When you register your new domain with a domain registrar the control panel for that domain hosting account provides many features that are free with the service. Among these features is the ability for domain redirection.

When you first register the domain with the registrar, the registrar will set up the DNS entry for that domain to point to them. In layman’s terms this means that if somebody types www.yourdomain.com then that domain is set up to point to their service. In order to point it to a web host or company server you have to edit the nameserver (DNS) settings for that domain through the control panel.

Let’s say you cannot afford a web host or your own DNS and server farm and still want your domain to point to (redirect) a web page you’ve developed. Perhaps you’re a small Church and your website is at http://www.aol.com/~smithrj because you got free web space from your ISP and that’s all you can afford. You can still purchase a domain name for less than $10 a year and use domain redirection to a free web page so you can advertise your church website

You register the name www.greatchurch.org and when your account is set up you can enter the domain control panel. Go to the nameserver settings for the domain and choose Redirect with Frames or Redirect without Frames. The panel will then allow you to enter the site URL that you want your domain to be redirected to. Redirecting with Frames places the destination site within a Frame or “envelope” that hides the actual destination of the URL while Redirect without Frames just takes you to the domain name. If you want an example of domain redirection without Frames visit the URL http://www.websitepundit.com (a domain I own) and you will notice you are redirected to my site. It’s a way for me or anybody to alias as many names as desired to locations.

For small organizations with shoestring budgets, it’s a way to show their website with their own name at a very low price.