Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Redirect

How to do a conditional redirect based on source location

Gomez_in_the_South — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 06:18:54 -0800

How can I do a redirect based on a users location, but only for the landing page of a website and not subfolders or files? We have a site: http://www.example.com. A country specific version of this site has been developed: http://aus.example.com/. This offers features specific to these users from Australia.

All traffic originating from Australia needs to be redirected to aus.example.com when visiting the landing page of http://www.example.com.

However, there are some special services provided by http://www.example.com:
http://www.example.com/freecarwash
http://www.example.com/submityourtaxes

These services are not provided by aus.example.com so all traffic to these pages need to be routed to www.example.com as usual.

In other words, how can I redirect only Australian traffic destined for the home page of http://www.example.com to aus.example.com but leave other traffic untouched.

Some relevant points:
1. The server for the subdomain aus.example.com is located in a different country to www.example.com.
2. A webserver / dns solution would be preferable to a page based solution.

redirecting Coldfusion without software installed

Foam Pants — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:56:48 -0800

My new webserver doesn't have Coldfusion so I am hosting my .cfm pages on another server. Can I redirect traffic to these new addresses using a .htaccess file or do I have to have the software installed to even get a redirect on a .cfm page? How would you do it?

Devices can't access Internet

clockworkjoe — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:00:29 -0800

My Tivo and 360 can no longer access the internet because my provider has set up a Terms of Service page that you have to click on through a web browser before it will let you access the internet. What can I do to get internet for my browser less devices? My apartment complex offers free internet access. However, when you connect to it, it redirects you to a page saying "You must agree to our terms of service. Click here to agree." Once you do that it sends you to 1.1.1.1/agree.cgi and then redirects you to Yahoo. Obviously this is no problem for my computer but my Tivo has stopped working since they began this change. I have a series 2 tivo I think (got it last year).

Portents of Porting Ports

jozxyqk — Sun, 24 May 2009 05:44:37 -0800

ApacheFilter: What's the easiest way to have a "default page" on an alternate port? I've got Comcast cable internet at home, and I run a web server with several VirtualHosts.
Thinking about switching to FiOS, where port 80 is blocked.
The simple solution is to move my web content over to a different port -- in this case 81.
I've already set up the server to Listen on both ports. That's the easy part.

What I want to do is, before port 80 goes away, put a special note and redirect notice when people access any of my pages, at any of my domains, at port 80, without having 2 different versions of every domain.

What is the easiest way to accomplish this?

It is Apache 2.2.3 on Ubuntu where I have full root privileges.

this webpage is for loading and unloading only. no bookmarking

cayla — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 07:26:49 -0800

Is there anyway with apache redirect's (mod_rewrite with a 301 rule) for the underlying web page to detect the redirect and run some JS or PHP (or anything really) to say, 'HEY USER!!! Ya you! Change your bookmarks please!'? I would like to change the domain name for a website I have and I can handle the actual rewrite rules just fine, but I would really like people to notice when they have been redirected so I can eventually phase out the old domain name.

Ideally, this could be bit of inline text above the banner for the web page. (Maybe I could make it blood red or blinking if I was feeling evil....)

I do *not* want to use pop-ups. Not web page pop-ups nor notification pop-ups. (You know, those 'OK or Cancel' ones). That would be annoying.

PS - I am aware that changing the domain name will kill page rank, etc. It is a very low traffic site and I am not concerned about that at all.

And now that I logically follow that through... It being low traffic, I guess this is a slightly moot question, but now that I am stumped it is going to bug me until I find an answer.

How to make a clean break without getting lost?

pantheON — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:34:00 -0800

How can I migrate my blog to a new domain without upsetting its Google ranking or breaking third party links? I've been running a blog on the Blogger service for the last year or so. In that time, numerous other publications (electronic and print) have linked/referred to the blog. Some may have linked to particular articles, but I'm less concerned about these links.

I am giving the site a facelift which includes moving it off of Blogger to its own domain. Is it possible to do this without upsetting the sites ranking in Google or breaking links from third parties? I do not want to have to start over in terms of my Google ranking. I would appreciate any advice on how to best accomplish this migration with those two goals in mind.

