Forward using CNAME record

[Gary Wallis]

Henry Hartley wrote:
> My apologies if this gets to the list twice. I tried to post it through 
> the web interface but it seems to have been dropped by whatever 
> screening gets applied.
> 
> I'm not sure if I've misunderstood the use of CNAME or if I've simply 
> done something wrong.
> 
> I have two domains that I want to forward. One is working properly and 
> the other is not. In both cases I want users to enter a URL in their 
> browser (www.example.com) and be forwarded to a different system, where 
> the user has their site. In the working case, the forwarding it to 
> web.me.com so I have the following in my zone file:
> 
> www.example.com.   CNAME   web.me.com.
> 
> When you point your browser to www.example.com (obviously not
> "example") the page on web.me.com loads properly but www.example.com is 
> still displayed in the address bar.
> 
> In the second case, which is NOT working, I have a similar CNAME record 
> but instead of web.me.com, it's on tumblr.com. So, I have this (this is 
> the actual domain):
> 
> www.ioanamorosan.com.  CNAME   ioanamorosan.tumblr.com.
> 
> If you go directly to ioanamorosan.tumblr.com, the site loads, but if 
> you go to www.ioanamorosan.com, you get a tumblr.com 404 error page. The 
> browser still displays www.ioanamorosan.com in the address bar.
> 
> So, is this a situation where web.me.com is set up to recognize 
> www.example.com properly but tumblr.com is not? Or what?
> 
> Should I be able to do what I'm trying to do?
> 
> -- 
> Henry
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> 

Do not confuse your "forwarding" with HTTP rewriting.

One is just about DNS records (CNAME, A or otherwise.) The other happens 
on the server side (see Apache rewrite engine docs.)

Usually both must be setup correctly to achieve your "forwarding."

Cheers!
Gary