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web site directing to .mac? I want to save some $

Kyle Nerder

Kyle Nerder

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 14, 2005
189
0
Toronto
Hey Everyone,

Maybe someone can point me in the right direction....

I need to re-new my domain name. It just expired. I would like to try and save some $ along the way. If I buy a .mac subscription, can I point my domain space to the .mac web space?

If so how? Really all I need is to own a domain name and have web space.

Thanks a bunch!
 
If you buy your domain name from a company such as NameCheap, they offer a free redirecting service, in such that you can set an option that looks like:

If someone types in ________.ext, forward them to _________________.

Lots of other domain registrars offer this as well.

EDIT: Redirecting visitors to the .Mac site can be done 2 different ways with most registrars. You can either do a Frameset (aka Cloak) or a plain redirect. With a redirect, the visitor's address bar will show the homepage.mac.com/you address after they've typed in your regular domain and pressed enter. With a Cloak, your domain name is shown in the address bar the whole time. A downside to the latter is that people can not simple copy and paste a link to a certain page that they're on, since "blah.com" is always shown, never with anything else (i.e. no matter what's clicked, "blah.com" is always shown, no filenames or anything after it (no blah.com/page2.html or anything)).

If you don't need the .Mac service, it's probably better to go with a regular host and set your domain on their name servers. This would be more of a true hosting experience. If you would rather do .Mac, I would recommend the simple redirect, not cloaking.
 
I need to re-new my domain name. It just expired. I would like to try and save some $ along the way. If I buy a .mac subscription, can I point my domain space to the .mac web space?
Click to expand...
.Mac isn't really designed for web hosting (other than a posting a few photos and family videos) and unless you actually need the other features, it won't save you money. I would recommend TJR Networks or Myacen for hosting. Their plans don't have the same limitations as .Mac does eg. you can host the domain rather than having to involve a third party to mask it, plus you get PHP, MySQL, Fantastico etc etc etc. :)
 
I do the "cloaking" or "masking" thing that itasor was talking about, and it works well. I designed my website with Rapidweaver ($35.00), then changed out the banner ad using dreamweaver, and exported my site to .mac. Rapidweaver is designed to work well with .mac.

I bought my domain name (for my nephew's site) from godaddy.com, and they forward and "mask" the name for free. You can see how it works here:
The website is www.hudsonhosni.com .

Notice that in the address? bar at the bottom of the browser it shows you where it is taking you (to my .mac account) but the address bar at the top stays the same.
 
Here are the reasons I would recommend avoiding masking:

1) You can't bookmark specific pages on the site, all bookmarks will end up at the site index.
2) You don't have full control over the email accounts associated with your domain.
3) It is very amature/unprofessional.

Masking should be a last resort rather than a choice.
 
theappleguy said:
Here are the reasons I would recommend avoiding masking:

1) You can't bookmark specific pages on the site, all bookmarks will end up at the site index.
2) You don't have full control over the email accounts associated with your domain.
3) It is very amature/unprofessional.

Masking should be a last resort rather than a choice.
Click to expand...

While I agree that masking isn't the best choice (I think it's better to do the URL redirect, then people can remember your site by the domain, but bookmark pages/etc. with the homepage.mac.com link)...

1) Very true. Another thing you can't do is give a link using your domain to a specific page. If you're very technical however, you can make the actual links on your site use the domain.com/page and it'll work, but I'm not going into that, that's a "complicated job".

2) Yes you do. If you register it with a company that provides e-mail, you have full control...

However, if they're using .Mac as hosting, they're probably not interested in @domain.com e-mail and are more interested in @mac.com e-mail.

3) I don't agree. While I would never do it, I don't see it as unprofessional. On the other hand.... .Mac hosting is far from professional...

Summary: Using either .Mac + yourdomain.com (redirect OR cloak) should work out great for you and let you do everything you need!
 
theappleguy said:
Here are the reasons I would recommend avoiding masking:

1) You can't bookmark specific pages on the site, all bookmarks will end up at the site index.
2) You don't have full control over the email accounts associated with your domain.
3) It is very amature/unprofessional.

Masking should be a last resort rather than a choice.
Click to expand...

Since I am an "amature" [read: not professional, my first website], I would highly recommend it. I'm not sure there are many people bookmarking my site, and I don't have multiple email accounts, so I guess it'll be alright. If you are buying .mac, it is a way to save money.

I agree with appleguy that if you are developing a professional website, then I would not recommend you mask the site for said reasons.
 
Obviously many of the points noted by other users should be taken into account because aside from the technical factors, much of it is opinion, but there does seem to be a common misconception here (and maybe I am misunderstanding what people are saying):

If you are buying .mac, it is a way to save money.
Click to expand...
Using a .Mac account for your website is cheaper if you already have a .Mac account that you use for other things as well, but if you are buying one just for your website then it is going to cost you more (that might be what you mean, but I just though I would clarify). For a typical small to medium website you should only be paying around $30 per year for fully featured hosting - more if you want 24/7 tech support but I don't think .Mac offers that anyway.

It's just something to consider but if you are planning on using iWeb I think there may be some features that are restricted to .Mac so that would be something to check before heading off in a different direction. :)
 
Anyone else think it's funny how this thread shows up on the front page? With the dollar sign at the end, it looks like the number of posts is a dollar amount. Right now it looks like you're trying to save $10 (or I guess $11 now that I've added).

Sorry for the useless post, but what the heck. :p
 
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