Thanks, George.  However, I'm still wondering what the differences are between the web virtual hosting and the email routing.  It would
appear that two different mechanisms are being used for domain name recognition.  I recently discovered that a domain name I had hosted as
a virtual domain alias got "disconnected", in that if you tried to reach it through a web browser, it was gone.  But, email addressed to
that domain got right through.  So I'm puzzled -- what's handling the domain name recognition for emails?

-David

George Toft wrote:

> Not much, really, IF you use the right software.
>
> IMHO, what you are asking is outside of their cookie-cutter mentality.
> Yes, it is easy, but will they do it?  We did this all the time at my
> last job (a web hosting company).  IF they are set up to do it, all
> they have to do is run a script (less than one minute including login,
> and that's for a slow typist).
>
> It all comes down to money and stats.  What you are asking is outside
> of the 95% of requests that they are set up to handle.  It is easier
> to say no than to spend a couple hours setting it up.  If they pay
> their SysAdmin $50/hr (salary + benefits) and it takes him/her two
> hours, they are out $100.  How long will it take them to recover $100
> from your account?  Ten months?  It's not worth it to them because
> that's how long it will take them to recover their investment,
> meanwhile, they've lost out on the revenue they would have collected.
> They would rather say no, or even let you go than to embark on a
> venture that sets them back ten months in revenue.
>
> If enough people ask for it, which puts the request into the 95%
> category, they'll set it up, or lose business to those who will set
> it up.
>
> At my last job, that one minute (one time) script brought in $10/month.
> I had the account set up script automated, and that brought in anywhere
> from $50-$300, depending on the account.  One minute of my time made
> the company $50-300.  Pretty cool.
>
> George
>
> "David P. Schwartz" wrote:
> >
> > I'm wondering what is the relationship between virtual hosting of a web site domain vs. a
> > mailbox domain
> >
> > I have had an account on impulsedata.com, which is an ISP in town here.  They host a few
> > domains of mine, all of which are mapped to the same place (one web site, lots of
> > aliases).  All of the email gets mapped to my main userid at impulsedata.com.
> >
> > I've played a bit with a non-dedicated system hosted on a Cobalt RaQ3 and RaQ4.  I can
> > route a domain by changing the DNS entries at DirectNIC or InterNIC, and the host needs to
> > know what the domain name is so they can set things up there.  This works for single
> > domains.  Neither host would support aliases of either web or email domains.
> >
> > Some hosts advertise that they'll allow virtual hosting of multiple domains on one site
> > (like what I'm doing at ImpulseData.com right now), but they they say they won't allow
> > multiple email domains.  IOW, I can set up a main virtual host as abc.com, then aliases of
> > abc.net, def.com, and def.net, but they won't allow email to the latter three to be
> > delivered.
> >
> > I know that you can flip things around from Apache's conf's, like fred.abc.com vs.
> > www.abc.com/~fred.  But how are these kinds of things handled for email?  I get the
> > impression email routing is handled differently, although the domain naming seems like it
> > ought to be subordinate to the web routing.
> >
> > Thanks
> > -David
> >
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