Can I direct a Domain to a subdomain?

this is a quesetion on what a sub-domain is, and if I can use it here, or if I need to get a booster pack.

I currently use DH's SweetDreams package, and am using all 3 fully hosted domains that it allows.

I now have another domain name (diamondmakerpro.com). Can I set it up so that it points to a subdomain (i.e., www.diamondmakerpro.mymaindomain.com), or does it need to be as a "fully hosted domain".

I'm having the hardest time typing out what my question is!! I guess I need to know if you can use the "sub-domain" feature in DreamHost as its own domain name?

The Sweet Dreams package includes 15 subdomains, which you can use to your heart's content.

If I read your post correctly, you want to host another website without buying the booster pack. I believe you can park your domain for free and have it direct all traffic to the subdomain you specify.

The only catch might be that DH free domain parking is for domains that have been registered through them... if you bought the name somewhere else and just transferred it over, there might be a problem.

All you need to do to redirect your domain to a subdomain is: 1.) Go to the web panel and select "EDIT" from the "WEB" in the "DOMAINS" section, 2.)Look over the various options (parking, redirect, mirror) and figure out which one best serves your needs, 3.)Click the "SAVE WEB SERVICE" button.

That ought to do you.

thanks for the response, conspicuous. After following your instructions, I'm realizing that I think what I'm looking for is "Web Forwarding", which as I understand it is the ability to take a domain and have it link to any folder anywhere. In other words, if I have a main site, "www.Tools.com", I can purchase a bunch of related domain names— such as www.Saws.com, www.Hammers.com, www.HandyMan.com, etc.— and not need to build separate websites for them. Via web forwarding, I can have my registrar company (in this case, dotearth.com) "forward" each of those sites to either the main Tools.com, or to any subfolder in Tools.com.

If I understand this correctly, then I certainly don't need anything more than one main domain. I could even place a completely unrelated folder (aka directory) inside of Tools.com—say, Religions.com— and create a whole new website inside that folder. I could then purchase one or two or twenty related domain names (muslim.com, christian.com, etc) and have them all point to the Religions.com folder.

This still leaves me wondering what my 15 subdomains are for!, but I think their purpose is for when you want to create emails that contain ... actually, I'll stop there, because I'm not sure what subdomains are good for. In any case, I'm good for now, and will continue to learn from this forum and the FAQs.

Scott at hhw

There was a thread about this just last week:

http://discussion.dreamhost.com/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=forum_beginners&Number=6006

Subdomains are good if you want to have multiple related sites with logical addresses that don't require registering lots of different domains for them. Like, if you have "religion.org", you can set up "christian.religion.org", "jewish.religion.org", "scientology.religion.org", etc., and don't need to register new domains for each such site.

http://domains.dan.info/structure/subdomains.html

-- Dan

Perhaps I'm missing the point, but I think the OP is asking a different question here. I think that they were trying to ask whether it's OK to have a domain setup as a redirect / mirror / "cloaked" domain pointing to a subdomain or subdirectory of an existing domain, as opposed to using up a "fully hosted domain".

For instance, example.net points to (or "cloaks") example.com/somedirectory/ or something.example.com.

Technically, this will probably work; we're not really too strict about this, and although it pretty much goes against the spirit of the rules, it doesn't really go against the letter of the rules.

So, Dreamhost doesn't mind if a non-profit or educational client uses subdomains in this way? :-)

So, Dreamhost doesn't mind if a non-profit or educational client uses subdomains in this way? :-)

How could they? You have a certain amount of subdomains and there's nothing wrong at all with redirecting domains to them. You could even point certain folders if you run out of subdomains.

One day hopefully dreamhost will do like Pair Hosting and allow you to use as many domains as you wish up to your space limit. Until then, or if it never happens, using redirection is your only choice.