"parked domain" & "addon domains"?

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floaters

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What exactly are these? As much I like this site so far, I find no user's manual at x10hosting! I'll start with that first question.
 

essellar

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It's not difficult to understand your confusion; "parked domain" is a horrible, horrible name for the thing that it is, but as with so much in life, we're kind of stuck with the terminology now that it's in use. (Many, many years ago, a "parked domain" was a domain that was purchased and reserved, but not yet in use. That, at least, made sense, unlike the current meaning.)

A "parked domain" is a domain or subdomain (a named web address, if you will) that points to the same place as your main domain (the subdomain that was provided with your hosting account). On the Free Hosting servers, your main domain always has to be a subdomain provided by x10Hosting (your-part.x10host.com, your-part.x10.bz, or what have you). They used to allow changing your main domain, but people would use fly-by-night domain registrars that would disappear, or registrars that required a certain minimum amount of traffic to maintain the domain, or some such, and would frequently find themselves with nothing pointing to their account at all. That would require a support admin to fix things for the user, and it happened often enough to make it much more expensive than Free Hosting can cover (without forcing ads on you). The problem is that "your-part.x10host.com" doesn't present a very professional (or easy-to-remember) face to the world.

You can obtain a domain from just about any domain registrar (say, "your-part.com") and add it to your account a a parked domain. That will let visitors access your site using a more appropriate URL than the subdomain that x10Hosting provides. (It will also allow you to move your site to another hosting provider without forcing your users to find out what your new URL is.)

An add-on domain is similar, but it usually points to a directory within your site rather than to the web root of the account. That may be something that seems to be a completely different web site with an unrelated name, or it can be a blog or forum attached to your main web site (blog.your-part.com, community.your-part.com, that sort of thing). Do note that any subdomains you create on your account "eat" an add-on domain, and vice-versa.
 

floaters

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Well first, thanks for the help! So to be clear, does x10hosting offer one free domain registration, or no?
 

floaters

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I'm still wrapping my head around this. essellar, you got me thinking further. So, lets say I have my domain your-part.com. Will that show my directories? For example your-part.com/contact, your-part.com/mysummervacation, etc?
 

essellar

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The "free domain" on Free Hosting isn't a domain as such; it's a subdomain of one of several domains that x10Hosting holds. That means that you can't move it to another hosting provider. (They do offer a free domain with Premium hosting if you purchase on a two-year or three-year plan; you would need to pay for that domain in order to move it elsewhere, though, which is normal.)

The directory structure is up to you; it doesn't happen automatically. It can't, really, since you can have several domains/URLs pointing to the same location. In fact, with a parked domain, you have to have both the parked domain and your main domain pointing to the same place.
 

floaters

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So, my domain becomes a pointer domain? Does it mask the x10hosting domain? Can I change my assigned domain(s) once I get started?
 

caftpx10

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If you mean change it to the other sub-domains offered, then you can by requesting so here.
If you're talking about a custom domain then you can use that, just remember to use the X10 name servers before adding.
 

floaters

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As I understand it, my parked domain has no directory of its own; I have to redirect it to my existing x10hosting directory. I have attempted this but it's not working. What path do I need to input, here?
 

caftpx10

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To make this short...
If you want a domain name pointing to your document root (public_html/ only) then use parked domains.
If you want to point it to any directory in public_html/ (which is what you're wanting to do) then use add-on domains.
 

floaters

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I want: mydomain.com, or mydomain.com/contact/ or, mydomain.com/community/threads/, etc. How do I do this?
 

caftpx10

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You would make directories (folders) in where your domain is pointing to.
 

floaters

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mydomain.com is not automatically setup to go to the public_html directory. What do I put in the box next to "redirect the domain to" to make this happen?
 

Dead-i

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Hi,

Please disable redirection when creating your domain. This will stop the URL from changing, and in the case of a parked domain, it will display the contents of /public_html by default. ;)

Thank you,
 

floaters

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Okay, now suddenly it does work. I'm telling you, this has not worked all day until now...
 

caftpx10

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Perhaps because you disabled redirection and waited for a bit?
 
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