How to point a domain name to a...

User 38401 Photo


Senior Advisor
10,951 posts

Hiya,

I have been searching Google for a while here and there to see if I can find info on how this would be done, but for the most part the answer is yes, but not much info on how it would be done unfortunately.

Soooo.... I'm wondering if anyone else out there might have an idea on how this could be done. The scenario is I have a domain setup to create websites for others every so often (mostly friends, family, and gaming sites, maybe to extend later to paid sites). I want to be able to create these sites on a particular domain by creating subdomains for them on this domain.

Creating the subdomains is easy enough, just the domain part is where I'm curious. I would like them to be able to point a domain name to their site which will be on a subdomain, but I've no clue how that would be done. I've found hints of 301 directs needed as well as threads that say yes it can be done, without any real instruction lol.

Hopefully someone here will have some information on this as it would really be appreciated. Thanks guys.
User 562592 Photo


Registered User
2,038 posts

Yes, this can be done, but I am trying to get clarity on what your project is. You want to setup subdomains on a particular domain account - this I get, what is unclear is what do you want pointing to what? Maybe, give an example, using fake domains as to what you are trying to do?
The philosopher has not done philosophy until he has acted upon the mere conviction of his idea; for proof of the theory is in the act, not the idea.

My Web Development Company: http://www.innovatewebdevelopment.com (Created with Coffee Cup Software).

My Personal Website: http://www.EricSEnglish.com

User 38401 Photo


Senior Advisor
10,951 posts

Well I have a domain already for a particular account on my server. That one is lbpages.com (no site is setup here yet for the main domain). I want to set this up as website building site where people can have me and a friend create little (1-3 page) sites for them. I am thinking that at some point they will want to get their own domain for their sites.

These sites will be built on subdomains of the lbpages.com which right now I have 1 that is a game site at dungeontoys.lbpages.com which they don't have a domain for right now. If someone purchases a domain for their site I am sure they will need to know how to set this up to point to their subdomain instead of the main domain of the server.

Hopefully that makes more sense, let me know if you need more info :)
User 3004957 Photo


Registered User
846 posts

Jo Ann,

Your hosting provider and/or registrar (if they're different companies) should allow you to modify the DNS Namespaces to point the domain to any IP address that you want. When a visitor types in "http://www.yourdomain.com/" it looks up the IP address within various DNS servers and sends the visitor to where the site is stored.
User 562592 Photo


Registered User
2,038 posts

Ok, I think I understand. Let me first make a suggestion that might be easier. Why not, if they decide to get their own domain, just reupload their site for them to the new domain. That way, you dont have to mess around with redirects. Also, what hosting provider do you use, and do they offer a control panel? I am able to set all my redirects through my control panel.

Anyhoot, to answer your question specifically:

Redirect 301 /productreview.html http://www.yoursite.com/products/productreview.html

or,

Redirect 301 / http://www.newdomainname.com/

I hope this answered your question.

The philosopher has not done philosophy until he has acted upon the mere conviction of his idea; for proof of the theory is in the act, not the idea.

My Web Development Company: http://www.innovatewebdevelopment.com (Created with Coffee Cup Software).

My Personal Website: http://www.EricSEnglish.com

User 38401 Photo


Senior Advisor
10,951 posts

My friend and I have our own hosting reseller setup so we do all the hosting ourselves, I'm just not real sure how it all works as of yet, learning learning learning, I swear it never stops lol.

We don't want to move the sites to somewhere else as our whole point is to not only build them sites but to host them for them too on a reasonable setup that includes very minimal setups for them to edit things on their own, with the option of course to expand that for them should they decide they want to go full blown later which will most likely not be the case.

@Eric: I see your redirect lines, but no clue where they go lol. Redirects are giving me headaches to say the least, each time I tried to do one it messed something else up so I stopped bothering with them, but I'm sure that I need to learn all that whether I want to or not.

@Cesar: Since it's all planned to be on a subdomain of a site, it will end up with the same IP address (heck all our site accounts seem to have the same IP address for that matter so this all confuses me lol).

I did discover in the cPanel an addon domains setup, but it's all Greek to me so I guess I better wait on all this till I get some more information about how all this works.

To give an idea of what my mind is saying we should do it's this:
You know how there are sites out there like freewebs and such that when you build a site with them you end up with yoursitename.freewebs.com ? That's the type of thing I'm trying to do.

I'm not sure how it's all setup, and I'm pretty green on it all so it may be that I need to look into a lot more of this before I can do what I'm thinking. Trying to bite off more than I can chew at the moment maybe lol.
User 562592 Photo


Registered User
2,038 posts

Ok, I use cPanel as well so this is how it works. An addon domain is used after you have purchased a domain name. So say that you have a client who purchased mysite.com. It does not appear on your server, even though they purchased it, until you add it to your server. This is done through your addon section. On cPanel you should also have an option to "redirect", that is what you would use in order to redirect your sites to other places.

With all that said, I would not use subdomains if I was you. Instead, have your clients purchase a domain (its only 10 bucks or less), and then you can develop the site for them. You can do everything yourself. You purchase it for them, you add it on your server, and then you develop the content. That Is how it works for me and works great. I can give you more tips if you need them, but I think for now that answered your initial question.
The philosopher has not done philosophy until he has acted upon the mere conviction of his idea; for proof of the theory is in the act, not the idea.

My Web Development Company: http://www.innovatewebdevelopment.com (Created with Coffee Cup Software).

My Personal Website: http://www.EricSEnglish.com

User 38401 Photo


Senior Advisor
10,951 posts

Yeah and like I said there's so much involved in all this that I need to take a step back and just read a lot of stuff for a while. It almost answers it, but the idea is still in my mind that I want to use this as a subdomain setup because it's going to be a bunch of 1 or 2 page sites that I can't forsee a reason to setup a full hosting account for. Most of these won't have selling capabilities and are basically just going to be for a basic web presense (such as small businesses in my area). They will mostly be 1 or 2 pages to give basic info, maybe a menu and a contact page and not much else. There may be some that I build on it for game sites such as the one that I mentioned, but that will be few and far between as those are usually for guilds I am in in a game myself and doing the website/forums for them.

That's the main reason I want to keep this on a subdomain system. We'll also be planning to do sites with their own accounts setup rather than subdomains and that will be fine, but these are just little sites that just need a place to be.

Having said that, I'm sure some of them will still want to purchase a domain name of their own to use with the sites, and that's where my issue comes in for pointing to their subdomain rather than my main domain. I'll take a look at the info on the cPanel site and see if there are some tutorials on how this stuff all works.

Probably a strange idea huh? oh well lol I'm a strange person what can I say :P
User 562592 Photo


Registered User
2,038 posts

Hey as long as cPanel has a manual you should be all good. :P
The philosopher has not done philosophy until he has acted upon the mere conviction of his idea; for proof of the theory is in the act, not the idea.

My Web Development Company: http://www.innovatewebdevelopment.com (Created with Coffee Cup Software).

My Personal Website: http://www.EricSEnglish.com

User 2000538 Photo


Registered User
1,392 posts

Jo Ann,

I think what will work best as most domain registrars let you park your domain there and you can just redirect it to the subdomain without pointing servers as you aren't actually moving it to another host just redirecting traffic.
I know you believe you understand what you think I said...but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not exactly what I meant.



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