Linking and Domains

[TheRealTerry]

Looking in Google, www.domain.com has a different PageRank than domain.com (fictitious examples.) Given that people link to both variations, what is the best way to approach this? Is it beneficial or harmful to have domain.com 301 redirect to www.domain.com? Will that "consolidate" the PageRank, do nothing, or cause problem with other applications (FTP, Mail apps, etc...) that may use domain.com?

[specter]

Is it beneficial or harmful to have domain.com 301 redirect to www.domain.com? Will that "consolidate" the PageRank, do nothing, or cause problem with other applications (FTP, Mail apps, etc...) that may use domain.com?

Simply you cannot 301 from "domain.com" to "www.domain.com" because it is the same domain and the same host.You can only trust www.domain.com to avoid PR leaks.