When surfing on the www, I regularly use the same domains: .co.uk, co.nz,
myprovider.extension,...

Is it possible to make a local domain alias?

I know it is possible to make a domain alias for an IP number by editing the
HOSTS file, but this is not very handy for me, since I have to add all the
websites I'm visiting.

Example: I want ".prov" to be the alias for "myprovider.com", so if I visit
"http://www.prov", I got redirected to http://www.myprovider.com. Same for
http://webmail.prov that will redirect to http://webmail.myprovider.com.

Another example. I want .cu to be the alias for .co.uk, so I can reach
http://www.company.co.uk by http://www.company.cu

This should be local. Of course, I don't think a global solution is possible
;-)

TIA

In article <g768g.416082$EI5.11259966@phobos.telenet-ops.be>,
"Pieter Van Daele" <pvd@geenspam.com> wrote:

> When surfing on the www, I regularly use the same domains: .co.uk, co.nz,
> myprovider.extension,...
>
> Is it possible to make a local domain alias?
>
> I know it is possible to make a domain alias for an IP number by editing the
> HOSTS file, but this is not very handy for me, since I have to add all the
> websites I'm visiting.
>
> Example: I want ".prov" to be the alias for "myprovider.com", so if I visit
> "http://www.prov", I got redirected to http://www.myprovider.com. Same for
> http://webmail.prov that will redirect to http://webmail.myprovider.com.
>
> Another example. I want .cu to be the alias for .co.uk, so I can reach
> http://www.company.co.uk by http://www.company.cu
>
> This should be local. Of course, I don't think a global solution is possible
> ;-)

Run a nameserver such as BIND on your machine, and create DNAME records
that map the domain aliases you want.

--
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***
*** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***

[Followup-To set]
Begin <g768g.416082$EI5.11259966@phobos.telenet-ops.be>
On 2006-05-09, Pieter Van Daele <pvd@geenspam.com> wrote:
> When surfing on the www, I regularly use the same domains: .co.uk, co.nz,
> myprovider.extension,...

Technically, it's not an ``extention''. It really doesn't do to think of
domains that way. The root (`.') `contains' the toplevel domains (.uk,
..nz, .com, .org, .info, and so on) as subdomains, and those in turn
`contain' domains as subdomains. You can go quite deep, even.

For example, if you have yourdomain.co.uk, you can easily create any
subdomain.yourdomain.co.uk or even subsub.subdomain.yourdomain.co.uk, to
do with as you please. Thinking in terms of ``extentions'' interferes
with this feature. And that is a pity.


> Is it possible to make a local domain alias?

I'll refer to Barry's answer, but I'd like to add a note or two.

First off: You can make your own start page with all the links you want
to use often. It can be a local file, or you can put it on a small
webserver on your intranet, or whatever. This is by far the simplest,
clearest, and least likely to confuse option I can think of right now.
It also has less issues than the question you asked.


> Example: I want ".prov" to be the alias for "myprovider.com", so if I visit
> "http://www.prov", I got redirected to http://www.myprovider.com. Same for
> http://webmail.prov that will redirect to http://webmail.myprovider.com.

..prov doesn't exist so that wouldn't interfere with other things for
the foreseeable future. Still, I'd do it a bit different again, using
..prov.local and the search order feature. See below.


> Another example. I want .cu to be the alias for .co.uk, so I can reach
> http://www.company.co.uk by http://www.company.cu

..cu exists and is delegated to Cuba. You probably shouldn't interfere
with that, even if you don't plan now on ever visiting Cuba or any
websites there. Maybe someday you will and then you are likely to lose
hours and hours racking your brain why the Cuban internet is broken.

So, as a general rule, don't hide entire countries because it seems
convenient now. Things like this are bound to bite. They are also
canonical examples of `stupid idiot with bright idea' tales. Don't go
there.


> This should be local. Of course, I don't think a global solution is possible
> ;-)

Nor is a global solution desirable. In fact, if you really want this,
you should probably set your domain search order to look in .local,
and your local DNS server to put all your aliases in .local. So you'd
define that DNAME not for .prov but for .prov.local, and then you'd
use the local search order to search .local first. So you'd still type
webmail.prov, but your browser would ask for .prov.local (search order)
and your local DNS server would answer that .prov.local question with
the right domain. It sounds more complicated than `simply using .prov'
but really it isn't, and it has a positive side the other option lacks:

If you are going to muck about with domains in this way, it is desirable
to clearly mark this as a local invention. This s debugging the
extra complexity you have to introduce to make it work.


--
j p d (at) d s b (dot) t u d e l f t (dot) n l .
This message was originally posted on Usenet in plain text.
Any other representation, additions, or changes do not have my
consent and may be a violation of international copyright law.