I was using the W3C QA to validate my XHTML the other day, and I came
across this "tip of the day" called "Use standard redirects: don't
break the back button!" It said, "If you want
http://www.example.org/foo to actually display what's at
http://www.example.org/bar you should NOT [emphasis mine] use "refresh"
techniques like :

<META HTTP-EQUIV=REFRESH CONTENT="1; URL=http://www.example.org/bar">."

Well, I'll be damned! I never knew that! It says to "Use HTTP redirects
instead." I'm just a lowly XHTML/CSS author who don't know nothin'
'bout birthin' babies-- I mean writing .htaccess files with
mod_rewrite! I tried following the links and reading about "redirect"
and mod_rewrite, really I did, but it just doesn't make sense to me.

Now, I've always depended on the kindness of strangers, so I am posing
my dillema here in the hope that someone can tell me what to do in
plain English.

I would like to establish the following redirects "the right way":

http://danielgreene.com/grandpa.html to
http://danielgreene.com/2004/02/12/e...ernest-greene/

http://danielgreene.com/granny.html to
http://danielgreene.com/1999/11/04/e...helene-greene/

http://danielgreene.com/lawresep.html
http://danielgreene.com/2001/05/03/l...loyed-persons/

Et

cetera.

Can anyone tell me what code to write, or point me in the right
direction? I have already spent three hours reading what is Greek to me
on both web pages and newsgroups, and I still don't know exactly what
to do. My host, "pair Networks," uses Apache servers.

TIA!

Daniel

On Tue, 22 Aug 2006, Daniel Greene wrote:

> I'm just a lowly XHTML/CSS author who don't know nothin'
> 'bout birthin' babies-- I mean writing .htaccess files with
> mod_rewrite! I tried following the links and reading about "redirect"
> and mod_rewrite, really I did, but it just doesn't make sense to me.

Often you don't need mod_rewrite but a simple Redirect in your
..htaccess file will suffice.

> I would like to establish the following redirects "the right way":
>
> http://danielgreene.com/grandpa.html to
> http://danielgreene.com/2004/02/12/e...ernest-greene/

If this is a single redirection, then you just write

Redirect 301 /grandpa.html
http://danielgreene.com/2004/02/12/e...ernest-greene/

into a *single* line in your .htaccess file.
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/mod....html#redirect