Trying to setup domain names on my server.

[Rockafella]

Hi,
I am trying to setup domain names for my server and it's sites. I am trying to use www.dot.tk domains. In the setup on www.dot.tk it asks for the link where the site is. I put in http://myipaddress/sitename,http://myipaddress and tried serveral other things. I can't seam to get it to work. Is there something that I am doing wrong? If it is just www.dot.tk what can I do to make my sites easier to access instead of a person having to type in my ip address ect.?
Thanks,
Rocky

PS. Sorry for the incorrect terminology but I'm completely new to this.

[WooshMan]

Did you find a solution?

If not let me know and I will give you an answer.

Woosh

[Rockafella]

I was unable to find a solution to this problem. Please tell me what you came up with.

[WooshMan]

For my test site I use www.dyndns.org

You can have upto 5 different domain names. They also supply the software to keep your ip address updated.

Once you have created an account there and added the domain names you want, i.e mysite.ath.cx or yoursite.myblog it knows what your ip address is and anyone who tries to go to www.yoursite.ath.cx will be sent to your server which is setup as a web server.

Have a go and shout if you get stuck.

www.dyndns is easy to use and I have never had a problem with them at all. It is all automated.

Good luck

WooshMan

[Rockafella]

So your saying once I do this I will be able to forward the site to a free domain at www.dot.tk? I have tried doing this in the past and was unsucessful. Everytime I would but the link in that I changed my ip address to it would say that this link seams that it is already being redirected and cannot be redirected again.

[Izzy]

So your saying once I do this I will be able to forward the site to a free domain at www.dot.tk? I have tried doing this in the past and was unsucessful. Everytime I would but the link in that I changed my ip address to it would say that this link seams that it is already being redirected and cannot be redirected again.

I think he means to drop http://dot.tk and use http://dyndns.org.

I had a sub domain with dyndns using one of their free domain names - homeip.net called izzyz.homeip.net. I no longer require that as I have my own domain name(s) now and so can use other FREE services for my own domain names.

Dyndns.org charge for DNS service for your own domain name I believe but allow up to 5 sub domains of one of their list of main domain names for free.

Other free services are http://www.zonedit.com and http://freedns.afraid.org/
Both have listed domains to add sub domains to and also allow up to 5 of your own domains all for free.

My advise is to use one of these services in place of dot.tk as none of them add an advert to your web pages (YUK!). Also I have heard they are not reliable in that sometimes the service is down along with your sites.

It will take some reading and opening of a free account so you can configure your dynamic IP to your new (sub)domain name. They all have links to little progs. that will detect the change of your IP and lodge that change with their service automatically so you never have to worry about anyone finding your web sites.
ZoneEdit also has a free email forwarding service or the ability to configure the MX records to point to your own mail daemon (Mercury). This means which ever mail service you choose it will have the email for your new domain being delivered to your PC. Very handy.

It can be very frustrating setting these things up but hang in there and I hope this helps a little.

[Rockafella]

What I have done is registered a domain name. It is www.rockyserver.info. Then for instance a site that I am trying to setup is given the subdomain name www.rockyserver.info/muskieotter/phpBB2. I type that link into the link redirection space on www.dot.tk and it says the link is either not valid or is already redirected. I would like to give the site a easier name to access like www.muskieotter.tk or www.muskieotter.info ect. As these will be free websites I guess I am asking for a free easy way of accessing their contents. Would there be a way that I can make the muskieotter site open the phpbb2 forum by just typing in www.rockyserver.info/muskieotter? if so this would be easier for my customers to remember.
Thanks,
Rocky

[WorldDrknss]

You can use http://www.rockyserver.info/muskieotter to redirect users to your phpbb forum by using a .htaccess file to redirect, you would use the following line:

Code: Select all

Redirect /muskieotter http://www.rockyserver.info/muskieotter/phpBB2

Pretty straight forward, this simply redirects http://www.rockyserver.info/muskieotter/ to http://www.rockyserver.info/muskieotter/phpBB2 Easy!

[Rockafella]

Thanks for the information. I would put this in the muskieotter root directory correct? For instance I would create the .htaccess file and put it in htdocs/muskieotter/.htaccess?
Thanks,
Rocky

[Rockafella]

I put the .htaccess file in htdocs/muskieotter and the page does not work. I made sure I uploaded it as ASCII format and not binary. I also tried putting it in muskieotter/phpBB2 it does not work either. Let me know what I need to do please.
Thank you,
Rocky

[Izzy]

It should go in your root web directory / where you have the files for http://www.rockyserver.info/
The .htaccess file should look like this:

Code: Select all

Redirect permanent /muskieotter http://www.rockyserver.info/muskieotter/phpBB2

You can also dispense with the .htaccess redirect by using the /apache/conf/httpd.conf file. Find this:

Code: Select all

<IfModule alias_module>
    #
    # Redirect: Allows you to tell clients about documents that used to
    # exist in your server's namespace, but do not anymore. The client
    # will make a new request for the document at its new location.
    # Example:
    # Redirect permanent /foo http://www.example.com/bar

Uncoment this line:

Code: Select all

# Redirect permanent /foo http://www.example.com/bar

To look like this:

Code: Select all

Redirect permanent /foo http://www.example.com/bar

and change it to this:

Code: Select all

Redirect permanent /muskieotter http://www.rockyserver.info/muskieotter/phpBB2

Then save the file and restart apache.
If for some reason apache refuses to start then put those changes back to where they were before the edit and restart apache again.
Check you made the changes exactly as I show you above and it should work for you as the .htaccess is only a method of changing the httpd.conf for individual directories.
You should make a backup (copy of) the httpd.conf file so you can revert if your edits prevent apache from restarting.
Hope this is of some help to what must now be a very frustrating problem.

[Rockafella]

Thanks for you speedy response! I will let you know how things go. Thanks again,
Rocky

[Rockafella]

I tried using both example and the page http://www.rockyserver.info/muskieotter cannot be displayed. Here is the edited htpd.conf file.

Code: Select all

<IfModule alias_module>
    #
    # Redirect: Allows you to tell clients about documents that used to
    # exist in your server's namespace, but do not anymore. The client
    # will make a new request for the document at its new location.
    # Example:
      Redirect permanent /muskieotter http://www.rockyserver.info/muskieotter/phpBB2

Also here I put the .htaccess file in xampp/htdocs/.htaccess that is where all the files for rockyserver.info are kept. I put the fallowing code in the .htaccess file.

Code: Select all

Redirect permanent /muskieotter http://www.rockyserver.info/muskieotter/phpBB2

Check it out and let me know what you can come up with.
Thanks,
Rocky

[Izzy]

Rocky, you only use one of the methods above but try either even though they both do the same job.

If you use the .htaccess file don't forget to comment out the entry in the httpd.conf file again.

Also if you change anything in the httpd.conf file then you always have to restart the server (apache) again. This is not the case if you use and modify the .htaccess file as your server knows to check the server directives in this file before it loads any of your web pages.

You appear to have put the .htaccess file in the web root directory of your server just fine - xampp/htdocs/

I can't establish a connection to your server http://www.rockyserver.info on port 80 to test your redirection.

Is your server (apache) running?

I see the ftp server is running only.

If you have a firewall, this may be blocking your ports. Check the firewall settings.

I don't know what else I can suggest until your server is running and I can access your web site from the Internet.

Post back when you have it all up and running.

You can test your ports from an external source by visiting:
Domain Dossier
Enter your domain's address rockysever.info
Click on service scan then on Go.