SE's only list old domain name

How can I persuade search engines to list the new (preferred) .com name

[Rhys]

When my site was first set up, the dot com name was not available, but I have since aquired it. As the names availability has changed, I have new names pointing at the Website.
How can I persuade search engines to list the new (preferred) .com name, so I can phase out the old name?
There are three URL's that work :
ourtown2.co.nz
ourtown.net
ourtown.com
and SE's seem to list any of the names at random. For obvious reasons, I want to kill the two old names, but am reluctant to let them lapse, while they are appearing regularly in search results.

[Marcia]

You could use mod rewrite. You don't want to just point from the registar, that's generally a 302, temporary redirect. You'll want a 301 permanaent redirect for the old domains to the new.

If there's decent PR or a good amount of links to the old you might not want to let them expire, they could end up in the wrong hands.

[Rhys]

Thanks Marcia -
I can't get my head around this idea...
If I put a .htaccess redirect into the root directory, E.G.:
Redirect 301 index.htm
[mytown.com...]
I just get an "Internal Server Error"
As does this variation -
Redirect 301 [mytown.net...]
[mytown.com...]
Is there another way to do this?
Thanks again - Rhys

[nancyb]

try putting a forward slash in front of "index" and that should work - except if all the domains are on the same server.

If so, you might want to take a look at this [linuxgazette.com...]

[jdMorgan]

Rhys,

You may end up with an infinite loop using Redirect, because it can't tell if you are already in the correct domain or not. See message numbers 6 & 7 in this thread [webmasterworld.com] for a method of redirecting all domains to one "standard" domain, while retaining the originally-requested page name.

You'll also need to try to get as many external links as possible changed to use your standard domain name. Retain the others for existing "branding" only.

Jim

[nancyb]

aw, geez, I thought I could help. Thankfully Jim was around to set it right! :)

[Rhys]

Yeeeehaa...
Hey that is some kind of magic - Whatever domain address I enter now resolves to mytown.com.
For the benefit of anybody else who needs this fix - This is the .htaccess code :

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST}!^www\.mytown\.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) [mytown.com...] [R=301,L]
Thank you team - :) :)
P.S. Don't forget to put a space after the curly bracket and in front of the! mark.