How to Set up/Modify URL Forwarding
Forward or redirect your domain name to an existing web site
- Login to our Domain Manager.
- Enter your user name or domain name and password. Remember, your
domain name does not include the "www."
hostname. If you forgot your password, please
contact us.
- Scroll down the section titled - Hosts
Settings.
- All newly registered domain name will be configured as the
example above. It is pointed to our parking page automatically.
- If you have accidentally changed the address of the parking
page, be sure to insert back the IP address
72.3.235.19
into the Address
box of the "@" and "www"
hostnames of your domain.
- The above default setup for your domain is to enable your
visitor to see the temporary home page using either yourdomain.com ("@" hostname) or www.yourdomain.com
("www" hostname).
- You may create new host names as you wish, eg. ftp, home,
secure, etc. Do not use space or any special characters as part
of the hostname.
When you are ready to point your domain to your web site, all
you need to do is to insert the URL/Web address or IP address of
your web site into the
Address box of the "@"
and "www" hostnames:
Please note that you should only use the Record Type - A (Address) to point to an IP address. You
should be able to find out the IP address of your web site from
your web hosting company.
If you are pointing your domain to a free web account
(typically looks like this:
http://www.yourisp.com/homepage/~youraccount), you will need to
use the Record Type - URL Redirect
or URL Frame:
Please remember to insert the full URL into the Address box
when you are using the Record Type -
URL Redirect
or URL Frame
(ie. include the "http://" part).
Caution: You must not create duplicate
entries of "@" or "www" hostname, your domain redirection will
not work properly if you do so.
- Click on the Modify
button at the bottom of the page to save your changes.
What is the
difference between the various Record Type?
It would take pages to give a detailed
explanation of the various Resource Record Type for a domain name.
Below is a brief description of each Record Type:
| A (Address) |
Using this type of record allows you to point a hostname to an
IP address. An IP Address is a unique string of numbers, usually
shown in groups separated by periods (e.g.,
123.123.123.123), that identifies a computer connected to the
Internet. For example, you could have the host record for
www
point to 207.46.130.14 (the address for the Microsoft web
site). |
| URL Redirect |
URL Redirect is the standard method for URL Forwarding. When
the visitor types in your domain name they are redirected to the
web server that your page is hosted on. The only drawback of
this method is that your visitors will see the actual web
address in their browser's Address or URL box (eg,
http://www.yourisp.com/homepage/~youraccountname), instead of
your domain name. If this is a problem you can use the URL Frame
method. |
| URL Frame |
URL Frame is similar to URL Redirect except that instead of
redirecting the visitor to your web page, the web page is
displayed in a frame from our web server. With this method the
visitor's browser will display your domain name (for example:
www.mydomain.com) while they are visiting your site and not the
actual URL of your web page.
Note: If you use this method of forwarding, you will want to
put the 'target="_top"' attribute into any links you have that
leave your page. |
| CNAME (Alias) |
Canonical Name
records (CNAME) act as aliases for the hostnames they are
attached to. It takes on the web setting and MX record of their
assigned hostname. CNAMEs can be attached to hostnames within
the same domain but they don't have to be. For example, you
could have the host record for www
point to www.microsoft.com. Important:
When you use a domain in the Address
field for a CNAME Record Type, you must add a trailing period
("."). Unless you do so the name server will add your domain to
the end of the domain given. |
How do I create more than 8 hostnames (subdomains)?
You will only
see 6 empty rows in the Hosts
section (excluding the "@" and "www" hostname) when you begin to set
up URL redirection for your domain. This is normal and designed to
conserve space. If you have used up all the empty rows, just click
on the Modify
button at the bottom of the page. Our server will automatically
create additional 5 empty rows.
Why is my URL redirection not working?
Any changes to
your existing hostname will take about 12-48 hours to be effective.
If you are creating new hostname, they should be working properly
within an hour. Most common problems with URL redirection are:
- Use of wrong
Record Type - be sure you are using the correct Record Type for the
type of redirection you are setting up. Refer to the section on
Differences between
various Record Type for more information.
- Wrong IP
address or URL - do a test on the IP address or URL you are
redirecting to. If they are not working then your redirection will
definite not work.
- Duplicated
entries - if you create duplicated entries of any hostname, that
particular hostname will not redirect properly.
- If you still
can't figure out what's wrong with your URL redirection, please
contact our technical staff for
assistance. Remember to provide us your domain name and the URL
redirection you are trying to set up.
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