Redirecting a broken URL (question from a non-techno person)

[Joseph S D Yao]

On Sun, Sep 17, 2000 at 03:43:51PM -0400, Robert J. O'Hara wrote:
> 
> Greetings, all.  I'm a non-techno web person who is trying to repair
> some damage caused by an idiot-bureaucrat-who-will-remain-nameless.
> 
> I used to run a web server I'll call "local.atschool.edu".  Most of the
> files on it pertained only to the "local" department, but I also ran a
> page off the server (I'll call it "local.atschool.edu/worldpage.html")
> that was a general net service that had been linked by more than 100
> sites around the world.  I moved from the local department to another
> department, and carefully set up a server-based redirect on the
> "local.atschool.edu" server so my old "worldpage.html" would redirect
> visitors to a new location ("newdept.atschool.edu/worldpage.html").  I
> left all the other stuff on "local.atschool.edu" in place to be
> maintained by the new folks in that department.
> 
> Enter the idiot-bureaucrat-who-will-remain-nameless.  He decided he
> didn't like the name "local.atschool.edu" so told the computer people to
> delete that name and he took the server off line completely, and moved
> some of the local files onto a different central server
> ("central.atschool.edu/local") and broke lots of other stuff.  The
> computer people, being friendly and helpful, did what the IBWWRN told
> them to do.  The result was that an important URL receiving hundreds of
> hits a day from around the world has now vanished, since the whole
> "local.atschool.edu" server doesn't even exist.
> 
> The question: is it possible to set something up in the DNS system
> (which I know almost nothing about) that will redirect a single URL
> ("local.atschool.edu/worldpage.html") to a new URL
> ("newdept.atschool.edu/worldpage.html")?  I know you can redirect a
> whole domain to a new location, but I just want to redirect a single
> file.  Is that possible?  Many thanks for any information anyone can provide.

This cannot be done.  DNS does not deal with URLs at all.  (Yet.)  Only
host names and information.

Why not ask the atschool.edu DNS people to create a new entry for
"local.atschool.edu", and make it an alias for "newdept.atschool.edu"?
The "worldpage.html" is, I assume, at the same location.  You could add
a link to "central.atschool.edu/local" as another helpful link in your
404 error page.

-- 
Joe Yao				jsdy at cospo.osis.gov - Joseph S. D. Yao
COSPO/OSIS Computer Support					EMT-B
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