directories. The entry looks something like this:

<VirtualHost 123.123.123.123:80>
DocumentRoot /home/yourusername/www
ServerName www.yoursite.com
[more stuff here]
</VirtualHost>

So in a shared hosting environment, it goes something like this:

Domain --> Registrar --> Nameserver Record --> IP --> VirtualHost Entry --> Your Account