How do I manage two domains on the same hosting package?

January 30, 2007 6:42 PM

I'm new to editing .htaccess files, and I'd like some help managing multiple domains on one hosting package.

I'm trying to setup a website for my wife - she's registered her own domain, and I offered to host it for her. But I can't for the life of me figure out how to get both of our domains to resolve on my hosting package.

As it is, my website (let's call it www.foo.com) is up and running. I want her domain (let's call this one www.bar.com) to resolve as that domain - all I can seem to figure out to do is set up bar.foo.com, which is not what I want.

I *think* this requires editing the .htaccess file, but I can't for the life of me figure out what I'd need to do. I can pay my web host to do this, but they're just going to put a frame around my wife's site and pull in content from a subdirectory, which seems unelegant and somehow backwards.

So - how do I get two domains running on one share of webspace? Thanks in advance

posted by rocketman to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

htaccess isn't enough. The hosting provider has to configure the webserver to know about it first. If your package doesn't let you host two domains, you can't do it on your own.
posted by mendel at 7:06 PM on January 30, 2007

.htaccess is enough, if mod_rewrite is available AND you're not using virtual hosting (i.e., you have your own IP address). Cheap hosting often uses virtual hosting (many domains on one IP address), and in that case this won't work.

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-3513-6042903.html

Your hosting provider sounds a little clueless, which is not really a good sign.
posted by jellicle at 7:11 PM on January 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

Yep, htaccess does not configure virtual hosts, which is what you're talking about doing. If your host uses cpanel and there isn't an option to add another domain then your package doesn't allow what you're trying to do, so you'll have to either get a new host or get a different package.
posted by Rhomboid at 7:30 PM on January 30, 2007

And I might add, that this is one of the main features (along with disk space and transfer) that shared web hosts use to discriminate their pricing packages, e.g. the starter will usually allow only one domain, the midrange will allow 5 or 10, and the top level or reseller package will allow unlimited domains.
posted by Rhomboid at 7:32 PM on January 30, 2007

This depends on the hosting package; not all of them let you do this. Insider Hosting has a few packages, on the pricey side but may be helpful.
posted by divabat at 9:45 PM on January 30, 2007