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New URL on other nameserver, what now?

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 8:19 am
by fatman
I bought a 2nd URL for my site thats not on the nameserver of my site and I need to establish reciprocal links to it. I have it redirecting to my site at present, but obviously it does not show as my site. If I move the URL to the nameserver of my site, will it look the same as my main URL, and can I give links from it in the same way? I also dont want the search-engines to penalise me for redirecting?

Any other suggestions?

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 8:27 am
by Oren
I'm not sure what you are looking for, but try googling for 'parked domains' and 'add-on domains'.

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 8:36 am
by JayBird
Use domain aliasing in your hsoting comtrol panel, or ask your host to set it up for you

Add-on or sub domain

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 8:41 am
by fatman
I suppose I want to know is if I want to use my second URL as a add-on or parked domain, do I have to have it on the nameserver of my main site?

I want to create links and back-links from and to the second URL. How do I have to configure it to achieve this?

Re: Add-on or sub domain

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 9:02 am
by Chris Corbyn
fatman wrote:I suppose I want to know is if I want to use my second URL as a add-on or parked domain, do I have to have it on the nameserver of my main site?

I want to create links and back-links from and to the second URL. How do I have to configure it to achieve this?
There's no need for any domains to be managed by the same nameserver. Subdomains all get managed by the same nameserver as the parent domain but separate domains can be managed from anywhere.

If you point the domain to your website it will work if the hosting is IP based, but if it's name-based (when there are multiple sites on the same IP) you'll need a domain alias setting up in the apache configuration (VirtualHost directive).

Thanks, but ...

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 6:42 pm
by fatman
It's time to get down and dirty!

I have this situation;

1. I registered a domain with mydomain.com
2. I have my site on UH-Hosting (uh-hosting.co.uk)

I only have limited know how obout this stuff. I dont understand the interface of mydomain.com domain management, and I think I understand the management interface (c-panel) on uh-hosting.co.uk

Problem; both of them are stunningly un-helpfull at responding to questions or giving solutions.

This is a question for anyone who is familiar with one or both these "service providors" systems.

Please help, I'm stuck

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 6:54 pm
by Chris Corbyn
Right... let's get a few facts straight.

A. You have domain1.tld which you got with your hosting originally. This works, and your website loads fine.
B. You just bought domain2.tld elsewhere and have successfully got it pointing to the same IP as domain1.tld :?:

C. domain1.tld loads your website.
D. domain2.tld does NOT load your website despite the fact it points to the same IP?
E. You haven't yet managed to get domain2.tld pointing to the same IP as domain1.tld

Which of my statements A-E are correct? :)

Down to business

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 7:15 pm
by fatman
A. correct

B. I have it forwarding to my existing site, not by IP, but by domain name forwarding. When I put in the DNS server info of my host into the DNS management panel of the second URL, everything went bad (Error page of the second domain registrar) I checked the info on my site hosts DNS and it is correct. In the c-panel on my host I added the domain name as a add-on domain. That is set up. The DNS host of the second URL explained that I had forwarding on and the fact that I was pointing to a Name Server other than their own was conflicting??? At the time I did not have forwarding on. I know it has makes no sense to bitch to anybody else, but these guys have not spoken to me again since.

C. Correct

On top of this, the reason I got the second URL is the fact that it contains vital keywords, and I need to establish links to this URL to get Google etc. to recognise this URL. So, ... The fact that I can type the second URL into my browser and get to my page with URL forwarding is not the solution, is it?

I hope this makes sense, and my hats off to people like you that offer to help

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 7:47 pm
by Chris Corbyn
A + C. Good

B. Let's get the terms correct before I go off down the wrong path.

In the control panel for the domain you just purchased you'll see options like "CNAME", "MX", or "A" hopefully. Correct?

My suggestion is that you use CNAME and put your existing domain name in there. Depending upon the registrar you bought this from however, a CNAME alias may not work since their own DNS server needs to be recursive in order for it to be able to resolve the real IP of the domain. This could be what went wrong before.

If you've already tried that approach find out the IP which your old domain points to (pinging it from the command line usually reveals the IP) and set up an "A" record to point to that same IP. It has the same result as the CNAME approach, expect that no initial name resolution is required. The drawback to this approach is that if the IP of the other domain changes you'll need to quickly update the "A" record of your new domain, with CNAME that would have happened automatically.

Once you've done that you may have to wait up to 48 hours for all the DNS servers across the world to pick up your changes (I think it's more like 24 hours at a very maximum these days actually).

Until that time, I wouldn't go trying to open it in the web browser since there may be problems other the name resolution here, instead, open a command line and ping the new domain name, checking if it reveals the IP of the other domain. If it's doing that, you've set up the domain correctly and can leave it. Then try opening it in your web browser. If it doesn't work you want to then be checking your CPanel where you host the site from. It's a Parked domain you want to set it up as. Note that http://www.site.com is different to site.com.

OK, I tried that

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 8:16 pm
by fatman
When I ping my URL or the new one, the result screen flashes so fast, I cant see what it says...?

Anyway, I know that I my nameserver resolves to an IP for my server that I am hosted on along with a lot of other sites, and using that IP (213.230.203.88) just brings me to the nameserver and not my site.

Now, if I do this, will the fact that I added an add-on domain on my old domain c-panel bring the URL to my site?

But ...

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 8:24 pm
by fatman
As an afterthought, the management panel on my new domain gives me the option to change my DNS nameserver details... What if I just put the address of my old hosts DNS in there and turned the redirect off? With the add-on domain activated in the c-panel of my existing host, could this work?

Sorry if thats a stupid question.

Sorry

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 8:32 pm
by fatman
Sorry, I am being unclear:

Yes I have "CNAME", "MX", and "A" and some other goodies in my control panel (Not that I understood what they meant B4. I am starting to understand

Just to be clear

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 9:24 pm
by fatman
I have my new URL as a "parked" domain, not a "add-on".

Sorry, I just noticed. Like I said, this is something I have never done before

Any advice

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 9:44 pm
by fatman
How do I buy time to see the result when I ping something?

Re: Any advice

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 3:30 am
by Chris Corbyn
fatman wrote:How do I buy time to see the result when I ping something?
I don't understand how you're pinging :? Open a command line and type: "ping yournewdomain.tld" That's all.

Reading your other comments I'm getting very confused about what IP your pointing your new domain to. You point it to the machine the files are hosted on, not to another nameserver. Maybe I've misunderstood you, but it reads like your trying to point your new domain to a nameserver rather than a host.
As an afterthought, the management panel on my new domain gives me the option to change my DNS nameserver details... What if I just put the address of my old hosts DNS in there and turned the redirect off? With the add-on domain activated in the c-panel of my existing host, could this work?
You can transfer the domain to be managed by your other host's nameservers yes, providing you can configure it on those nameservers.

What's the domain you bought? What's the old domain? I'll have a look.

If you're totally stuck PM me and if I have time I can maybe offer to configure it for you.