Domainland.com - Domain Name Registration and Renewal Services

URL Forwarding/Framing (Cloaking)

What is URL Forwarding?

If you have a Web page set-up with a company like xoom.com, talkcity.com, geocities.com or an ISP personal Web page, but do not have Web hosting, you would want to use URL forwarding (or framing). When a person types www.yourdomain.com in their Web browser they will be "forwarded" to your Web site and will not have to remember that long URL provided by any of these kind of Web sites.

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What is URL Framing?

URL Framing does the same thing as URL Forwarding but the surfer will not see the Web address of the forwarded domain name in their browser (it will be cloaked). For example, if you have a Web page set-up with a company like geocities.com, aol.com or ISP personal Web pages, the surfer would see the forwarded to URL if you were using URL Forwarding, but if you use URL Framing it will hide the forwarded URL address when viewed in the browser's address bar.

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How do I set-up URL Forwarding or URL Framing (cloaking)?

For URL Forwarding (no cloaking)

HOST NAME--------RECORD TYPE------Pref----------ADDRESS
www-----------------------URL Redirect---------10--------(your URL(1) goes here)
@--------------------------URL Redirect----------10--------(your URL(1) goes here)
anything-----------------URL Redirect----------10--------(your URL(2) goes here)


So,

	http:// www.yourdomain.com    forwards to URL(1) and URL not cloaked
	http://yourdomain.com    forwards to URL(1) and URL not cloaked
	http://anything.yourdomain.com    forwards to URL(2) and URL not claoked

For URL Framing (cloaking)

HOST NAME--------RECORD TYPE------Pref----------ADDRESS
www-----------------------URL Frame-----------10--------(your URL(1) goes here)
@--------------------------URL Frame------------10--------(your URL(1) goes here)
anything-----------------URL Frame------------10--------(your URL(2) goes here)


So,

	http:// www.yourdomain.com    forwards to URL(1) and URL is cloaked
	http://yourdomain.com    forwards to URL(1) and URL is cloaked
	http://anything.yourdomain.com    forwards to URL(2) and URL is cloaked

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What is the wrong way to set-up URL Forwarding or Framing?

The most common error people make is they set forwarding up to forward to the same domain name that they are setting forwarding for. If you do not understand that statement it is because it was "looping" and that is the same thing that anyone's browser would do when they tried to access your website.

You can not set yourdomain.com to forward to yourdomain.com.

You also can not set yourdomain.com to forward to yourdomain.net AND THEN set yourdomain.net to forward to yourdomain.com. That will cause the same problem and your web site will never show up in a web browser.

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Can I forward to a domain name that is forwarding to another URL/Web site?

You can forward to any domain name as long as the domain name you are forwarding to does exist. If that domain name is not set-up correctly your domain name will also not work properly. Sometimes certain web hosts do not allow forwarding to a domain name on their servers and will block all requests. If you set-up your forwarding and it isn't working this could be the reason but usually this happens because you have not set-up forwarding properly.

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Can I forward to an IP address?

You can forward to an IP address but the web surfer will be able to see this IP address. If you must forward to an IP address you have to make it an URL like http://123.456.789.0. You should use an "A Record" which will forward to the IP address but keep your domain name in the browser address bar provided you set it up correctly.

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How long will it be before I can see my changes to take effect?

Allow up to 48 hours for your changes to take effect. Some Web servers and ISPs will "cache" your Web site and keep showing the old settings until they update their caches. This has nothing to do with Domainland.com and is out of our control. So, just be patient after the registration to see your new domain online.

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How do I delete URL Forwarding?

To delete all URL Forwarding/Framing you need to use your own DNS for your domain names and then NOT attempt to make changes to the forwarding settings after you set your own DNS. Doing so will cause your names to use our DNS again and may not show this in your account but will in a Whois lookup.

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