I occasionally get a client who has me set up a DNS entry to a
given web site and then is expecting customers to see their home page
when, in fact, all they get is the home page of the web site. The
problem is that the server does not evaluate the URL being received in
order to determine what page to give to the connecting customer.

Is there a name for this particular configuration of a web
server?

In some cases, the web server in question is out-sourced to
Heaven only knows where and the more people involved, the less likely
it is that we get a satisfactory outcome. What should the clients be
asking for or specifically looking for when they pick a site to host
their web page and want customers to see only that page and not some
ISP main page with 250 links to everything in the world with their
link buried three screens down near the bottom?

Thank you.

Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK
OSU Information Technology Division Network Operations Group

On Tuesday 20 April 2004 06:59 am, Martin McCormick wrote:

> I occasionally get a client who has me set up a DNS entry to a
> given web site and then is expecting customers to see their home page
> when, in fact, all they get is the home page of the web site. The
> problem is that the server does not evaluate the URL being received
> in order to determine what page to give to the connecting customer.

All DNS can do is connect a name with an IP#.

> Is there a name for this particular configuration of a web
> server?

Virtual hosting ? That's what I'd call it.

> In some cases, the web server in question is out-sourced to
> Heaven only knows where and the more people involved, the less likely
> it is that we get a satisfactory outcome. What should the clients be
> asking for or specifically looking for when they pick a site to host
> their web page and want customers to see only that page and not some
> ISP main page with 250 links to everything in the world with their
> link buried three screens down near the bottom?

Then they need to get commercial webhosting from a company that offers
it.

For example, if your client's domain is hosted at:

[url]http://www.example.com/users/~joe[/url]

or even

[url]http://www.example.com/joe[/url]

Then they can't just go out and buy a domain:

joeswebsite.com

and have you point the DNS to the same site as [url]www.example.com,[/url] and
expect it to work.

Well, they can expect it, but it still won't work.

You can offer them "site forwarding" and set up your webserver to
forward requests to /http://www.joeswebsite.com to
[url]http://www.example.com/joe,[/url] but then your client's visitors will still
see [url]Http://www.example.com/joe[/url] in their browser.

Or you can set up "frame forwarding"; you'd host an empty frame for them
at [url]www.joeswebsite.com[/url] and set up the html to show the empty frame and
then whatever is at [url]www.example.com/joe.[/url]

Of course, these days when you can find commercial shared webhosting on
the Internet for as low as $5/month, I'm not sure where the value added
is.

Jeff
--
Jeff Lasman, nobaloney.net, P. O. Box 52672, Riverside, CA 92517 US
Professional Internet Services & Support / Consulting / Colocation
Our blists address used on lists is for list email only
Phone +1 909 324-9706, or see: "http://www.nobaloney.net/contactus.html"

Jeff Lasman in comp.protocols.dns.bind:

>> Is there a name for this particular configuration of a web
>> server?
>
> Virtual hosting ? That's what I'd call it.

Name based virtual hosting, I'd guess - but I'd be surprised to
see user agents not sending the Host: header (omitting which
will trigger whatever default website is configured).

But it's not really a bind or dns issue.

-- Matthias

--
Braindump-Blog [url]http://matthias.leisi.net/[/url]