subdomains

Hello,

I'm looking for a good host that enables me to host subdomains automatically (i'm hoping dreamhost is the one)

In other words, my website was meant when designed to allow users to have their own subdomains upon registering

so, a user who registered with the username 'test1' would have test1.mysitedomain.com

My understanding is that this requires mod_rewrite + dns manipulation + changes in apaches config file (will need help on this)

now, will the Code Monster plan allow me to host my website with the above mentioned features ?

No you need to add it manually on the DH panel.

What are you trying to achieve with these automatic subdomains? What exactly do you mean by "user registration"? Is that on your website for a blog or do you mean to give them access to a fully capable hosting account?

One thing that DreamHost does allow is wildcard DNS for the purpose of hosting a multi-user WordPress installation like Lyceum or WordPress Mu. There are still caveats and cautions in doing so, but it is something that they allow. This involves support setting the wildcard DNS and the WordPress Mu .htaccess rewriting the subdomain into a subdirectory or something like that (using mod_rewrite, of course).

I am trying to allow each user to have his/her own page with a nice url right after they register. It has to be automatic.

I implemented user registration in my site with php/html code (users fill out forms, confirm their emails, and then they are officially members after confirming their emails).

The idea I have in mind is checking all subdomains by php code and checking whether the the first portion of the url (before the first dot in the url username.mysitename.com ) is a username saved in the database. If it is, then redirect the user to the page : www.mysitedomain.com/users/profiles/username
and preserve the url in the address bar so the user only sees username.mysitedomain.com

This is in short what I'm trying to achieve. Is this possible with the Code Monster plan ? Will the dream Host team help me with setting the wildcard DNS and configuring apaching mod_rewrite to accomplish what I need ?

In reply to:

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I am trying to allow each user to have his/her own page with a nice url right after they register. It has to be automatic.

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I think this is a question you'll have to address directly to the DreamHost pre-sales support team at the following url:
http://www.dreamhost.com/contact.cgi

Include the details you've just given me.

BTW, if this is something they do allow, all they really need to do is to enable the wildcard subdomain DNS for you. At that point, you should be able to code the mod rewrite part in your own .htaccess file. What happens is that all subdomains will be directed to the same web directory and you'll have to code up the handling of the multiple subdomains yourself.

How much control are you going to give your users over their page? I'm just concerned to make sure they don't take advantage of you and either post illegal content, jeopardizing your account, or inject scripts that cause the server performance problems, also jeopardizing your account.

users won't have much control over their pages (subdomains). The layout of the page is the same for all users and all there will be is a list of their posts arranged in a nice way.

So, all the layout of the users' pages is the same for all users. The only difference is the posts. (idea is very similar to the User Profile page for the VBulletin forums)

I see. That does sound like something support would approve of!

I am not sure whether this solves your problem.

How about creating a sub-folder automatically upon user's registration? If a user abc registered an account, the user will automatically have a www.yourdomain.com/abc url link.

My problem is only in the redirection since I will be doing the checking on the username part of the url (username.mysitedomain.com) and also will redirect the user to www.mysitedomain.com/users/profile/username where the user posts will be listed.

DH users can only create sub-domains from panel.

If that does not solve your problem, I think you have to check with DH support. Send a ticket to them and check what they can do.

Patrick,

Please read the thread. The OP is pre-sales. He doesn't have an account yet and is just wondering whether he can have a wildcard subdomain DNS entry (as it turns out). I'd already suggested to him that he contact DreamHost pre-sales support through the appropriate form to find out if they would be willing to set up such a DNS entry for him. I've already had experience in getting DreamHost support to set up such a subdomain entry for me when I needed it for a WordPress Mu installation I did on one of my domains.

I know you're trying hard to help out, but it would really help both the original posters and the rest of us if you would try to read the thread and coordinate to make sure you're not either answering questions that have already been answered or distracting the OP from answers that have already been given.

As I said, I'm sure everyone here appreciates your fine efforts. I just want to make things easier on the people who need our help.

Take care!

One might be able to write some sort of server-side script (like in Perl) that logs into the control panel behind the scenes and sets up subdomains, but I don't know if Dreamhost would regard this as an abuse.

-- Dan

Yep, you need a specific script to fit your needs. You can try a search on HotScripts.

DreamHost rock!
Anotherhosting I recommend.