Hi,
First of all sorry for my bad English (I'm from Switzerland).

I've got a question. I know that maybe this is a "low-user" question……but I need help…

Let's say I have a page called "intro.html" located in a folder called "music".

Now I would like to build my web site containing that page, and I would like that people visiting my page see in their browser's location box the following address:
"www.my_name.com/music/intro.html"

Ok, my problem is that I'm not able to do this last thing.

I try to explain.
Here is what I'm able to do:
- I register the Domain Name "my_name.com" (paying for example 15USD/Year)
- I find a server which can host my pages (free of charge). Let's say the page is now located at "www.xyz.net/users/my_name/music/intro.html"
- The company who gave me the Domain Name allow me to set up Web Forwarding; so the address "www.my_name.com" should work like a link to my page. HERE'S THE PROBLEM:
If I go to "www.my_name.com" then in the browser's location box I see "www.xyz.net/users/my_name/music..." and not "www.my_name.com/music..."

Is it possible to get what I want paying only the 15USD needed to keep the Domain Name?

Who should provide that for me: the registrar? The hosting server? Other?

Thanks

You want more of a 'stealth' redirection. Mydomain.com offers something like this, but I'd have to check about others.

I don't think it's possible.

mydomain.com allows stealth redirection, but whatever you enter, on the address bar show your-domain.com only. It can't be done in your-domain.com/music since you use free hosting service with a lousy link.

Note, the status bar still shows the actual link. So you can't hide it anyway.

Ahhh, yes. It frames the page, so your users will only see 'yourdomain.com'. Forgot about that.

How about if you remove the location bar from the user's browser? This may solve your problem.

If you don't mind using a uk redirection service like that use http://www.netweaver.com they dont use frames and its very very powerful!.

Well, what you want to do, is also known as Url Cloaking :) It can be done using a frame, but then you have to be very careful in the type of linking you do. Because all the links should point to the bottom frame :). There are a few free services that will do this type of redirection for you. You can find them at http://www.freewebspace.net.

there's a way to make it work exactly like you want it to... but it involves php...

if you have mydomain.com pointing to xyz.com/pileofstuff/index.html

then all you have to do is change that index.html to index.phtml, and add in some script at the top to tell it to go somewhere else... as long as the somewhere else is relative, and not fixed, then it should stay under the mydomain.com and move with it, as it goes...

basically, you should be able to get mydomain.com/music... is what i'm getting at...

so, you'll need a freehost who offers php for this to work...

Originally posted by i am a
there's a way to make it work exactly like you want it to... but it involves php...

if you have mydomain.com pointing to xyz.com/pileofstuff/index.html

then all you have to do is change that index.html to index.phtml, and add in some script at the top to tell it to go somewhere else... as long as the somewhere else is relative, and not fixed, then it should stay under the mydomain.com and move with it, as it goes...

basically, you should be able to get mydomain.com/music... is what i'm getting at...

so, you'll need a freehost who offers php for this to work...

Can you explain a little more? You lost me somewhere inbetween in the explanation :(

don't worry, i lose myself all the time...

specifically...

if you have mydomain.com point to... xyz.com/folder/thispage.html

then if you put the following code (or something to the effect...) above the page...

<?php
if ($HTTP_HOST == "www.mydomain.com") {header("Location: music/");}
if ($HTTP_HOST == "mydomain.com") {header("Location: music/");}
?>

then... thispage.phtml will recognize a request for mydomain.com and transfer it just past /music... so the final product should read http://www.mydomain.com/music or mydomain.com/music

i guess you can alter the relative path to reflect youur read structure...

make sense now? :)

Yups! Makes sense now :) Well, this would be kinda tedious to do. Simply coz if you have more then one page, or you wont your entire site to be shown under the same URL, for eg. the URL would be http://www.getmoned.net, then listing the all the links and there relative links would take forever! :)

I think using frames would be the best idea.

Good to know it's possible, that's why I need to come here often :D

Btw, I hate frame, even if it's just an invisible one :)

Hmm.. it should be possible without a frame too.. Using any programing langauge that is. For eg. you can use PHP to do the same without frames. You could do this by using the environmental functions and other such features available with PHP.

Thank you very much to everyone who answered me....

....but.....there are a couple of things that I still don't understand:

most web sites have the feature that I would need (see 1st post in this thread)...but I don't think they have invisible frames, or a php code in each page...

So: why they can, and I CANNOT????

hey kunal:

nope... it's a one time code thing at the top of the entrance page...

as long as all your links are relative, it should work... for example:

typing in | mydomain.com
directs to | xyz.com/folder/index.html
shows as | mydomain.com

typing in | mydomain.com/music/
directs to | xyz.com/folder/music/index.html
shows as | mydomain.com/music/

all very much fun... as long as you use the first folder you're dropped into as the "base" then you should be fine... if your links are absolute then it won't work, of course... but why would you have internal absolute links anyways?


Zeno:

i don't think i've ever found a site that offers exactly what you want... sites do redirect, as your first problem illustrated, or they fix the URL (so it only always say mydomain.com, no mydomain.com/music/whatever.ext), which doesn't involve frames (namesecure's gripper service... i think they still have it... but alas, you must pay for it...)

Originally posted by Zeno
Thank you very much to everyone who answered me....

....but.....there are a couple of things that I still don't understand:

most web sites have the feature that I would need (see 1st post in this thread)...but I don't think they have invisible frames, or a php code in each page...

So: why they can, and I CANNOT????


Can you give an example?

Is Domain/URL Cloaking and Path Forwarding.

The difference here, however, is that you have to hard code your links to get the path forwarding. If you've signed up with redirection.net it comes standard with their package. Or you can do some research and find one that does.

kunal, almost every website could be an example:

at random:

http://www.divernet.com/
(it keeps "www.divernet.com" at the beginning of each page address)

http://www.insidemacgames.com/
(it keeps "www.insidemacgames.com" at the beginning of each page address)

........



So, what you're trying to tell me is that these web sites use PHP to keep the "www.domainname.com" at the beginning of each page address?

Zeno,

Ahhhhhhhhhh! Your question is much, much more clearer now.

The only way this can be done is if you get a host to set up your domain to be in their nameservers (like any paid host). Unfortunately the majority of free web hosts will not do this for you. Some that do include :

http://www.xoasis.com
http://www.virtualave.net
http://www.hypermart.net
http://www.netfirms.com

Domain cloaking/URL re-direction won't do this for you. The domain must be set up on your host's servers so that it appears at the beginning of each page, otherwise it just won't work. As I said previously, the vast majority of free web hosts don't provide this type of service.

Hope this helps.

hehehe.. That really makes things clear..

BC hit the nail on the head... What you wont, cannot be done using URL Cloaking, rather, what you wont is NOT Url Cloacking at all.

Hey people, do you remember which was my question (look at the top of this thread)?

BC noticed that it's not possible to get what I wanted for free (only paying the price to register the Domain Name) because most web hosting services charge an additional fee to host your domain name, or they don't host your domain name at all, as is the case with free web hosting services.

Ok,
but maybe I have found out the solution: it's called: www.redirection.net !!!!

They offer a full redirection service (URL cloaking, Path forwarding and E-mail forwarding), so that you can get exactly what I was looking for, that is:

build a "real" website with your desired domain name only paying 15 USD per year!

What do you think about it?
Do you think the redirection process could slow down the pages'loading time?

(Sorry for my awful English, hope you understood at least 50% of what I said)

Yep good service. Anything you put inbetween the visitor and the site won't *speed up* the loading time, but generally it is quick and not really a factor.