how do I become the master of my own domain?

[skipshady]

So here's my deal. I'm trying to start my bloggish/photo gallery site, just for shits and giggles. And it would be nice to have my own domain. Now, I understand that I can register a domain for a fee. What do I need after that?

I have a Mac.com account that I'd like to keep, since it's nicely integrated with my desktop. But if I use the mac.com server, would I be able to use my domain? As in, can people type in www.mystupidsite.com and connect to homepage.mac.com/myname/mystupidsite/? And can I have hompeage.mac.com/myname/mystupidsite/stuff show up as www.mystupidsite.com/stuff/?

Thanks.

[Dante]

You can register your site, i.e. skipshady.com and have the url be redirected to your homepage.mac.com site.

That way I type in www.skipshady.com and it will automatically bring me to homepage.mac.com/skipshady

Or you can just pay $55 a year and have your site hosted.

[Foosinho]

Originally posted by skipshady
As in, can people type in www.mystupidsite.com and connect to homepage.mac.com/myname/mystupidsite/?

You could have a redirect. Not sure if you can do that with any kind of free service, but the actual work involved is very little.

And can I have hompeage.mac.com/myname/mystupidsite/stuff show up as www.mystupidsite.com/stuff/?

Yes. As a matter of fact, my webmail interface on my home machine does exactly this - you go to mail.kutchered.com, but that's not the machine/port the mail server is running on. I did it with an Apache reverse proxy. In order to set this up you do need access to Apache config files somewhere.

If you have a static, or mostly so, IP over DSL or cable modem, you could set up Apache (or some other webserver) and use it to proxy (or redirect) to your Mac site. It's actually pretty easy.

[skipshady]

Originally posted by Foosinho
Yes. As a matter of fact, my webmail interface on my home machine does exactly this - you go to mail.kutchered.com, but that's not the machine/port the mail server is running on. I did it with an Apache reverse proxy. In order to set this up you do need access to Apache config files somewhere.

If you have a static, or mostly so, IP over DSL or cable modem, you could set up Apache (or some other webserver) and use it to proxy (or redirect) to your Mac site. It's actually pretty easy. Interesting. I'll look into this. Though getting my own domain is completely for looks, so while it would be nice, it's not something I'll invest a lot of money and labor on.

[Foosinho]

Originally posted by skipshady
Interesting. I'll look into this. Though getting my own domain is completely for looks, so while it would be nice, it's not something I'll invest a lot of money and labor on.

If you already have DSL/cable, and it's always on, it's actually nearly costless to host your own domain. And if you proxied the site, it'd be completely transparent to visitors - they'd never realize they weren't on skipshady.org. Just use xname.org as your name servers, run Apache for free on your always-on PC, and use xname's DNS update script to handle any IP changes and you'll be golden.

[Premium Hamatachi redded]

i registered my domain at web.com for free for one year. i later switched my server to webmasters.com $10/mo with lots of function including fp server expansion, cgi, asp, etc etc. i thought you can point the dns to any kind of servers as long as you have account with them. no?

[panicfc]

I use pronicsolutions.com

Great customer service.

[Dante]

I use icdsoft.com, great price, great customer service and great offerings.