How do I make one X server display everything the same as another X server?

mathlete — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:42:51 -0800

How do I make one X server display everything the same as another X server? I have an X server with two screens, say foo:0.0 and foo:0.1. I have another X server with two screens, say bar:0.0 and bar:0.1.

I want screen bar:0.0 to display everything on screen foo:0.1. In other words, if anything is sent to foo:0.1, it should also be sent to bar:0.0. I'd prefer not to change either X configuration.

Is this possible? If so, what's the best way to do this?

How do I redirect all visitors to my site, before allowing them to continue to the URL they specified?

deeper red — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 01:33:01 -0800

How to I redirect all website visitors to a particular page, before allowing them to continue to the page they originally specified (i.e. the URL they originally typed)? I'd like this to be as low-tech as possible, although the server has PHP (I don't know PHP).

I'd better give an example:

1. Visitor A wants to visit blah.html
2. I want them to be redirected to foo.html, at the bottom of which is an autogenerated link to let them continue on to blah.html
3. Visitor A wants to visit fish.html
4. As with step 2 -- they're redirected to foo.html, at the bottom of which is a link to fish.html

How do I redirect subfolder URLs to subdomain URLs?

Cobbler — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:37:58 -0800

Apologies for asking a question that I know will be answered already on the web, somewhere, but I can't find it. I'm having trouble writing a .htaccess ReWrite rule that will forward requests for all folders within a specific sub-folder to the same folders at a subdomain - so http://www.mydomain.com/hello/foo/bar/ will forward to http://hello.mydomain.com/foo/bar/ Any advice very gratefully received.

Wayback Machine Plugin for ALL old/dead outbound links on a website?

bollockovnikov — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 01:19:17 -0800

My old website still gets a lot of hits. But many of the outbound links I posted years back are no longer valid, are dead or have changed location. Is there any way to integrate the Wayback Machine Internet Archive into my site's code so that links are redirected to the archive for the date they were originally posted? Ideally I would like an integrated plugin that directed old outbound links to their archived page on Wayback automatically. It would be great if visitors to the site hardly even knew their click had been redirected. I would like to implement it site-wide, so that either:

1. All outbound links were directed to the original date they were posted, or
2. If links are dead then the plugin kicks in and directs to the wayback archive, or
3. The plugin places a Wayback version of each link next to the original (something like: Original Link [archive])

(My site is a self-hosted blogger blog - the old version - if that makes a difference...)

Is there a way?

Redirect question, with a sweet twist.

miniminimarket — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:13:06 -0800

I'm moving Wordpress from www.mydomain.com to www.mydomain.com/blog, but I'm also putting in something new at root that I want people to see. Please .htaccess my brains out. I would like to move my Wordpress installation from www.mydomain.com to www.mydomain.com/blog, so I can put a sweet Sweetcron installation at root. After I move Wordpress, I want to make sure that all my pages map to their new URLS. For example, http://www.mydomain.com/2009/03/03/sample-post/ needs to go to http://www.mydomain.com/blog/2009/03/03/sample-post/

But! Since I'll have a new page at root, I do not want www.mydomain.com to redirect to www.mydomain.com/blog. I want people who land at www.mydomain.com/index.php to stay right where they are. I've tried tutorials, video tutorials, and htaccess generators, but nothing seems to work. This question doesn't cover it either. I know there's a combination of rules out there for me. Thanks in advance.

How do I make Firefox go to a page that I choose if I type a bad URL?

farmersckn — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:20:02 -0800

How do I make Firefox go to a page that I choose if I type a bad URL? This askmefi post has some potentially useful info but it does not apply in my case.

In Firefox 3.06, if I type a bad URL into my address bar, such as http://blah/ and instead of doing a google search or an error page, or showing me a url that I might have been attempting to reach, like blah.com, it takes me to this spam search page: "http://hwerror.hwpub.com/?ck=esb02oob60&et=1".

I have modified "keyword.url" in my about:config to do a google search on keywords (different than the default I'm feeling Lucky Search), but it has no effect when I type only a single word into my address bar and hit enter.

I have tried to disable "keyword.enabled" and that has no effect on this problem either.

