Question: Web site redirects...

topic posted Tue, February 26, 2008 - 12:37 PM by  Stefanie
I'm reading about how to do website redirects. I think I understand how to do this but I have one (in my opinion) very important question.

Here's the situation. My website is long: www.SacredEarthAncientWays.com
I've purchased a shorter site (www.se-aw.com) to use in situations where the long site is not practical.

I would like to redirect clients to www.SacredEarthAncientWays.com immediately when they go to www.se-aw.com (I don't want a 301 notification - I just want it to redirect immediately).

My question is: Do I need have have www.se-aw.com hosted? I would assume yes. I use Netgate for my hosting (I don't have my own server).

If someone could advise me, I would appreciate it. I'm not locked into Netgate, they are just nice guys over there and are local.

Thanks in advance.

Stef
posted by:
Stefanie
SF Bay Area
  • Re: Question: Web site redirects...

    Tue, February 26, 2008 - 2:56 PM
    what you want is a mirror site. yes, you have to host both, but they don't have to be at the same host. for some info on mirroring: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_(computing)

    for a cheap host, try digitalspace.net, cost is $36/year. the company has been around for a long time and have not raised their rates for this basic hosting package in 10 years. i have used them for about 2 dozen sites in the past five years.

    it is common to want to use alternate domain names to point to one site, although i am not sure why se-aw.com is any easier, once someone has already cached the longer name.

    in general, i have used mirror sites for different names, not abbreviations.

    for example, iattire.com was an ecommerce site that sold costumes for ipods. but the domain costumesforipods.com and ipodcostumes.com also took someone to iattire.com
    • Re: Question: Web site redirects...

      Tue, February 26, 2008 - 3:15 PM
      Ah - thank you! I also see your point about the long to short redirect, rather than the short to long redirect! Good thinking! I will read up on mirroring. THANK YOU very much.
      Stef
      • Re: Question: Web site redirects...

        Tue, February 26, 2008 - 3:37 PM

        Actually, the ISP that hosts the main domain can simply put a forward on the shorter domain, causing there not to have to be TWO full domains/sites.

        Just shop around until someone will simply forward the shorter domain.
  • Re: Question: Web site redirects...

    Tue, February 26, 2008 - 4:29 PM

    Yeah - you should be able to change the DNS A-Record for the shorter domain to the IP address of the longer domain, or, put a forward on the shorter domain. If you manage your own host file (like through GoDaddy), you will need to make this change yourself. If somebody set these domains up for you (like Netgate), they should be able to change the DNS record for the shorter domain.

    In short, when somebody types www.se-aw.com into their browser, DNS resolution will point to the 205.214.170.248 IP address (sacredearthancientways.com). The browser immediately hits port 80 (HTTP) against 205.214.170.248 and never routes to the IP for www.se-aw.com.

    Step by step instructions for creating a forward under GoDaddy:

    www.ehow.com/how_2012788...-domain.html

    Hopefully that helps -

    s1m0n

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