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iancom:
fuckmicrosoft.com is the domain, not the host.

[www|forums].fuckmicrosoft.com are the hosts.

Virtual hosting is supported in the HTTP/1.1 protocol where the browser sends the server the name of the host it is requesting, and the server will give out a different homepage to a client that requests "tom.cat.net" from that which it gives out to "jerry.mouse.com". This makes it look like there are two physical machines whereas there is really only one. (This assumes that DNS records for both hostnames resolve to the same IP address!)

Calum:
(dummy mode on)
oh, right...

so, and forgive me here please, does this mean that the IP address will be the same, but the actual server that those sites are on will serve up a site from a different directory purely depending on the actual domain name?

(dummy mode off)

iancom:
Not sure if you're being sarcastic there, Calum!

Assuming you are... anyway yes, except that it serves up from a different directory dependent up on the fully qualified hostname, not just the domain name.

I realise I'm being a little pedantic here, but a system whereby additional hosts are setup in DNS within the same domain, pointing to separate hosts is not really virtual hosting as such since each is a host within its own right.

If those hosts setup within the domain were all served from the same physical host, then it would be virtual hosting...

Calum:
no, no, i usually am being a bit sarcastic, but i didn't mean to imply that you were being pedantic. vhosts is one of those things that, while simple i'm sure, i find it difficult to wrap my brain around, and i bet i'm not the only one!

iancom:
Sorry! It took me a while when I first encountered them, but then I spent ages wrestling with httpd.conf to get my head round the virtual hosts configuration of Apache when I was doing my RHCE, so it kind of stuck after that.

To all intents and purposes to the casual observer there probably isn't really much appreciable difference between assigning additional physical hosts to a DNS domain and virtual hosting. That said, in the early years (well, about five years ago!) I learned most of what I know now almost exclusively through forums like this and I'm assuming there are others in a similar position now... thought it worthwhile to point out the distinction!

Cheers

Ian

[ April 25, 2002: Message edited by: IanC ]

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