I have run firefox in safe mode and it has the same result.

I have already switched my DNS server to OpenDNS and confirmed that it is working, so I do not believe that my ISP is re-routing my request.

It is interesting to me, that if I view source on the page, it shows a frameset, and only within that frameset does it pull in the url for the search page referenced above.

I believe that somewhere inside the code or configuration files, or possibly an extension, Firefox has been tweaked to do this to me. Is it possible for me to reconfigure it so that it does not happen?

I am already aware that I am causing this by typing a malformed URL, and that I can do keyword searches if I type two words into the address bar, and also that I can hit CTRL+ENTER to magically append ".com" to a single word in the address bar.

I just want to know if there is a way to put this intercept this redirect and put in my own to google or whatever I desire.

Thank you all.

URL rewrite in IIS7: make foo.com/bah/ redirect to example.com/foo/bah/

furtive — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 12:10:29 -0800

Help me with a URL rewrite in IIS7 I want to implement a rewrite in IIS that would allow the following without having to create a new rule for each one.

www.foo.com/books/ redirects to www.example.com/foo/books/
www.foo.com/films/ redirects to www.example.com/foo/films/
www.foo.com/etc/ redirects to www.example.com/foo/etc/
www.foo.com/etc/etc/ redirects to www.example.com/foo/etc/etc/

I am familiar with the steps in using url rewrite module in IIS7 if that makes passing on instructions a bit easier.

My redirect regex doesn't work. How can I fix it?

kirkaracha — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:23:51 -0800

My redirect regex doesn't work. How can I fix it? I need to redirect this URL:
http://pub.ucsf.edu/azlist/cache/index/submit_submit__searchtype_alpha__letter_Q.html
to this one:
http://www.ucsf.edu/azlist/sites/q/

In English, I want the old A-Z list page for Q to direct to the new A-Z list page for Q (and the same for the other letters of the alphabet).

I have this in my .htaccess in the azlist directory:

RewriteEngine on

RewriteRule ^/azlist/cache/index/submit_submit__searchtype_alpha__letter_[A-Za-z]{1}\.html

$ http://www.ucsf.edu/azlist/sites/$1/  [R=Permanent]

What I'm expecting to happen: either a redirect or a scary server error.
What happens instead: nothin'.

What am I doing wrong? Bonus question: how can I make the letter lowercase in the redirect?

Apple web server running Darwin with Linux/Apache 2.2.8.

Digital Immunodeficiency Disorder?

Rhaomi — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 17:44:21 -0800

My laptop's been infected by something that is interfering with all the usual solutions. Please help! After the recent hacking attempt that brought down Mefi, I scanned my laptop for any problems it may have picked up from it. AVG detected one threat, a trojan, which it promptly deleted. But that wasn't quick enough, apparently.

Now, my Windows XP setup is exhibiting weird behavior all around, and everything I've tried to do to fix it has been blocked. Here are all the symptoms:

Firewall - was originally turned off; I'm not sure for how long. I've since turned it back on.

Security software - AVG isn't detecting anything, but there's obviously something still wrong. Attempting to update the virus database throws an error. Most troubling, I cannot install the newest version of AVG as its website is blocked. Ditto for all the other major antivirus vendors -- trying to access their websites results in a page error.

Tech support sites - Same as above. Something is blocking all attempts to connect to the major tech help sites. I knew enough to check my hosts file, but can see no problems there. At least AskMe still works...

Google search - Searching Google for solutions leads to a standard results page. But when I click on a result, instead of going to the relevant page, it opens up a new tab and goes to a random spam site. This happens on Yahoo and other search sites as well. I can still get to the page I want by copying the URL and pasting, but it's slowing me down. And of course any link that points to a support site won't work.

Other browsers - I'd been using Firefox 3 up to this point, so I tried the other browsers on my system on the off chance they'd work better. No luck -- Google Chrome refuses to connect to *any* website, and Internet Explorer crashes immediately after launching.

System Restore - fed up with all the problems, I tried to roll back my system to a point before the infection. But to my great surprise, all the old system restore points have been deleted.

So to sum up: AV software is borked, security and support sites are blocked, searching is hampered, and I can't go back to an older system configuration. Any ideas?

