Is there a Word to Describe a Type of Web Server Behavior?

[Jeff Lasman]

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:

http://www.example.com/users/~joe

or even

http://www.example.com/joe

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

joeswebsite.com

and have you point the DNS to the same site as www.example.com, 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 
http://www.example.com/joe, but then your client's visitors will still 
see Http://www.example.com/joe in their browser.

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

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
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