[WEB4LIB] Re: Library Name in URL

[James Klock]

>At 9:39 AM -0800 3/5/1999, Howard HH HUME wrote:
>Good news!  What you're talking about is a "host name" (the library 
>part) rather than a "domain name" (the ndu.edu part).   The person in 
>charge of your router can make an entry for that host: every request 
>for that host will go to your web pages.  It's called "virtual 
>hosting" and almost every server and browser around supports it.

Thanks for pointing out that it's really a hostname (and not a domain) that
is in question.  However, while the person in charge of your router may
also administrate other functions which are relevant to your goal, the
router has nothing to do with creating the new host.  Recalling that
computers on the Internet care little about hostnames, but route all
traffic based on IP numbers, the creation of a new hostname within a domain
occurs within the Domain Name Server(s) for that domain.  See your DNS
administrator.

Incidentally, "virtual hosting" is handled by the web server (not the
browser), and while most web server software does support virtual hosting,
some doesn't, and if your doesn't, it's not neccesarily trivial to change
server software. 
Virtual hosting does not result in the creation of a new host per se
(there's no new computer which is serving any data).  Rather, an existing
host is referenced within the DNS under the new hostname.

Virtual hosting requires the cooperation of both your DNS administrator and
your web server administrator.  In many cases, these are the same person
(or at least the same department).  YMMV.

James