PS: I know you are not my tech support, but like I said, all the more dedicated help sites I'd normally consult have been disappeared. Thanks for your time and patience!

Make my urls purty!

drjimmy11 — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:01:08 -0800

What's the best way for me to create human-readable urls for a Wordpress site? So I've taken a job converting a very static site to one that will use Wordpress as a CMS. A couple of key points up front:

1) We are 100% committed to using Wordpress. Thanks for respecting this.
2) I will NOT be making use of any wordpress theme or allowing users to go to any Wordpress pages at all. We are using it as a CMS on the backend, and on the frontend I will write custom php pages and queries to display what i want to display.

The site as it stands now has 1000s of articles in totally flat html pages. We want to get away from that for obvious reasons. My inclination is to create one page to use over and over again, so where the old url would've been like:

www.thesite.net/article_name.html

the new url would look like:

www.thesite.net/article.php?id=124

two issues with this:
1) the site is quite popular, so a lot of people have probably bookmarked old articles and I dont want those links to die when we remove all the flat html pages.

2) I would prefer people to see human-readable urls rather than ugly querystrings.

My first instinct would be to create a big redirect file (301), sending every old article url to the new format. This addresses point one but not point two, since after the redirect the user would still see the ugly url, right? (if not, please enlighten me!)

My other thought is to use the "ugly" article.php as an include inside a wrapper, so create "article_name.php" which contains nothing but a variable for the article id and a copy of the include which takes in that variable. problems with this are a) we still clutter up our server with 1000s of files, and b) I have non-tech people messing with code and ftp, which i'd rather not.

So, what is the solution? How does mefi get those awesome clean urls like "http://ask.metafilter.com/107722/Batch-Adding-Text-File-Name-to-JPEG-Images"?

I'm guessing "107722" and "Batch-Adding-Text-File-Name-to-JPEG-Images" are some sort of aliases and not literal folders on the server. Is this something automated that is beyond the power of Wordpress? I hope not.

thanks!

Can I get a local US number that redirects to an international number?

carofowler — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:50:19 -0800

I need to have a local US number that redirects to an international number. It doesn't have to be toll free. It should be able to redirect to a landline or a mobile phone. Any suggestions? I work overseas and sometimes travel, but most of the calls I get come from the US. I want to know if there is a service, a cost effective way to get a local line in the US that automatically redirects to my landline in Chile or my mobile phone. If I redirect it to a mobile phone, it should also keep working even if I travel with that phone to a different country. I'd greatly appreciate any recommendations. Thanks!

Usurping our old website's Google ranking for make benefit glorious new website

springbound — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 17:42:10 -0800

New website with a new address can't compete on Google against its previous incarnation, which has been up (at a different address) since forever. And we can't use a 301 (or any other) redirect. Is there anything else we can do? So I've recently developed a website for an academic journal. It's the first "real" website they've had. It'd be nice (to say the least) to have the site come up first when you type the journal's name into Google, but for years now the journal's editor has had a little info page up about it on the web space provided by the uni she's at; and as far as Google's concerned, that's the top-ranked site when you type in the name of her journal. That address has both longevity on its side and the fact that it's a .edu domain, which I understand translates into credibility. There's also, I suspect, going to be links from other academic sites to it, though I can't say for sure.

In a normal world I'd like to pop a 301 redirect on there: all that fabulous high ranking would flow to the new site and we'd be in business. Alas, the uni has an intermediate page (of the "You are now entering an area where opinions aren't necessarily the university's, etc etc" kind) and doesn't permit other redirects from staff accounts.

Given that we'd really like to hang onto that top Google position currently held by the old site if we can utilise that at all, what would you do?

Other pertinent details: The editor's pretty modest about the number of interested parties expected, so traffic following links may never count for much. Content's never going to change as (for now at least) it's just an information site (what the journal is, how to subscribe). Also the new domain is unfortunately an acronym.

Oh, that nasty Google Redirecting Virus

LSK — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:01:50 -0800

Oh, that nasty Google redirecting virus My computer recently acquired a bug. The symptoms:

- Google pages look normal but redirect to nasty sites.

