This is a strange setup we are trying to do. The reason we are doing it this way is to not mess up prior SEO work. We have two domains: let's say rootwebsite.com, and email.com (just made up names to represent function). rootwebsite.com is a site account, and is the primary hosted domain with Winhost. This is where our website files are located. (This domain is also where all the SEO work has occured) email.com is also a site account, newly acquired. We want this domain's URL to point to the rootwebsite.com's website location. (It doesn't matter what the URL is that shows up in the address bar.. either rootwebsite.com or email.com will be fine.) We also want to have all of rootwebsite.com's eMails to forward to the equivalent counterpart setup under email.com. (ie: [email protected] will forward to [email protected]). I know I can set this up manually by just creating the same eMail accounts on both domains, and forward one to the other. The trick comes when we want email.com to point to rootwebsite.com for website access. How can this be done. Can it be handled via DNS record changes? Or is the only solution to use a 301 redirect? I think using the 301 redirect option will work.. but I am wanting to know if there are other ways of getting this done without using 301 redirect. Thanks for any insight you have.
For this specific instance, a 301 redirect will work the best. Setting up a CNAME may achieve the same thing, but at least with a 301 redirect your SEO will not get affected.
Thanks Ray for your quick response. We might decide not to do the forwarding of eMail from rootwebsite.com to email.com after all. So that means that email.com will only have one eMail address created (which is the whole reason we needed the hosting package for it in the first place). Does this change anything as far as having to use the 301 redirect? If our SEO guys plan on using 301 redirects for site wide changes like redirecting "rootwebsite.com" to "www.rootwebsite.com", will they still be able to do this with the redirect we create to point www.email.com to www.rootwebsite.com? (And just to make sure.. 301 redirects have no effect on eMails.. right?) Thanks again. Dawn
OK.. I am trying to find documentation on how to setup the 301 redirect via the control panel. Note: I can't do this via .asp scripting because the email.com domain doesn't have a website. I just want anything with a URL of email.com or www.eMail.com to point to www.rootwebsite.com. How do I go about doing this. I am totally new to 301 redirects, so don't have a clue. The only documentation in the KB I could find has to do with "Redirect root domain to www subdomain" written in asp code in the startup page. I thought that the whole point of IIS 7 was so we could use the IIS 7 Manager for these kind of things? It looks like before I can do that, I have to download something to my PC? (This is soooo confusing!) Any help PLEASE?? I only have a couple days to figure this all out! Thanks!
thanks Ray, I have actually seen that website previously. I may be going about this all wrong, but I was under the impression that Winhost had an IIS 7 Manager that was available for users to configure things like 301 redirects for their site. I just can't figure out HOW to access the IIS 7 Manager. Can you please tell me how to get to it. Do I have to download something? Is it part of the control panel? And once I get there, can you provide a road map of how to find the area where I can configure the 301 redirect? Thanks!!!
Try looking at this kb article for instructions on how to setup IIS 7. http://support.Winhost.com/KB/a628/using-the-microsoft-iis-70-manager.aspx Once connected, look for the button labeled HTTP Redirect. Double click on it. Place a check mark on "Redirect requests to this destination" and type the URL in the text bar. Put a check mark on Redirect all requests to exact destination (instead of relative to destination) And set the Status code to Permanent (301).
Thanks again Ray, that info is very helpful. I have downloaded & installed the IIS7 Remote Admin Manager.. and have tried to connect to the server. The instructions say to use "Your secondary URL address (excluding the 'http://' portion)". On my Winhost control panel there is a line that says: "Secondary Web URL". which is: mysitename.w0#.Winhost.com. Is this what I should be using for the Server name? Or should I just be using: w0#.Winhost.com? Or maybe even instead: ftp.mysitename.w0#.Winhost.com? (w0#... where the # is replaced by the real number of the server) I can't seem to connect.. so I don't know if it is the wrong input or just my PC. The application actually stopped responding after sitting trying to connect for awhile. I will try rebooting (after I finish this message), and try again, but in the mean time, I thought I would just check with you what the correct server name is to use. Thanks!
Log into your Winhost control panel and go to the Site Manager. Inside you will see the secondary URL address you can use.
Baby Steps! I have connected to my server. (just needed to reboot!) But there doesn't appear to be an option for the "HTTP Redirect". In the instructions, it says it will show up in the "Features View", but all I see is "URL rewrite". Is there something special I have to do to get the Redirection function enabled? Thanks again!
They called it Remote Admin Manager IIS7 1.0, but I looked at the 'about', and it says Internet Information Services (version: 7.0.6000.16386). Did I download the wrong thing?
I am assuming you are running Windows Vista or Windows 7, is that correct? Make sure that IIS 7 is also enabled on your computer. Try also looking at this link. http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/28/installing-iis-7-on-windows-vista-and-windows-7/
OK.. this is getting interesting. Yes, I use Windows Vista Business ver 6.0.6001, (x86 based PC) with Service Pack 1 installed, the Internet Information Services 7.0 Management Console installed. Just in case I had problems with the installation, I used the control panel links to get me to the correct installation link, and tried it again. Nothing changed for the rootwebsite.com connection.. still can only see "URL rewrite" in the feature list. So I tried to connect to the other site: email.com, and it worked perfectly.. I can see all the icons (under both asp.net & IIS) which include the "http redirect" icon. So, how can that be? Within the same PC, the same IIS Manager application, I have two connections, one works perfectly, the other only shows only one feature?? The connections do go to different servers. Is it possible that the 'feature-less' server just isn't set up correctly to be managed by IIS manager? How can I found out? If I give you the exact server names, can you look it up? Or do I need to contact tech support about this? Second question... when I go to the email.com connection.. and click on the "http redirect" icon as per you instructions earlier.. I can set things up to work perfectly. I was just wondering why you said to "Put a check mark on Redirect all requests to exact destination (instead of relative to destination)" ? It does work 'as advertised'. However, if I leave it unticked, then if I enter www.email.com/test.htm, it will correctly resolve to www.rootwebsite.com/test.htm. I think I like this option better. Is there some reason why this wasn't suggested? Does it mess up SEO stuff? Or is it just a preference thing?
Try bypassing all firewalls and antivirus software. Even bypass your router and connect directly to the Internet. I was following the instructions on the MSDN websites. I really did do a lot of experimenting with different settings.
Thanks for your suggestion, Ray. Winhost Tech Support also suggested that I delete my connection, and try again, making sure I download all the assemblies. I have been downloading those assemblies, each time I tried to create the connection to rootwebsite.com, all to no avail. But I went ahead, and did as both of you suggested, and I disconnect my firewall, my antivirus, and connect directly to the internet, then deleted my connections, and started again. Still only get the one module with the rootwebsite.com connection. I have attached a word doc that shows all the steps I took, what windows pop-upped and progress lines shown.. and even the file structure of where the modules were stored. Please look at it.. it shows that it thinks it is installing them. What is curious, is that when I connected to email.com after the first time I connected to rootwebsite.com, it never asked me for modules to download, and came straight up with all the modules showing.. so why is there such a difference between the two different connections. What is being done differently with w05 server than what is being done with the w04 server? If there was a problem with the firewall stopping the installation, then wouldn't it be affecting the email.com connection also? Or is the fact that the email.com connection never ask for the modules because they had already been downloaded the first time I tried connecting to rootwebsite.com? (ie: do they use the same modules files.. or are they physically different files downloaded for each connection?) However, each time I delete and try to recreate a connection with rootwebsite.com.. it keeps asking me to download these modules, like it doesn't think I have them. Hope you can see something in the attachment that will help!
