Hidden URL with HTML Cloak Redirect

  • Resolved flammobammo

    (@flammobammo)


    18 years, 7 months ago

    Firstly I’ll explain what I know can work, as I’m already doing this on one blog for a friend.

    Using WP v2.0.2, I setup a blog for my friend at https://tombammann.homedns.org/vhosts/jordan

    I then used dyndns.com to cloak redirect the above url to https://browncatbrowndog.com

    In the admin for this both of the install directories are set to
    https://browncatbrowndog.com, not the real actual location.

    When you go to https://browncatbrowndog.com and click on a post link, you get a URL in the URL bar like https://browncatbrowndog.com/post-permalink

    On my personal blog, I recently purchased https://tombammann.org to tidy up my https://tombammann.homedns.org in exactly the same way I did for my friend.

    So I buy the domain name, and setup the cloak redirect. I waited a few days for the DNS to settle. I change both the WordPress Address and Blog Address to https://tombammann.org instead of https://tombammann.homedns.org, exactly like I have successfully done on my friends blog.

    I then delete the contents of the wp-content/cache directory, and update the permalink structure.

    When you go to https://tombammann.org the theme does not load correctly so you just get all text on the screen. To get the theme to load I have to keep the WordPress address as https://tombammann.homedns.org

    This then lets everything work fine, except for how the url displays in the web-browsers URL bar.

    When you go to https://tombammann.org it loads https://tombammann.org and appears to be fine. However when you click on a post link it loads up the post on the screen, but instead of the url bar saying we are at https://tombammann.org/post-permalink it just says in the url bar that we are at https://tombammann.org

    I’ve tried all of the above process using zero plugins and the default theme, still with no success. I’ve checked that the .htaccess file is writable.

    So my question is that why does it work for my friends setup but not for myn?

    I can’t recall how I got this to happen, but at one stage all the https://tombammann.org/post-permalink type URL’s were working fine, except once in Admin and trying to click on publish post, it had a problem with sending referrals. I went through all the procedure to check that sending referalls are made, and they were.

    There must be something else that is changing in the background that I haven’t noticed for this to be working so random. Does anyone have any ideas where I could start looking?

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
  • Thread Starter flammobammo

    (@flammobammo)

    So currently I have my WordPress address set to https://tombammann.homedns.org and blog address to https://tombammann.org.

    I can use everything fine, except the URL in the URL bar gets stuck on https://tombammann.org

    The URL does not ‘get stuck’ on my friends blog, but this friends blog uses the WordPress address to the equivalent of the Blog address.

    Please help, I’ve searched everywhere and spent at least 10 hours troubleshooting this one… ??

    Thanks in advance,
    Tom

    anyone ever tell you how horrible “cloaking” is? it’s bad form… all the way around. search engines will ban you for it too…

    why don’t you just put the install where it’s supposed to be and then if you absolutely HAVE to, put up a 301 redirect on the old site?

    Thread Starter flammobammo

    (@flammobammo)

    I don’t think you get it – there is no “old” site.

    And cloaking does work – https://browncatbrowndog.com comes up in search engines just fine, and it’s my personal blog not even a business, so I don’t even WANT it to come up in a search engine! ??

    There is only one site – old/new it’s the same thing, hosting it at the same place, my computer, but I would like to know why it will work for one installation but not another.

    Please don’t bother posting here unless you are genuinely trying to help solve this – it’s kind of demeaning having posts like this.

    Are the permalinks the exact same on both blogs?

    Moderator Samuel Wood (Otto)

    (@otto42)

    www.ads-software.com Admin

    I’m with the above, cloaking makes things really difficult. Why not just set the domain to have a real IP and point it at the IP of your server? Things tend to just work when you get rid of all the complications.

    Thread Starter flammobammo

    (@flammobammo)

    Why not just set the domain to have a real IP and point it at the IP of your server?

    > Dynamic IP

    Are the permalinks the exact same on both blogs?

    > Both are set to %Postname% but with different content on each blog, there are different posts..

    Oh and by the way I’ve tried disabling all plugins, and using the default wordpress theme as well…

    “Please don’t bother posting here unless you are genuinely trying to help solve this – it’s kind of demeaning having posts like this.”

    My intention was not to be “demeaning” but to maybe help sort out the problem by suggesting an alternative, and the reasoning behind that is because cloaking has been notoriously banned by the search engines time and time again.

    Whether you choose to take the advice is your perogative, of course – but I’m in the profession, and I’ve seen it happen to far too many people than to try to prevent you from making the same mistake.

    That’s ALL it was.

    Take it for whatever it’s worth to YOU – I’ve just seen it happen far too many times as an SEO person. And there’s no way to fix it later without starting from scratch… which is what people have had to hire me to do after their attempts at cloaking failed them.

    Moderator Samuel Wood (Otto)

    (@otto42)

    www.ads-software.com Admin

    > Dynamic IP

    https://www.zoneedit.com offers free Dynamic DNS services for your own arbitrary domains. I use ZoneEdit myself, can’t really complain. I wish they offered SRV record support, but still, free is free.

    DynDNS has this too, although they charge for it (you have to use their Custom DNS service).

    Thread Starter flammobammo

    (@flammobammo)

    Thanks Otto, I’ll try using zoneedit tonight.

    Thread Starter flammobammo

    (@flammobammo)

    Interesting, it’s just started to magically work like https://browncatbrowndog.com, I guess the DNS just needed a few days to settle down properly for whatever reason.

    Thanks to everyone for their advice.

    Thread Starter flammobammo

    (@flammobammo)

    Just FYI everyone, I ended up changing to zoneedit.com for my URL redirecting – I agree with Otto now it is totally better.
    I think my main issues with all this DNS and redirecting has been my .htaccess file, which if I just let WP do its own thing with, then it works so much better. (Small sacrifice).

    Contact me by https://tombammann.org/about-contact if anyone wants personalised support on this I’m becoming pretty competent now thanks to everyone here ??

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
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