- Computer runs very slowly.

- Certain sites do not load; namely, tech support sites. Hence, why I'm posting this here, as opposed to on a tech support site; I've looked at many, and tried what they suggested, but it doesn't seem to work.

As many sites suggested, I ran HijackThis. Here's my logfile:

Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.2
Scan saved at 4:59:11 AM, on 9/3/2008
Platform: Windows XP SP1 (WinNT 5.01.2600)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP1 (6.00.2800.1106)
Boot mode: Normal

Running processes:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\System32\brsvc01a.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\brss01a.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\igfxtray.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\hkcmd.exe
C:\Program Files\Apoint2K\Apoint.exe
C:\Program Files\TOSHIBA\TOSHIBA Controls\TFncKy.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\TFNF5.exe
C:\Program Files\TOSHIBA\Touch and Launch\PadExe.exe
C:\Program Files\TOSHIBA\TOSHIBA Zooming Utility\SmoothView.exe
C:\toshiba\ivp\ism\pinger.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\ctfmon.exe
C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 2.3\program\soffice.exe
C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 2.3\program\soffice.BIN
C:\Program Files\Apoint2K\Apntex.exe
C:\Program Files\Symantec\LiveUpdate\ALUSchedulerSv...
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VS7DEBUG\MDM.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\WgaTray.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\wuauclt.exe
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox 3 Beta 4\firefox.exe
C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe
C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\Iexplore.exe
C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis\HijackThis.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\dwwin.exe

R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.yahoo.com/
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://www.toshiba.com
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Connection Wizard,ShellNext = http://toshibadirect.com/
O2 - BHO: (no name) - AutorunsDisabled - (no file)
O2 - BHO: SSVHelper Class - {761497BB-D6F0-462C-B6EB-D4DAF1D92D43} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_02\bin\ssv.dll
O3 - Toolbar: &Radio - {8E718888-423F-11D2-876E-00A0C9082467} - C:\WINDOWS\System32\msdxm.ocx
O3 - Toolbar: (no name) - {4982D40A-C53B-4615-B15B-B5B5E98D167C} - (no file)
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [IgfxTray] C:\WINDOWS\System32\igfxtray.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [HotKeysCmds] C:\WINDOWS\System32\hkcmd.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Apoint] C:\Program Files\Apoint2K\Apoint.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [TFncKy] TFncKy.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [TFNF5] TFNF5.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [PadTouch] C:\Program Files\TOSHIBA\Touch and Launch\PadExe.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SmoothView] C:\Program Files\TOSHIBA\TOSHIBA Zooming Utility\SmoothView.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [TouchED] C:\Program Files\TOSHIBA\TouchED\TouchED.Exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Pinger] c:\toshiba\ivp\ism\pinger.exe /run
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [PRONoMgr.exe] c:\Program Files\Intel\PROSetWireless\NCS\PROSet\PR...
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [MSConfig] C:\WINDOWS\PCHealth\HelpCtr\Binaries\MSC... /auto
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [ctfmon.exe] C:\WINDOWS\System32\ctfmon.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [BitTorrent] "C:\Program Files\BitTorrent\bittorrent.exe" --force_start_minimized
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-19\..\Run: [AVG7_Run] C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVG7\avgw.exe /RUNONCE (User 'LOCAL SERVICE')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-20\..\Run: [AVG7_Run] C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVG7\avgw.exe /RUNONCE (User 'NETWORK SERVICE')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-18\..\Run: [AVG7_Run] C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVG7\avgw.exe /RUNONCE (User 'SYSTEM')
O4 - HKUS\.DEFAULT\..\Run: [AVG7_Run] C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVG7\avgw.exe /RUNONCE (User 'Default user')
O4 - Startup: OpenOffice.org 2.3.lnk = C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 2.3\program\quickstart.exe
O4 - Global Startup: AutorunsDisabled
O6 - HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Interne... Explorer\Control Panel present
O8 - Extra context menu item: &AOL Toolbar search - res://C:\Program Files\AOL Toolbar\toolbar.dll/SEARCH.HTML
O8 - Extra context menu item: E&xport to Microsoft Excel - res://C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\OFFICE11\EXCE...
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - AutorunsDisabled - (no file)
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_02\bin\ssv.dll
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Sun Java Console - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_02\bin\ssv.dll
O9 - Extra button: AOL Toolbar - {4982D40A-C53B-4615-B15B-B5B5E98D167C} - (no file)
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: AOL Toolbar - {4982D40A-C53B-4615-B15B-B5B5E98D167C} - (no file)
O9 - Extra button: Research - {92780B25-18CC-41C8-B9BE-3C9C571A8263} - C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\OFFICE11\REFIEBAR.D...
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {CD67F990-D8E9-11d2-98FE-00C0F0318AFE} - (no file)
O12 - Plugin for .spop: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\Plugins\NPDocBox.dll
O14 - IERESET.INF: START_PAGE_URL=http://www.toshiba.com

