I built a site around a .ca domain. Eventually I got the .com through a backorder. The registrar for the .com won't let me transfer to my .ca host company, so I did a URL re-direct through their control panel. When you type in the .com address, it automatically goes to the .ca site - which is what I wanted.
Today I typed in the .com address without the www, and it's an advertising page based on the content of my site. I did a who is and the owner comes up as me. Why can't I seem to redirect the non-www version of my address? Is it a completely separate address if it doesn't have the www?
Many thanks in advance!
Is it a completely separate address if it doesn't have the www
Technically speaking, yes - it can be an entirely different website.
So, you own the domain, but haven't configured it. I would suggest a visit to your .com registrar's control panel for the domain - you probably need to explicitly add an entry for the site without the www.
However, this is probably not the best approach.
First of all, there is no need to transfer the .com domain to your .ca host. In fact, I wouldn't recommend it. In fact, I prefer not getting domain registrations from a hosting company, who typically act as resellers for registrars. It is handy, though, to keep all your registrations with the same registrar.
But not your web host! There are many potential complications, which have been addressed here multiple times. For example, what happens if you have some kind of billing dispute with your host? Will they then hold your domain name hostage?
Anyway, back to the subject... The most obvious way to do this is to use the DNS service almost always provided for free by your registrar to set the A records for example.com and www.example.com to your web host. You can then do the redirection from .com to .ca (or vice-versa) on your own server.
Registrar-provided redirection service is one of the least understood aspects of hosting. There's nothing magical about it, and it has nothing to do with DNS, though it's often lumped-in with DNS services. Your registrar is simply operating a web server that does nothing but redirect. You set up the redirect and point your A records at the redirection server.
Seems silly to me - why have your users bouncing off of one server to another one? One more potential point of failure. The technique is useful, though, when used with low price/free hosting services that have no facility for redirection.
Added: Doh! bwnbwn already said this...
[edited by: Receptional_Andy at 8:22 pm (utc) on Sep. 12, 2007]
