Re: [cobalt-users] setting up subdomains

[Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Haydn Smith wrote:

> I've been following the list for over two months now
> and have searched the Knowledge Base which is a little unclear.
> 
> Question:
> 
> How is the following subdomain set up (if at all possible)?
> 
> http://subdomain.domain.com

The unclarity is probably based on a misunderstanding of what represents
a subdomain, what represents a hostname, and what represents a
servicename.

If you're setting up a website at "anything.domain.com" then it's not
really a subdomain, but a service name.  Other common service names are
"www", and "ftp", to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

The RaQ documentation confuses service names and hostnames.  Actually
there's only one hostname on your RaQ, and that's what you enter as
hostname when you set up the main site on the RaQ.

When you type "www" into the RaQ's "hostname" field for other domains,
you're really setting up a service, for example "www" is a service at
domain "domain.com".

So when setting up other sites, just think it out.  You can't have a
service running at a subdomain because a subdomain is really just a
domain.  You can redirect subdomain traffic directly to a particular
service (which is then directed to a particular host by DNS).  To do
that you set up a new site, entering "www" (the service) where the RaQ
is asking for a hostname, and anything.domain.com where the RaQ is
asking for the domain name.  (To understand this better think of domains
in the United Kingdom [England], for example:  I deal with a company
called fastraq.co.uk.  In this example, "." is the top level domain
[really... if you don't believe me, look it up in a good DNS book], the
second-level domain [usually incorrectly called a TLD or
"top-level-domain"] is "uk", "co" is a subdomain of "uk", and "fastraq"
is a subdomain of "co".)

This is the "right" way to do it, and if you do it this way you can get
mail at "anything.domain.com" as well as webservice at
"www.anything.domain.com".  However, and for many of us, including me,
it's a very big however... So we check the "Web Access by Domain" field
(it's done sightly differently on a RaQ4), and then the domain
(anything.domain.com" doesn't need the "www" in front of it in order for
it to work.

But since neither you, nor I, nor your RaQ, nor in fact anyone in the
world, can tell the difference, you can also call "anything" the service
name, and put it into the "hostname" field, and put "domain.com" into
the domain field.  If you do this you must make certain to NOT check
"accept mail for domain".

Simple, eh <smile>.

And now that I've given you the simple reply, let me point out that I
did oversimplify a bit, to avoid pointing out the schizophrenic behavior
of your Raq.  You see, when you set up a website, and enter a "service"
name into what the RaQ calls a "host name", it really treats it as a
service name only for the website.  For email, it treats it as a
subdomain name anyway, even though it doesn't say that anywhere.  So
remember, above, where I said if you do it the "right" way you can get
email at "anything.domain.com" if you do it that way?  Because of the
RaQ's schizophrenic behavior, you can also get email at
"anything.domain.com" if you do it the second way.

Is this complicated?  No.

Does the Raq implementation and nomenclature make it seem more
complicated than it is?  Imho, yes.

Jeff
-- 
Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
nobaloney.net
P. O. Box 52672
Riverside, CA  92517
voice: (909) 787-8589  *  fax: (909) 782-0205