Masking URLs

[indexhead]

Greetings developers,

I am interested in masking a multi-level URL in one site to appear as a "dummy" domain name on the IE address bar.

For example, a relative link within the site www.abcsite.com points to "samplecode.html" and appears as "http://www.abcsite.com/samplecode.html" in the visitors address bar.

I want to modify what appears in the IE address bar so that the about URL is masked as "www.dummysite.com" and it appears to the user that they are looking at an actual separate and distince web site and not an offshoot of an existing one.

How to?

Thanks much.

Moderator's Note:
Please refrain from starting multiple threads on same topic...
Thanks

[MstrBob]

You want a new domain name for each page? You have to purchase each domain name and point it at the page in question. Not hard, just costly and pointless. There's no method to trick a browser in displaying another domain name. And besides, that would break the whole URL system.

[Stephen Philbin]

W3rd. Rispeck teh URL.

[David Harrison]

There is actually a trick to get IE to show the wrong URL. I can't really remember the specifics but it goes a little like this:<a href="http://www.yoursite.com/http://www.microsoft.com/">hello</a>You can make the  by going into notepad, holding down Ctrl and pressing backspace.

That's probably not the exact code to use but even if it was right, you shouldn't use it anyway. The URL is supposed to reflect the current page so that your users can see where they are on your site and bookmark it.

[indexhead]

Howdy,

Just to clear things up...

The reason I desire to mask the URL is not to destroy the integrity of the DNS system, kill PDC's and BDC's and confuse users, but to save $$$.

I have a portfolio of 20 Web sites I have created on spec, each for a fictional company with a fictional domain name that each resides in a subdirectory on my site. When the user wants to see my work, I want them to see "www.abcsite.com" not "www.thisismysite/portfolio/2004/abcsite/default.html". I want to do this without having to purchase 20 domain names as I would like potential clients to come up with their own names if they are interested in a site, eh?

[NogDog]

My web host (ipowerweb.com) allows me to create up to 5 subdomains, with each able to point to a different directory somewhere under my public_html directory. So for no additional cost I can have:

www.mysite.com (opens page www.mysite.com/index.html)
domain1.mysite.com (opens page www.mysite.com/subdir1/index.html)
domain2.mysite.com (opens page www.mysite.com/subdir2/index.html)
domain3.mysite.com (opens page www.mysite.com/subdir3/index.html)
domain4.mysite.com (opens page www.mysite.com/subdir4/index.html)
domain5.mysite.com (opens page www.mysite.com/subdir5/index.html)

[PeOfEo]

I agree with nogdog, this solution would probably be better then "masking" a url. The only way to "mask" the url in this case would be to use a frame. So unless you want to use a frame, and probably a server side script to get the proper page at the bottom (assuming the frame is at the top), it is not going to happen.

[ray326]

Originally posted by indexhead
Greetings developers,

I am interested in masking a multi-level URL in one site to appear as a "dummy" domain name on the IE address bar.

For example, a relative link within the site www.abcsite.com points to "samplecode.html" and appears as "http://www.abcsite.com/samplecode.html" in the visitors address bar.

I want to modify what appears in the IE address bar so that the about URL is masked as "www.dummysite.com" and it appears to the user that they are looking at an actual separate and distince web site and not an offshoot of an existing one.

How to?

Thanks much. And that other site would be what, https://www.citibank.com ? This is not a good idea.

[ray326]

The reason I desire to mask the URL is not to destroy the integrity of the DNS system, kill PDC's and BDC's and confuse users, but to save $$$. Well the primary use for these techniques is not to save $$$ but to make $$$ in phishing scams.

[PeOfEo]

why do we have this thread two times?
http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=52517

I suggest the mods merge this.