converting internet addresses

[Kevin Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P.]

From: <Lee_Shackelford at dot.ca.gov>
To: <freebsd-questions at freebsd.org>
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2003 12:00 PM
Subject: converting internet addresses


> Dear BSD enthusiast,
>      Greetings.  I am a newcomer to the BSD/Unix world.

See below.

> My question is this:  "What is the difference between
> what I am telling the DNS server and outgoing
> gateway router to do when I enter into my browser
> address box 'http://www.bsdcon.kwiki.org' and
> when I enter into my browser
> address box 'http://bsdcon.kwiki.org'?"

No difference whatsoever, as you may have noted
that both hostnames resolve to the same IP address.
Likely they are different folders on the same server.
This would be an example of "name based virtual hosting",
which is possible since the implementation of HTTP 1.1

The server recognizes the browser's request by
name (bsdcon.kwiki.org) and serves from the
web folder configured to receive that request.
www.bsdcon.kwiki.org sends you to some
other folder in the same way, or perhaps it
is unconfigured and sends you instead to the
'default' folder at that site.  Seems unusual that
it would be in DNS and not specifically configured,
but that's a possibility.

> My place of employment is a large
> agency with thousands of client machines.

Yeah, the California Dept of Transportation.
OK.

> Most of the clients use
> Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional operating system.  Most of the
servers
> use either Novell operating system, or I.B.M. Domino operating
system.

You said that already, too.  I feel sorry for them,
maybe  ;-)

Nonetheless, welcome to the world of FreeBSD.

Kevin Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P.