Joined on 09-23-2005
TechSoup Member
Hi all,
I've run into a domain headache that I hope someone might know the answer to.
We host our site (call it foo.org) on a virtual private server. We recently purchased a second domain name (call it bar.org), that we'd like to direct to foo.org/bar. Ideally, when you go to bar.org, that's what you would see in the address bar. You wouldn't know you were on foo.org at all.
It seems like this should be pretty easy. I've done it on other hosts. But our hosting company won't set it up, won't allow mod_rewrite, and keeps telling me to do client side 301 redirects (but there's nowhere to redirect to!)
I'm not sure they know what they're doing, and I guess I don't either. :-) Any ideas?
Thanks!
caribou,
You can "Forward" the Bar.org domain to the Foo.org, in which case you may also want to "Mask" the domain so visitors think they are at the new "Bar.org".
If you masked Foo.org and redirect to Bar.org then the visitor will see FooBar.org. Not really. :-)
Seriously, why not simply write a 301 redirect from Bar.org and point it to Foo.org. What's the issue there?
Joined on 09-23-2005
TechSoup Member
Hi,
Thank you for the quick response.
Bar.org does forward to foo.org/bar, so that works. The problem is, foo.org/bar shows up in the address bar. And since bar.org is in itself a redirect, the 301 redirect just makes a never ending loop (foo.org/bar/bar/bar/bar/bar...)
I think masking may be the solution I'm looking for. I'll go bug my registrar again.
Thanks!
IF "bar" is in fact a subdirectory of "Foo" meaning your file structure looks like this:
http://www.foo.org/bar
then what you may try to do is set up a "subdomain" which in essence is another domain within a domain or section of the file structure.
ask your host if you can set up http://bar.foo.org
as a subdomain. Then simply create your "bar" site in that folder on your host. (You will need another images folder and other folders in the "bar" folder. just like you have them in the "Foo" folder. Clear as mud huh? :-)
hth,
Joined on 09-23-2005
TechSoup Member
The mystery solved!
I couldn't do mod_rewrite because... it's not an Apache server. They're using Zeus, which apparently has a proprietary rewrite thingamajig. Jeez webhost, you could have told me that a week ago. All's well that ends well, though!
Thanks for the advice. :)
Bravo!
As always, when in doubt, call your host! :-)
Cheers,