[thelist] Multiple Domain Names - Same Website

Greg Strange gstrange at e-tsi.com
Sun Jul 9 13:07:11 CDT 2000


on 7/9/00 11:49 AM, James S. Huggins (Evolt) at Evolt at ZName.com wrote:

> 
> (All names are hypothetical.)
> 
> I have a website.
> 
> I have a domain name pointing to that website: call it MortimerSnerd.com.
> 
> Now, I have registered a couple variations of the domain name (MSnerd.com,
> MortamerSnerd.com, MortimurSnerd.com, MortimerSnyrd.com, etc.)
> 
> I want to have all of these domain names go to the same website as the
> original domain name.
> 
> And, I want for BobJones at MortinerSnerd.com, BobJones at MSnerd.com,
> BobJones at MortamerSnerd.com, etc., to all go to the same POP3 mailbox.
> 
> I'd like someone to explain in simple terms (a) what the options are for
> achieving this and (b) why this seems to be so difficult for some of the
> webhosts I talk to.
> 
> 
> James S. Huggins

This is not all hard and if they are barking about it I would direct them to
DNS and BIND 3rd edition from O'Reilly.  I will use my setup to explain.

I have mouthfullofliquor.com, mouthfulofliquor.com, and howardhesseman.com.
All of these point to /www.mouthfullofliquor.com a directory on my server.
No matter what anyone types in, they will get the same content.

All three of these are directed to the same file content.  This is done by
configuring the httpd.conf file of Apache (or similar files for similar web
servers) to show the document root (i.e., the first place a web browser is
directed for content) as the same one no matter what request is made, either
mouthfullofliquor.com, mouthfulofliquor.com, or howardhesseman.com.  That's
the web server side of it.  If you wanted your servername to change to the
main name like if someone typed in howardhesseman.com and you wanted them to
see mouthfullofliquor.com from there on out, you would simply change the
directive to ServerName mouthfullofliquor.com.  Keep in mind that I am
virtualhosting the subsequent names rather than making them separate
websites eating up precious IPs.

As for your POP3 names.  This is also so easy it's ridiculous.  This is a
configuration of the sendmail which is the MTA (mail transfer agent) for the
majority of the web.  The sendmail configuration must allow for aliasing
which is something that every webmaster I know does.  It's part of the
default setup.  Usually aliasing has created a file in the same directory as
the sendmail.cf file.  Add an alias for the local mailbox (i.e., BobJones)
for each domain.  So in my case, I have

strange at mouthfullofliquor.com strange
strange at mouthfulofliquor.com strange
strange at howardhesseman.com strange
conrad at mouthfullofliquor.com strange

Note that the space shows that the next word is the name of the local
mailbox that the mail should be delivered to.  You go to your prompt type
newaliases, it rereads the aliases file and bingo get mail like you want it.

As for why it is so hard for other webhosters to do, I find they don't do it
themselves, they don't know where to start and they simply say that it can't
be done.  Just an experiential opinion.  That's why I finally decided to do
it myself.

Hope that helps.  If you want more info, you can email me privately.

Greg Strange





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