turn off website, leave on email?

[michaellunsford]

I'd like all port 80 traffic to be directed to my primary domain on the server, but the email to remain where it is (on the same server). Is this easy, or do I need to delete the website and load different html to where it is now?

 

[PSCGi]

I know you can get a really basic auto-redirect script that'll work, we've done that with a few domains that have gone dead over the years and also as a redirect where we use a subdomain, but have it go elsewhere to find actual content. So Google that, it's like a one-liner but you can add text in case their browser falses out to indicate where you were intending on sending them and to report the error so you can possibly fix it.

But in Plesk, as long as you have the mail.domain.com DNS entries intact and just 'alias' the domain somewhere else, I believe you can set the same effect up in Plesk? Might even retain the original domain name while showing them the new destination. Hadn't gotten around to it yet myself.

 

[michaellunsford]

fixed (sort of)

well, I went ahead with my .htaccess redirect of all traffic to a symbolic link. The symbolic link is setup to hotlink images and stylesheets, so it works. And it should be relatively easy to turn off later, if necessary.

I haven't ruled out changing the DNS on the server to accommodate this - I just get nervous when messing with DNS settings.

 

[PSCGi]

DNS? DNS is easy...

DNS should be the last of your worries - it's one of the few things that you point, it works. As long as your DNS records worldwide point to your box, whatever you specify on the DNS settings will be considered gospel. Takes 24-48 hours on average to propagate around, so don't freak if it doesn't work right away but as mentioned if all your DNS points to your DNS namerservers (NS's) on only your box (as in you don't use backup DNS) then what you change should change instantly.

Figure it's the giant Net phone book. If all the directories point only to your phone # (IP, your NS's on the box) then all the calls will only go there. So if you change something where the phone 'rings' and not change the phone # itself - then you're in control and whatever's supposed to happen at your location rules. Like an answering system that answers the call or redirects it, etc. - you make the decisions.

If you have backup DNS, the changes make take longer. If you change the IP's completely, obviously it takes time to update all the 'phonebooks' in the World and therefore 24-48 hours propagation.

That's why I mentioned leave the DNS for the mail.domain.com part be and just redirect the DNS settings for the domain elsewhere. Or, more preferably, just what you did with .htaccess. The script version works the same way, has a backup for browsers that freak out and don't get or can't run the script so people end up in the same place. Many settings in Plesk also have Domain Alias stuff to do this but there's questions as to what the fool mail service then does if you Aliased it to change the HTTP destinations.