Re: Dropping the WWW

As a one time DNS Manager dropping the www is a no brainer or even making
it a w3.xxx.com.

A "kind of 'address Alias'" points to the real machine by name then IP address.
A PTR "PoinTeR record does IP to Name resolutions.
CNAME "Canonical NAME" another name for the machine already named with A.
Say A is hellraiser.com and also my web workstation so for testing of
webpages I set up a CNAME that says KidsTest.hellraiser.com is also the
same as the A name Hellraiser.com.  Now the stuff gets real hairy.
mail.hellraiser.com is an MX "Mail eXchange" record and can be the same
machine.
NS.hellraiser.com can also be the machine by using a PTR to the NS(Domain
Name Service, then A, then MX then CNAME.

So hell yes a DNS manager if trained well can make a a record or a CNAME
record to drop the www, and or optional give it the ability to be www, w3,
w2, w1 or any other subdomain designator.

On the Mac with Webstar, Webstar can do mail, Imap, ftp and Web services
for thousands of sites and users or only one of the services.  So an A
record points to that machine and a PTR record supplies the IP address for
that machine, then CNAME give me another entry point on the same machine.
The A name is the primary name of a machine or a service.

I include all of this to educate and also give you enough knowledge to
argue the case for no www.

At 10:16 PM -0600 8/6/02, Rob Atkinson wrote:
>---
>
>Date: Mon, 05 Aug 2002 12:09:42 +0100
>From: "Nigel Peck" <Nigel.Peck(at)itm-solutions.co.uk>
>Subject: Dropping the WWW
>
>I assuming that to drop the actual machine name from a website
>address, as in just domainname.com rather than www.domainname.com
>involves setting up some kind of default in DNS. Could someone
>please give me full details of this?
>
>--
>
>Your question is a bit confusing as "the actual machine name"
>which is the Server itself and also the Name Server used for
>resolving Domain Names, is not the same as a regular Domain Name.
>
>As you cannot hide "the actual machine name" -- for obvious
>reasons -- I am taking a guess that you either want people to
>find your site, with or without the "WWW" or you want to run
>scripts that also work, with or without the "WWW", and just have
>the Domain Name itself show up in the Browser.
>
>You do not state (and you always should in these type questions)
>what type of Server setup you are working with. So I am going to
>presume you are working with a Unix/Linux setup. Mostly because
>that's what I work with and the following applies to. ;)
>
>
>The best way is to make the change through the httpd.conf file.
>This of course requires "root" access and changes would involve
>looking for something like this in the httpd.conf file:
>
><.VirtualHost 123.45.67.890>
>ServerName somedomainname.com
>ServerAlias www.somedomainname.com
><./VirtualHost>
>
>The ServerAlias is what makes your site work with or without the
>"WWW". Delete just that one line, and create a new VirtualHost
>directive that looks like this:
>
><.VirtualHost 123.45.67.890>
>ServerAlias www.somedomainname.com
>Redirect permanent / http://somedomainname.com
><./VirtualHost>
>
>[ Note: there "is" a space, before and after the / ]
>
>
>Obviously replace somedomainname.com with your domain name (and
>use the proper IP number or servername), but other than that, you
>don't need to do anything else. You should have two VirtualHost
>directives that something like this:
>
><.VirtualHost 123.45.67.890>
>ServerName somedomainname.com
><./VirtualHost>
>
><.VirtualHost 123.45.67.890>
>ServerAlias www.somedomainname.com
>Redirect permanent / http://somedomainname.com
><./VirtualHost>
>
>Save that file, and restart Apache. That should take care of it.
>Your site is now set up to automatically remove the Ws! This
>means people can use the Ws or not, but your URL and scripts will
>always work (and show in a Browser) as just the Domain Name.
>
>Remember the <. is used for this Email and the period should be
>removed for actual usage.
>
>If you do have "root" access then use the above and look for your
>Domain Name. If you do not have "root" access then passing this
>whole file/Email to your Hoster or SysAdmin and a few minutes of
>conversation, should resolve the issue to your satisfaction.
>
>
>You can also Search the Archives and look for these two posts:
>
>Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2001 07:17:17 -0500
>From: Hank Marquardt <hmarq(at)yerpso.net>
>Subject: Re: Subdomains or Third level domain names? - how to set up?
>
>Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2001 13:30:39 -0400 (EDT)
>From: jim barchuk <jb(at)jbarchuk.com>
>Subject: Re: Subdomains or Third level domain names? - how to set up?
>
>They also go into some detail on this subject.
>
>
>Website Rob
>Helping people create a Potent Web Site

-- 
Sincerely,
Kid Stevens


"Somehow There Must Be A Way Lets Find It."
-Steve Stevens

"Only those who risk going too far, can possibly find out how far they can go."
-T. Ellis

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