It works great, but I want to add a new function to the site that is server intensive, but I don't want it to bring down the domainname.com.
I was thinking about putting the new function on a new website. Something like domainname-server.com. But then I thought, "hmmmm... I wonder if I could sign up for 2nd hosting account, and have it setup something like server.domainname.com".
Is this something doable, and if so, would it be recommended or discouraged?
Is it something I change in my DNS settings?
Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Thanks
sign up for 2nd hosting account, and have it setup something like server.domainname.com".Is this something doable, and if so, would it be recommended or discouraged?
This is a subdomain. And it's the "correct", established, mainstream way of doing this.
Look at any big website (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, etc. etc. etc.) and you will find that they have their services set up like this.
There are other ways of dealing with your problem, and in some cases you might have no choice but to go with a more sophisticated solution - caching proxy, load-balancing, etc. (i.e. what do you do when your web site grows to a point where one server can no longer handle all of the traffic?)
But for a clearly distinct service being offered by your website, I'd do this whether or not it challenges the capacity of your webserver. There's a degree of future-proofing, as well as "branding" the service as distinct while at the same time making clear the association with your main site.
How you go about setting this up will vary depending on your DNS provider. But it's generally pretty easy and obvious.
I've continued to pursue this, even though its been like pulling teeth with my hosting and domain company.
However, I think I got it! I just wanted to post what I did incase there is a big flaw that I'm not aware of.
I opened up a new hosting account, with a dedicated ip address. Unfortunately, I had to associate this hosting account with a domain name (so I just used an unused .net variant of my domain name that I just used to forward to the .com. I'll setup the .htaccess file for the .net site to redirect direct requests there).
Then I went to my dns domain settings and added to my "A (Host)" list. The host is the name of my subdirectory, and that points to my ip address.
It seems to work fine. When I go to the sudomain, it seems to be like I wanted it.
Anybody have any comments of what I have done? Is it good, or should I be concerned about something?
Thanks
I called this a "subdomain". That's not exactly what you asked for. (But maybe the best way to do this - see below...) A subdomain would be going an extra level deep. i.e.
www.otheractivity.example.com
That's a bit more difficult to set-up. My apologies for any confusion.
I had to associate this hosting account with a domain name (so I just used an unused .net variant of my domain name that I just used to forward to the .com. I'll setup the .htaccess file for the .net site to redirect direct requests there).
That shouldn't be necessary. Just enter the name of your new site. e.g. otheractivity.example.com.
If that won't work, (and your host has made some bad assumptions about how their users will be setting-up their domains) then you may have to go ahead and set-up a subdomain. This WILL save you trouble later, though, if you need multiple web servers for your new activity.
You would go to your DNS setup, and create a subdomain. To do this, you need to add NS records in the parent domain (e.g. example.com) for the subdomain. You should already have NS records for example.com. You'll notice that the "name" field in these is blank. You need to add NS records, but this time fill-in the name field with "otheractivity".
Now, you add a new zone (domain). (Your DNS service may charge you a nominal fee for this, or you may have a quota of so many domains). You do this EXACTLY as if you had just gotten a new domain from a registrar. But, this time the domain name is otheractivity.example.com. You can then add A records for the base domain name (otheractivity.example.com. <- note the dot) and, if you so choose, www.
Once this is set up (wait for the DNS changes to take effect) your hosting account should have no problem with accepting "otheractivity.example.com" as a domain name.
With this technique, you will have:
example.com -> original website
www.example.com -> original website
otheractivity.example.com -> new website
www.otheractivity.example.com -> new website
It's more consistent, and it allows you at some point in the future to add www2.otheractivity.example.com, etc.
You SHOULD be able to do this without creating a subdomain, but there are going to be some problems with some web hosting companies. There's no problem with this on the DNS side, as you have already demonstrated.
In order to set-up a real subdomain, you will probably need to have a third-party DNS service. i.e. NOT the DNS that comes for free from your registrar, as they probably won't let you add the subdomain.
You probably should think a bit about where you are going with this. If you anticipate multiple servers for the new activity, you should set-up the subdomain now and save yourself the trouble later.
I would think of it this way - it is just another SERVICE (for example, forums) don't do it as a subdomain. forums.example.com. If it's an entirely new business activity (say, a division of a conglomerate), you might want to consider a subdomain.
Again, look around at the big websites, and see how they have broken up their websites and subdomains to get a feel for this.
Go to your new website setup where you entered the .net domain name. That's gotta go - it's just goofy! :) See if it will accept "otheractivity.example.com". If so, you are done.
If not, read the above response, and decide if you want to go the subdomain route or bug your hosting company to set things up so you can do this without needing to set up nameservers for a subdomain.
In EITHER case, you are going to wind-up with "otheractivity.example.com" where the .net domain name is now.
Works great. Thanks!
