Hi, I've set up a website through my college's computer system, but
I'd like to be able to give people a vanity web address, like
my-name.com, that would redirect to my college web-address.  How do I
register a website and point it where I want it?  And is there any way
to keep my vanity web address in users' browser bar as they go through
my site?  Thanks.

Hello Sidesway

To have your own vanity web address you will need to register it with
a domain name registration company (who will do the hard work of
registering it for a small annual fee).  There are a number of
different domain name registration websites on the net and each
normally allow you to redirect this domain name to any site you wish
(your college site in your case).

It is best to shop around when looking to buy your domain name as some
sites are cheaper than others.

Some of the more well known registrars are:

https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/default.asp
http://support.register.com/cgi-bin/register.cfg/php/enduser/entry.php
http://www.networksolutions.com/en_US/name-it/

You can find more by searching on IceRocket.com (or Google.com if you prefer):
http://www.icerocket.com/search?tab=web&q=%22domain+name%22+registration

For instance the GoDaddy website above gives you free web forwarding
and web masking.  Web forwarding is when someone types in your domain
name - www.my-name.com - and then they are forwarded to your college
website, the name in the browser will then change.  Web masking is
when they type in www.my-name.com and the name in the browser does not
change (which is what I think you wanted).

Network Solutions charges you for this facility as do many other sites
so it is important that you check the small print *before* you commit
yourself to anyone.  They may sell you your vanity web address for a
cheap price but then charge you extra for other facilities!

If you wish me to check that the registrar you decide to go with has
the facilities you require or need any further help on this subject
please ask for clarification and I will do my best to help.

---

Clarification of Answer by palitoy-ga on 10 Aug 2004 04:58 PDT

Thanks for the 5-star rating and tip, they are both appreciated.

Domainmonger.com appears to only offer you URL forwarding.  This would
mean your http://my-domain.com that the user types in would change to
http://college.edu/~username when they went to your site.  If this is
OK then domainmonger.com would fit your needs.

I personally have not heard of or used domainmonger.com.  You may wish
to read the comments of other users on Google Groups about
domainmonger.com before signing up.  There will probably be some
positives and negatives about them which is the nature of the
internet:
http://groups.google.com/groups?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=domainmonger

I would recommend you do a similar search with every company you consider...

I cannot think of any URL masking examples at the moment but if I
think of any or come across any whilst I am surfing the net I will
post them here.  I used to use this method myself but do not have my
sites online at the present moment (the company I used was
http://www.123-reg.com).  A problem these sites do have, that
forwarded sites do not, is that the user can usually only bookmark the
homepage (at least they can only bookmark that page easily!).

Thanks, palitoy.  Could you tell me if you agree with funkywizard that
domainmonger will do what I want?  And do you know an example of url
cloaking?  I'm curious to see how it works.  Thanks.

You might consider looking into 1and1.com.  They only charge $5.99 per
year for domain registration, and this includes redirection to your
own web hosting, if that is what you prefer.

Later on, if you would care to add hosting and additional features,
they offer that as well.  I have used them and been satisfied,
considering the price.

I use domainmonger.com. They aren't as cheap as some others at
$17/year but they do everything for you and have good technical
support. The feature you want is called url cloaking, whereby it
forwards them to your site, but your site is contained in a frame from
your domain, so that it still looks to the user that they are at your
domain. There are a lot of other registrants out there and I would say
price alone should not be your only criteria. Make sure they take care
of DNS for you (saves a LOT of hassle) and that they have url
redirection, since this is what you want. Also, the cheapest
registrars like registerfly I have found have been really hard to work
with, and the amount of time I save going with a competant company is
well worth the extra money.

http://www.bravenet.net offers a tool that would assist you with what
you want to do, its called URL re-direct.
You must sign up for a free account with them, and its pretty self
explanitory on how to use it.
I thibnk you'll be pleasantly surprised, as this tool seems to be
exactly what you described. <><