[macintologist]

There's something I don't understand about URL forward and domain registration.

I have a web server hosted on my computer.

I want to register a domain, lets say www.macintologist.com

I want it to forward to my host machine but I want the url to stay www.macintologist.com and even to show things like www.macintologist.com/mp3s/blues/

You know what I mean? Is this possible to do with a simple domain registration?

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by macintologist 

There's something I don't understand about URL forward and domain registration.

I have a web server hosted on my computer.

I want to register a domain, lets say ONESTOP NETWORK - $11 Domains - Free & Low Cost Hosting For All!

I want it to forward to my host machine but I want the url to stay ONESTOP NETWORK - $11 Domains - Free & Low Cost Hosting For All! and even to show things like www.macintologist.com/mp3s/blues/

You know what I mean? Is this possible to do with a simple domain registration?

The domain registration simply indicates which DNS server is authoritative over this domain. You still need a DNS server setup which will resolve requests to your domain, which sounds like the missing piece in your puzzle.

Fortunately, you can enable Bind under OS X and open up the DNS server ports so that your Mac doubles as a DNS server. Alternatively, you can point your domain to another DNS server which will then direct requests to your machine's IP. If you want to think of a DNS server "forwarding" requests to your machine, I suppose you could, but it would probably be more accurate to say that the DNS server would *direct* traffic to your machine.

Does this make sense?

[macintologist]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

The domain registration simply indicates which DNS server is authoritative over this domain. You still need a DNS server setup which will resolve requests to your domain, which sounds like the missing piece in your puzzle.

Fortunately, you can enable Bind under OS X and open up the DNS server ports so that your Mac doubles as a DNS server. Alternatively, you can point your domain to another DNS server which will then direct requests to your machine's IP. If you want to think of a DNS server "forwarding" requests to your machine, I suppose you could, but it would probably be more accurate to say that the DNS server would *direct* traffic to your machine.

Does this make sense?

Yes it does make sense but theres one extra piece to this puzzle. I'm behind a university firewall and I only intend students on the network to be able to visit my site. So if I set up a DNS server on my IP address, when someone on campus types in

Code:
www.macintologist.com

it should then tell them to resolve to my ip address despite the fact that the international domain controllers CANNOT see my IP address because im behind a big firewall.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by macintologist 

Yes it does make sense but theres one extra piece to this puzzle. I'm behind a university firewall and I only intend students on the network to be able to visit my site. So if I set up a DNS server on my IP address, when someone on campus types in

Code:
www.macintologist.com

it should then tell them to resolve to my ip address despite the fact that the international domain controllers CANNOT see my IP address because im behind a big firewall.

Oh, well then I think you are going to need a DNS lookup done by a machine that can see both your inside and the outside world.

[kick52]

see here:

http://forums.macnn.com/88/web-devel...eb-forwarding/

i had my own webspace (kick52.com) and i set up a sub-domain. in that sub-domain i put an .htaccess with a 301 redirect (redirects the path you chose. so going to subdomain.domain.com/files/file goes to ip.ip.ip.ip.ip/files/file) i had a dynamic ip, so i got around this with a cron script that ran every 5 mins to write an .htaccess file with a 301 redirect with my IP slipped in.

hope this helps.
when it is up:
Index of /

[macintologist]

Originally Posted by kick52 

see here:

http://forums.macnn.com/88/web-devel...eb-forwarding/

i had my own webspace (kick52.com) and i set up a sub-domain. in that sub-domain i put an .htaccess with a 301 redirect (redirects the path you chose. so going to subdomain.domain.com/files/file goes to ip.ip.ip.ip.ip/files/file) i had a dynamic ip, so i got around this with a cron script that ran every 5 mins to write an .htaccess file with a 301 redirect with my IP slipped in.

hope this helps.
when it is up:
Index of /

Sawtooth.kick52.com is redirecting to your home computer which is good, which is what I'm looking for, except I don't want the URL to change, I want it to remain the same, and when you're navigating through folders like kick52.com/files I want it to look like that too. I don't want it resolving to an IP address in the URL bar.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by macintologist 

Sawtooth.kick52.com is redirecting to your home computer which is good, which is what I'm looking for, except I don't want the URL to change, I want it to remain the same, and when you're navigating through folders like kick52.com/files I want it to look like that too. I don't want it resolving to an IP address in the URL bar.

Sounds like this will involve mod_rewrite. Google it and see if this sounds like what you are looking for.

[macintologist]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

Sounds like this will involve mod_rewrite. Google it and see if this sounds like what you are looking for.

That sounds like it will work. It looks pretty complex, editing those config files and all. If I run into any trouble I'll ask some of my comp sci major friends.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by macintologist 

That sounds like it will work. It looks pretty complex, editing those config files and all. If I run into any trouble I'll ask some of my comp sci major friends.

You don't have to, you can drop your rules into an .htaccess file. Here is a cheat sheet:

the jackol’s den � htaccess Cheatsheet - Mikhail Esteves

Just combine a rewritecond with a rewrite rule, it should do it.

[kick52]

Originally Posted by macintologist 

Sawtooth.kick52.com is redirecting to your home computer which is good, which is what I'm looking for, except I don't want the URL to change, I want it to remain the same, and when you're navigating through folders like kick52.com/files I want it to look like that too. I don't want it resolving to an IP address in the URL bar.

you can set up the rediecting page to have a frame. easy.