From: mike 

On Sat, 09 Jun 2007 12:45:55 -0400, RobertB  wrote:

>In article ,
> John Beckett  wrote:
>
>> RobertB  wrote in message
>> news::
>> > You mean I would have my own domain and it would point to
>> > www.mycurrentISP.com/robert? And the process would be
transparent to the
>> > end user? I have already registered a domain name.
>>
>> It all depends. Geo could be speak about the practice; I can tell you
>> about the theory.
>>
>> I would have thought (no idea) that ISPs would use the "host
header"
>> method. The web client sends this request::
>>  GET http://www.mycurrentISP.com/robert/
>>
>> to the IP of www.mycurrentISP.com,
>>
>> The ISP web server then provides the default page that corresponds to the
>> requested URL (robert).
>>
>> That procedure will NOT work if the client sends request:
>>   GET http://www.robert.com
>
>Oh, but that's what I want people to enter into their browser address
>line.
>
>>
>> You could use your domain name if the ISP provided a unique IP address for
>> each client web site, or if you paid them to configure their web server to
>> recognise the host header you will use.
>>
>> I know a guy in Sydney who hosts several web sites for various people,
>> providing a unique IP to each. He leases the servers from some US company,
>> then he sets up Linux/Apache, and the customer uses ssh or ftp to manage
>> their site. I imagine there are plenty of services like this that would be
>> better for you (i.e. I don't think you should use the Sydney guy)..
>>
>> ---One minute later---
>> I just read Mike's reply where he points out that some DNS services can
>> return the IP of a web server that will magically redirect the client to
>> the actual web page. Sounds as if it would work well, provided the service
>> had reliable servers and network, and wasn't overloaded.
>>
>> John
>
>I would imagine that using that kind of redirect would involve a lag of
>some sort in reaching the site.

Not any more of a lag than an additional hop to the site.

I use Zoneedit's redirect service and it is less than a second.  Any extra
delay appears to be the initial DNS lookup.

For the usage you envision for your site, the lag would be negligible.

 /m

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