Question Details	Asked By	Asked On
Hosting plan for 2 domains !	forare	04/28/03
I have my own domain name and a hosting plan of unlimited web space. Now I am thinking to buy another domain name so my question is that can I use my existing hosting plan for my new domain as well so I can get benefit of the free space that I have for the two existing domains? Thank you T
Answered By		Answered On
voiceguy2000		04/30/03
My web host (FutureQuest) offers two versions of what you are describing. The first they call "overlay." With this, up to nine additional domain names can point to the same "base" home page, and show identical contents. However, in the visitor's browser, the actual domain name that they type in will be displayed throughout the site. Thus, if you had a basic web site called www.goodideas.com, you could point up to nine additional domains to the same content. For instance, you could also have www.greatideas.com and www.excellentideas.com and www.terrificideas.com and so forth, all pointing to the same content. FutureQuest charges a modest setup fee for each of these, but there is no ongoing monthly fee. The second offering is called "mapping." This redirects an incoming web request to a designated subdirectory on your site, which is used to house this separate site. Futurequest allows its users to have up to five of these. To continue my example, you might have a domain called www.myfavorite movies.com, and point it to a subdirectory of www.goodideas.com. I tend to give these subdirectories two- or three-letter names, so this one you might call "mfm." Within the mfm subdirectory you would place the index.html page for the movies site, and all the related content. In effect, when someone types in www.myfavoritemovies.com, they will reach the home page in your mfm directory (i.e., the actual path will be www.goodideas.com/mfm/index.html), and as far as they can see it is a standalone site because "myfavoritemovies.com" will display in their browser. You can put up your own error page for this domain so that a 404 error won't kick them back out into the www.goodideas.com site. There are certain services, such as MySQL access, that are not available from these internal-redirect-mapping sites, but they are usually not of consequence to typical users. If you need these kinds of services on one of the sites, that site needs to be the top level site in your collection (i.e., goodideas.com in this example). There are web hosts out there who specialize in offering this kind of internal-redirect hosting, so that you can have a bunch of sites sharing the same block of server space. This is handy for people who are offering "mini-site" promotions, and do not need particularly large or complicated sites. (The typical mini-site will have a main page with a lengthy sales letter, a couple of sub-pages with, say, testimonials, FAQs, or other supporting information, and an order page. None of these things takes up much room.) I cannot recommend any particular one because I am not familiar enough with them. If you are interested in pursuing this path, one way to compile a list of candidate hosts is to do a WHOIS query on any mini-sites you know about, and then visit the listed web host. Every web host has different polices about these things, and the pricing is truly all over the map. Some hosts do not offer this at all. In broad terms, you tend to get what you pay for, at least once you move above the really marginal operators who charge so little that they cannot afford decent equipment or service levels. If you require dependable service on these sites (for selling products, for example), you are going to be looking at $20 - $25/month hosting fees at the low end, plus any additional charges related to any e-commerce services you may choose to add. It would not be unusual to spend $50 to $100 per month, or more, for industrial-strength hosting that includes shopping cart and other capabilities. If you are not in that league (yet), you should be able to find something satisfactory in the $20 - $25/month range.

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