DNS Forwarding/CNAME

I have a website at [url]WWW.XYZ.COM/webpage.html[/url]
I have a domain name registered as [url]WWW.ABC.COM[/url]
The domain (abc.com) is set to "forward" to the webserver (xyz.com)

so....
when someone visits [url]WWW.ABC.COM/webpage.html[/url]
it currently sends them to [url]WWW.XYZ.COM/public/webpage.html[/url]
....Cool, thats what it's supposed to do...
but here's the question:

When you visit that page your webbrowser shows that you are on
[url]WWW.XYZ.COM/webpage.html[/url] .... I dont want it to show this... I want
it
to show as [url]WWW.ABC.COM/webpage.html[/url] ... people should never know my
site is really hosted on xyz... follow me?


....Someone remind me how I do this? what DNS settings do i need to
change?

In article
<e93554bb-3639-4abf-8493-b0c70a21f19b@m3g2000hsc.googlegroups.com>,
Dennis <dennispublic@hotmail.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
> I have a website at [url]WWW.XYZ.COM/webpage.html[/url]
> I have a domain name registered as [url]WWW.ABC.COM[/url]
> The domain (abc.com) is set to "forward" to the webserver (xyz.com)
>
> so....
> when someone visits [url]WWW.ABC.COM/webpage.html[/url]
> it currently sends them to [url]WWW.XYZ.COM/public/webpage.html[/url]
> ...Cool, thats what it's supposed to do...
> but here's the question:
>
> When you visit that page your webbrowser shows that you are on
> [url]WWW.XYZ.COM/webpage.html[/url] .... I dont want it to show this... I want
> it
> to show as [url]WWW.ABC.COM/webpage.html[/url] ... people should never know my
> site is really hosted on xyz... follow me?
>
>
> ...Someone remind me how I do this? what DNS settings do i need to
> change?[/color]

This is not done in DNS, it requires a different type of redirect on the
forwarding server (I think it involves using a frame). You should talk
to the provider of the forwarding service to find out if they offer this
option. It may cost extra (I think there are some providers that offer
simple redirects for free, but charge if you want the kind of redirect
you're asking for).

--
Barry Margolin, [email]barmar@alum.mit.edu[/email]
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***

On May 9, 12:01 pm, Barry Margolin <bar...@alum.mit.edu> wrote:[color=blue]
> In article
> <e93554bb-3639-4abf-8493-b0c70a21f...@m3g2000hsc.googlegroups.com>,
>
> Dennis <dennispub...@hotmail.com> wrote:[color=green]
> > When you visit that page your webbrowser shows that you are on
> > [url]WWW.XYZ.COM/webpage.html[/url] .... I dont want it to show this... I want
> > it
> > to show as [url]WWW.ABC.COM/webpage.html[/url] ... people should never know my
> > site is really hosted on xyz... follow me?[/color]
>[color=green]
> > ...Someone remind me how I do this? what DNS settings do i need to
> > change?[/color]
>
> This is not done in DNS, it requires a different type of redirect on the
> forwarding server (I think it involves using a frame). You should talk[/color]

Depends on whether XYZ is hosted by IP address or whether it's a name-
based virtual server.

Firstly, modify the entry for [url]WWW.ABC.COM[/url] to be an "A" record with the
same address reported by XYZ. A "CNAME" record is telling your client
"that's just a nickname for XYZ. Go look it up".

If it's IP-address based, job done. You WILL need to keep an eye on
it and change ABC's "A" record whenever the provider at XYZ changes
theirs.

If it's a name-based virtual server you'll then need to add [url]WWW.ABC.COM[/url]
to the VirtualServers list, using the same DocumentRoot and so on as
is used for XYZ.

I get the feeling it's a name-based virtual server and that the
provider won't be cooperative :)

Take the idea for a test run first - if you telnet to port 80 of [url]WWW.XYZ.COM[/url]
and type:
GET [url]http://www.abc.com/[/url] HTTP/1.0
Host: [url]www.abc.com[/url]
<blank line>

Do you get XYZ.COM as expected, or an error page, or the provider's
main page?
Note: Any "X-Cache" headers in the result mean there's a transparent
proxy in the way and the test is invalid.


-Pik.

On May 8, 5:49*pm, Dennis <dennispub...@hotmail.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
> When you visit that page your webbrowser shows that you are on
> [url]WWW.XYZ.COM/webpage.html[/url] .... I dont want it to show this... I want
> it
> to show as [url]WWW.ABC.COM/webpage.html[/url] * ... people should never know my
> site is really hosted on xyz... *follow me?
>
> ...Someone remind me how I do this? what DNS settings do i need to
> change?[/color]

You have a fundamental problem, and how you fix it depends upon a lot
of details you haven't given. Here's the thing: you don't want the
client to know it's talking to 'www.xyz.com', but otherwise, how will
it be able to tell 'www.xyz.com' who it's trying to reach, as required
by the HTTP specification?

If the client thinks it's talking to 'www.abc.com', then that's what
it will tell 'www.xyz.com' it was trying to reach. And 'www.xyz.com'
will have no idea what page to show it (since it has no idea the
client is looking for 'www.xyz.com' as opposed to any of its other
names).

DS

Let me give you an analogy to make it clearer. Your phone number is
555-1234. You have an answering service at 555-4321. You set up a
machine to forward calls to 555-1234 over to 555-4321. There's just
one problem -- the answer service determines how to answer the phone
based on what number was dialed.

So the person dials 555-1234. The answering service pickes up the
phone and says "what number did you dial?" The person says "555-1234".
The answering service has no idea who that's supposed to be, and has
no idea what service to provide the caller. Oops.

The web server that's serving your pages needs to know what page the
client was trying to access, and the only way it can get that
information is if the client can tell it. If the client doesn't know,
it can't tell the server, and then the server can't know.

There are workarounds. One is the equivalent of making the answering
service ring your number to a dedicated phone, rather than a shared
phone. That way the service will know what service to provide based on
which phone ring. You need to ask for a dedicated IP address for your
web page -- no name-based virtual hosting.

DS

In article <aa88a74f-675e-45f6-aab9-bad63fa7ea30@u12g2000prd.googlegroups.com>,
PiK <pik@orkut.plague.apana.org.au> wrote:
[color=blue]
>Depends on whether XYZ is hosted by IP address or whether it's a name-
>based virtual server.
>
>Firstly, modify the entry for [url]WWW.ABC.COM[/url] to be an "A" record with the
> ...[/color]

That all sounds fine and admirably comprehensive to me. (Never mind
that I'm not sure you don't want to use a version of HTTP other than
1.0 in the telnet test). However, it does not quite meet this
requirement of the original question:

] ... people should never know my
] site is really hosted on xyz... follow me?

Since no HTTP proxying seems to to be involved, that requirement is (or
should be) impossible to meet for people interested enough in TCP/IP
to be reading this newsgroup. The IP address of the HTTP server will
be that of [url]WWW.XYZ.COM[/url] regardless of DNS or HTTP games that make
[url]WWW.XYZ.COM[/url] answer or claim some other name. Given the IP address,
you can generally discover that [url]WWW.XYZ.COM[/url] is not [url]WWW.ABC.COM[/url].


Vernon Schryver [email]vjs@rhyolite.com[/email]