Hostnames

A hostname is a series of letters and/or numbers that appear as a prefix in front of your domain, such as the www in http://www.my-example.com, or the members in http://members.my-example.com.

How do hostnames operate with websites?

Hostnames can have entirely different web settings from the domain they are created from.

For example: while http://my-example.com forwards visitors to: http://www.yourhost.com/~yoursite
http://members.my-example.com can forward visitors to a separate website: http://www.geocities.com/~yourmemberssite

For each hostname you create you have the same web choices as you do for your domain - you can choose to use the Welcome Page, Standard or Stealth Website Redirection or IP Pointing. Each hostname can use a different feature and direct visitors to a different website.

Can I use hostnames with the Email Forwarding and the CatchAll features?

You cannot yet create Email Forwarding addresses with your hostnames such as: test@members.my-example.com. We hope to introduce this in the near future and will be emailing members as soon as this feature is available. At this time you can use Email Forwarding or the CatchAll to create addresses with your domain only such as: test@my-example.com.

Can I use hostnames for email if I run my own mail server?

Yes. If you are running your own mail server then you can set an MX record for your hostname so that email sent to your hostname is handled by your mail server. For more information, see the descriptions of MX records for more information.

What are CNAMEs?

CNAMEs look the same as hostnames but are actually aliases for hostnames that already exist. See the description of CNAMEs for more information.