Web forwarding DNS hell

ShooterSF

Hey guys,
Hope this is the right place to ask this. My work is generally dealing with PC repair and such but someone has recently asked me to work on their website. I know a fair bit about html css and seo but I'm stumped at the early part.

He has 6 domains registered with SwitchMedia but he has already new hosting with someone else for the main domain (I'll try and keep webhost names to a minimum). Now I've edited the DNS to point his domain to the new IP and it's loading fine. However for now he wants the other 5 to point at that site too. I contacted Switch and they said you have to edit the DNS but I tried pointing one of the other domains to the new IP with an "A" record but I'm getting a page with a few numbers and letters. I'm assuming the host only allows the domain they're expecting to point to the IP.
Any ideas how to edit the dns to point to a different domain rather than the ip? I'm used to a different host and the simple web forwarding on it.

seamus

There are probably two components to this:

1. You have to tell the DNS server where to point the domain
2. You have to tell the web server that it's hosting a website for that domain.

If you go into the web host's control panel, you should have the option to add an alias for the domain you've already set up. Add in the second domain which you've created an A record for as an alias.

See how that works for you.

ShooterSF

Thanks Seamus. The new host was supposed to have this all ready when I forwarded the sites but he hadn't. Now to talk the customer out of using this host as they look horrible and the CMS is dire and there doesnt even seem to be any SQL All fun

Thanks again!

Bluefrog

All due respect to Seamus but just adding an alias will mess with your SEO as you will have duplicate content issues because the same content can be accessed via different URLs.

So, as well as the alias, you will need to set up 301 redirects to the main domain - in Apache you can do it in your .htaccess file and in IIS you can do it through the IIS management console - somthing nice to Google

The question remains, why didn't you just move the DNS to the new hosting company?

ShooterSF

Thanks Bluefrog but eventually I will be splitting off each domain and setting up their own sites. For now it's just a page with contact details and such. Not really focusing on SEO and such at the min but thanks for the info.

Edit- Didnt see your last question. I didn't move them as I don't see the new host as the permanent residence for the site yet but I am still explaining why to the customer. Before I came on board they had created a temp site for him. Also while I'm on it can you move .ie domains to any name servers?

Bluefrog

Yup, the nameservers can be anywhere - not sure what this will do for your SEO though either down the line when you're ready so its something to consider.