Messy domain transfer

[Dennis]

Hi, I need to xfer some domains and site over to Jodo. The summary is as follows:

1) I inherited a client who has the main web site running off a sub domain (subdomain.domain.co.nz)
2) The mail account for this sub domain recently changed to point to a local server running SBS
3) I have added other domain names conected to the original web site (using aliases and redirects) in order to run an overseas branch off the same web site.
4) One of the new conected domains is using live hosting based mail accounts

The issues are:

1) I can not mask a sub domain to a main domain. The CP doesn't allow it.
2) I can't seem to mask all the main domain names to the sub domain where the web site is hosted. The mail account on the domains that is needed doesn't work when masked to the sub domain.

The only solution I can see is to either redirect the sub domain to point to a main domain (therefore loosing the browser address that should show the sub domain). Not the ideal solution.

or

Create a clone of the web site and run it off one of the main domains, alias the other domains off that and have the other web site running off the sub domain. This means having to update two web sites at a time and therefore also not the best solution.

Currently I have the overseas domain redirected to the sub domain but the branch wants it masked instead as they don't want visitors to know they are conected to the local branch. This is the way the new web site was designed.

I hope this situation is understood and someone can offer a solution.

Thanks

Dennis

 

[Stephen]

Dennis, as you say this is a mess, I dont think there will be any way to do this forwarding of a sub/third level domain without some sort of "frame forwarding" where it stays loaded in a frame/iframe to the new content so the url doesnt change.

 

[SubSpace]

<confuzzled>

What do the mail accounts have to do with your website configuration?

As I understand it you want both sites to display The Domain Name Company : Domain Name Registration, Email and Hosting while they are in fact using different servers based on their location or whatever?

That's not technically possible without an IFRAME like Stephen mentioned, or a specialized nameserver. Basically the nameserver would have to adjust it's responses based on the IP address of the machine performing the query, linked to some GeoIP database..

I don't know of nameservers that can do this out of the box, but you could always write your own ;-)

 

[Dennis]

Thanks for your replies guys. The web site is based in one location on the reseller hosting server. It is only the sub domain that is using a local in-office server for mail only. The companies have the same name, just different countries so the only difference needs to be the url of the domain and email addresses. On the web site there is contact information for both branches and the products are the same.

The issue with the mail and sub domain is that while I can set all the other 2nd level domains as alises on the 3rd level domain (where the web site is running) I can not use the mail alias for pop accounts due to there being a MX record on the mail account pointing back to the local office server. Unless I set up the overseas mail accounts on the local server and get the overseas branch PC to download mail from it.

I want to stear clear from frames for various reasons.

If there is a way to create the alias for the other domain and include only the A records then able to create the MX records seperatly (somehow) and allow the overseas branch to login to a 'stand alone'(?) mail account???

What about if I create a static IP for the sub domain (web site domain) then have the A records of the other domains pointing to that? Would that work? The overseas mail domain would remain intact then.

Mucking around with A and MX records is an area I prefer not to play with for obvious reasons without knowing exactly what I'm doing but I hope there is a glimmer of hope in configering the records.

If the local company didn't have the local office taking all the mail for the sub domain (main web site) this wouldn't be such an issue as all branches could just log into the one mail domain (all alises running off that)