Redirecting a directory to a TLD?

entropicamericana — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:35:47 -0800

Having problems with a TLD that lives as a subdirectory. I have recently become responsible for maintaining an organization's website. I'm not a web guru by any means, this is just a small part of my duties.

We are part of a larger organization that is currently hosting our site on their server. (http://www.example.com) Our site is a subdirectory (foo/)... We have our own tld (foobar.com), but Google is currently only indexing us as www.example.com/foo. Is there a way we can have anybody who accesses us at example.com/foo be redirected so they are viewing us as foobar.com? The webserver is IIS 2003.

Can Gmail 'redirect,' ala Mail.app?

merlinmann — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:56:49 -0800

Can Gmail do something similar to the "Redirect" feature in OS X's Mail.app? I'd like for my assistant to be able to Redirect (rather than Forward) time-sensitive messages that were sent to my public Gmail address.

Redirected email (as it works in Mail.app) resends the exact/original message you received, changing only the "To:" address to whatever you like. The message that new recipient receives is, for my purposes, indistinguishable from the true original.

This would make it so much easier for me to respond to the original message -- right now, when a message is forwarded, I have to fish the sender's address out of the quoted message plus trim out all the extraneous stuff before I can start composing a response. Hitting "cmd-r" in Mail.app would obviously be a lot faster for me.

Can you do Redirecting with a stock Gmail setup? If there's nothing official in Gmail to do this, can you suggest a Firefox extension or GreaseMonkey script that might help accomplish what I'm looking for? My friend is using Gmail with Firefox on Windows Vista.

Why is my computer taking me where I don't want to go?

benjh — Fri, 02 May 2008 06:44:27 -0800

Why does my Windows XP machine keep trying to route my computer names to capiqcorp.net On my work PC, I am running Windows XP through Nortel VPN. Even when logged into VPN, my machine keeps trying to route me to another address. For example, if I type in "ping machinename" in the command line, it then routes to "ping machinename.capiqcorp.net", and when entered into the web browser, routes me to one of those catch-all spam link pages.

I have temporarily worked around this by using my corporate DNS server's IP addresses into the network adapter, which then requires me to connect to VPN using an IP address instead of the server name, and also prevents me from accessing anything on the Internet when not logged into VPN.

I have run several different spyware packages, and have been unable to find anything that might be causing this problem. I also checks my hosts file in the winnt folder, but nothing looks to be amiss there.

A did suspect it might be ISP issue, but I also plugged my personal mac into my home office router, and I have no such issues.

Redirects & Mediawiki.

Pronoiac — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:25:27 -0800

I have a private wiki, & I'd like to keep it from showing up in server logs. Specifically, I'd like to strip out the referrer information by having external links go through a redirect. How do I have Mediawiki munge external links to include the redirector? Also, would using a redirect really do what I want, or does this really vary by browser?

