new domain

Involved Joined: Oct 09, 2006 Posts: 413 Location: UK

Ok, heres an idea, tell me if its impractical or wrong.

Purchase a 2nd domain name, have it redirect to our site hosted with Raven.

but, with a certain co we get free space, so have the name redirect but use the space for downloads storage.

is this possible?, obv download links would use the full na,e rather than the registered domain.
.
I dont know,, any advise would be good, im shooting ideas here.
Cheers

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 11:48 pm

Lets see if I understand you...

Is that correct?

If so, you would need to access the free webspace via the IP address instead of the domain name (if it has a dedicated IP), and via the IP address/~username if it has a shared IP (assuming your server is using lcpanel, I'm not familiar with windows hosting).
Example download link:

Quote:

http://IPaddress/~username/downloaddirectory/filename

As long as your hosting account stays active, it doesn't care whether you have a domain name pointed at it or not.
However, you free provider might. Many hosting companies forbid using free webspace as file/download servers. Check their TOS.

I don't think it is a good idea to give out your username, though. Domains are so inexpensive I would just get a new one, or just bag the free hosting.

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:42 am

you are correct in your assumptions. However the IP would not be given out. It will be used as a location embed into a game script, for the game to use for map downloads, so the recipient will never see where it comes from.
We currently have a domain pointed to a rather attractive package at RWH. But i was considering buying a 2nd domain, and it just so happens that it comes with some free space, that would be a shame to waste.
Its just a theory im working on.

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 9:19 am

Ah, fast ingame downloads. Got ya. We do that too.

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 11:02 pm

so is it a viable idea?

registered · Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 6:03 am

Couple things to consider:

1. Having multiple domains pointing to the same physical "content" is considered bad, bad, bad from a search engine optimization standpoint. They could penalize your site for duplicate content.

2. If you are linking directly to map images through and IMG tag with the SRC attribute, they WILL be able to see your IP address. Even if the site is hosting downloads that the browser will be "asked" to download, they can get your IP address. Trust me. Therefore, you will need to stream the binary data to them so that is looks as though it came from your primary domain.

I am pretty sure 2) is possible as long as your host (you'll need to check with Raven separately and I would suggest privately) has not locked down the ability to use remote file access type PHP functions.

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 9:15 am

there will be nothing 'viewable' to the average user on that server. All of the Files are encoded for the 'unreal' game engine. There will be no php scripts there. Its just a dump with tons of files and no real structure. The game server decides that you, the client require a missing file and it starts an automated procedure to get that file from my 'dump' All that the clients sees, is the 'Downloading...please wait' message, the next thing they see is the game. The problem is, this will impact on our bandwidth and loading speed at our RWH hosted site, if they go on a subdomain there.

I will definatly be talking to Raven as he is our main host, and i would want to make sure that it was setup properly, and causes minimal issues with my treasured website

Cheers Lads for the information.

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 11:25 am

wiz, correct concerning the game server downloads. Now maybe if their router is keeping logs that contain IP address' they would be able to find your IP address, but not from the game console.