Re: Can a URL point to a URL

[Scott Klement <pctech@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jeff,

Your examples are not URLs, they are domain names. This leaves me unsure 
if you're asing a question about domain names (and just didn't know what 
they were called) or if you really meant a URL, but gave oversimplified 
examples.

A URL would be something like http://www.shortcut.com/path/file.html. 
It's a single string that explains the protocol used (http in my 
example, though there are many others, ftp, smtp, etc) the host's domain 
name (or IP address) and also a path to a file.  Some of that, however, 
can be "defaulted" (i.e. the default document on the site, the default 
protocol for a given application, etc) which is why I'm not 100% sure 
what you mean.

If you do really mean a URL, the easiest thing would be to use a URL 
shortening service like tinyurl.com or bit.ly.  You could write your 
own, of course, it'd likely be a web application that simply redirects.

If you just mean the domain name...  DNS has a feature called CNAME 
which is an alias, so assuming that you controlled DNS for the short 
name, you could enter a CNAME RR that points to the long name.

Of course, I have no way of knowing if your hosting provider supports 
it...  I run my own DNS servers, so I'm not aware of what various 
hosting providers allow.

-SK


On 1/17/2018 3:17 PM, Jeff Crosby wrote:
> I'm not a network/DNS geek by any stretch, so don't laugh at this
> question.  Unless you're having a crappy day and this question improves
> it.  :)
>
>
> Suppose there's a long URL such as
>
> www.thisisareallylongurlthatnooneeverremembersorwantsto.com
>
> that points to IP 1.2.3.4.
>
> Can one go out to GoDaddy (or whichever service is used) and set up a URL
> such as
>
> www.shortcuturl.com
>
> that, instead of pointing directly to IP 1.2.3.4, instead points to
>
> www.thisisareallylongurlthatnooneeverremembersorwantsto.com
>
> so if
>
> www.thisisareallylongurlthatnooneeverremembersorwantsto.com
>
> is ever changed to point to a different IP address, then
>
> www.shortcuturl.com
>
> automatically follows to the new IP address.
>
> Thanks.

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