how do you cloak/mask a url?

[akadis]

anyone know how to cloak/mask a url? ive seen it on webpages and free redriction services before...but i dont know how to do it server side - do u use htaccess???? im totally clueless....
thanks for any help in advance

[AdamGundry]

Normally it's done using a frameset, so the top-level frameset is in the domain that appears in the address bar, and the only frame loads a page from the actual source. For example (this would go in the index page for the cloaking domain):

<frameset>
<frame src="http://actual-url.example.com/page.html">
</frameset>

Adam

[akadis]

thanks, but does it matter if the a person's browser supports frames?

[AdamGundry]

Yes; if frames are not supported they will see the contents of any <noframes> tags as usual, so this should usually include a direct link to the content.

Adam

[PeOfEo]

masking the url is immature and lame, why are you doing it. It is just an inconveiniance for users.

[akadis]

well because as an imature and lame begining web-developer i am thinking of creating one of those subdomain redirection sites

[AdamGundry]

PeOfEo does to some extent have a point, but I can see that some people would rather have a domain/subdomain URL only than some convoluted path. Perhaps you could offer the option of redirection as well as cloaking, to satisy us pedantic anti-frames developers.

Adam

[PeOfEo]

Originally posted by akadis
well because as an imature and lame begining web-developer i am thinking of creating one of those subdomain redirection sites

Well guve the user an option about weather to mask or not because url masking can cause errors in some client and server side scripts. For some reason it was interfearing with a few of my forms one time for example.

[scottdallas]

it's not that bad of an idea.. the feature could be used to do some really good things for people that want to just make a really well organized and professional looking website. well that's what i'd like to use this feature for. i dont want to do any trickery. but i do see how it could be used for some real evil as well.

[ankur_mehta]

<frameset>
<frame src="http://actual-url.example.com/page.html">
</frameset>

this is to be used. can anyone provide more details on how to use a frameset in an aspx file for a web application as I am new to this field?? it is really urgent.

[url]

I use a url cloaker, even if my site is down the links work like clockwork.