Help me redirect my old URLs

Blandanomics — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:50:33 -0800

Help me redirect my old URLs. So we switched sites. The old URL structure was:

http://www.domain.com/media/paper143/news/2005/03/22/OutAndAbout/My.Old.South.Philly.Home-899896.shtml

The new one is http://domain.com/2005/03/22/My-Old-South-Philly-Home

What is the easiest way to redirect the old to the new? Is there any way?(the old url is from an old CMS the new one is Wordpress)

How do I reposition myself and jumpstart my life?

t2urner — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:03:01 -0800

A series of interrelated mental and physical illnesses turned my life (and the time I spent in law school) into what can best be described as an out-of-body experience. Four years later, I'm beginning to come out of it--I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it's not an oncoming train. It's pretty obvious (to me, if not to a few people who believe in me and/or my talents) that finding a position at a firm is out of the question. Which leaves another question: am I out of my mind to think that I can, via the magic of another graduate degree, reposition myself and get the career I'd hoped for before the psychological bottom fell out? The short(-ish) version: I was initially diagnosed as being severely depressed several months before beginning law school. Meds didn't help--and we tried several. I'd be fine for a couple of months, but would then crash. The crash left me feeling more depressed than I'd felt before taking the prescription meds; I also suffered anxiety attacks, an inability to concentrate for any length of time...all of which just killed me academically.

Before you ask: scholarship and financial aid issues kept me from taking a leave of absence; all I could do was to try and soldier on and hope things would improve. They didn't. Friends, acquaintances and professors who weren't aware of what was going on would occasionally give me the "What the #@$% is going on with this guy?" look, which I noticed in the manner of someone thinking, "I'm about to be punched; this is going to hurt" a millisecond or two after fist meets face. There was a half-hearted suicide attempt; there were several lengthy conversations with therapists and the Dean of my school, who ended up encouraging me to hang in there, just get across the finish line, you'll feel such a sense of accomplishment at having completed the task given everything you've gone through...and to tell the truth, for one brief afternoon (commencement day) I actually had that feeling. I hadn't done well at all, but I hadn't quit, either. But looking back at it, I wonder what, if anything, I accomplished by crawling across the "I have a law degree from one of the top ten schools in the country" finish line.

Because here I am, a few years later, and...it looks like the medical profession is finally beginning to figure out what has been--is--wrong with me. Some combination of a mild form of MS, chemical depression, and sleep apnea . Those of you in the know about these things are raising your eyebrows at this point, because you know that some of the neurological bits and pieces that mark MS can also be indicators for sleep apnea; the sleep apnea can be the cause of many of the symptoms that can also lead to a diagnosis of depression, et cetera. Is it one? Is it the other? Perhaps all of the above? On the one hand, I kinda sorta have an idea as to what's going on. On the other, I'm more confused (and frustrated) that I don't have a single definitive answer. But I'm getting there. I have a good doctor and two neurologists who seem to be brimming with "I can't believe they didn't figure this out earlier" confidence, and so I'm hopeful that I can get my life back on track--"back on track" meaning that I can start being as productive and mentally aware of things as I was before the bottom dropped out.

Which brings me to the career question. The combination of my having been absent from the legal world altogether since law school and the grades received while attending law school more or less precludes my becoming a lawyer. I went through the usual slew of law firm interviews before, during and after my third year of law school. I'd make it to, say, the visit the firm stage of things when someone would finally say something along the lines of, "You're obviously [fill in the blanks with intellectual compliment here]...what happened during law school?" Well, how do you answer a question like that---how do you tell a potential employer in an area where your brain is the most important tool of the trade that yours was broken for several years, but that it's better now, and you can do the work if given the opportunity? I'm not sure if I can.

So I'm thinking of doing two things: [1] taking the Bar Exam in July, and [2] taking the GMAT. Doing the former is more for personal reasons than anything else--I want to prove something to myself--; doing the latter, I think, will allow me to leverage myself into a consulting position somewhere, jumpstart my career, and allow me to prove to potential employers (via that wonderful piece of paper known as an academic transcript) that I'm normal. I've always been the mediator/arbitrator/counselor in a given situation, professionally and personally; I'm thinking that an MBA with a concentration in something along the lines of change management is the right way to go. And given the economy, this might be the right time to retool/retrain and be ready for whatever comes next.

All of this, of course, assumes that over the next few months I begin to come back around medically. I'm making plans, which I suppose is a good thing. Somebody out there has to have experienced something like this. But even if you haven't, I'd like an opinion or three: am I out of my mind to be thinking like this re: professional planning? Comments? Suggestions?

Please keep the snark to a minimum, thanks.