mirroring: automatical redirect

[andreas]

hello...

is there a way for an automatical redirect to a mirror site when the original site is not available?

e.g.
- original site in europe (www.domain-in-europe.xxx or ip)
- mirror site (subdirectory) at fq (www.domain-at-fq.xxx/subdirectory)
or in reverse.

thanks in advance and greetings
a n d r e a s
[This message has been edited by andreas (edited 08-22-99)]

[andreas]

hello...

hmm, is it realizable with different name server entries?

e.g.
ns1: ip of ns in europe
ns2: ip of fq ns

need info, because i want to support a disaster relief organization.

thanks in advance and greetings
a n d r e a s
[This message has been edited by andreas (edited 08-22-99)]

[Justin]

Name servers don't work the way you would think they do - when you have 2 name servers for a domain, it does not follow any particular order, but randomly. It might try ns2 first, then ns1...

The problem is that if the server is down, the name server will still send the user to that server resulting in the normal errors - in the above situation, you could conceivably hit reload a few times and hope it chooses ns2 once... but this would not be very reliable...

What I would suggest is to have 2 separate domains on 2 separate servers. Then you can have a note stating that the users should bookmark both URL's, and if one is down to try the other.

HTH

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Justin Nelson
FutureQuest Support

[andreas]

hi justin...

first, thanks for your response.
Name servers don't work the way you would think they do - when you have 2 name servers or a domain, it does not follow any particular order, but randomly. It might try ns2 first, then ns1...
i thought so, because i read something like, that the "system" will try the other ns-entry if the first one isn´t available.
hmm, it seems to be the wrong reading stuff...;)

i will discuss the method with two different domains with the organization.

thanks and greeting from austria
a n d r e a s




[This message has been edited by andreas (edited 08-22-99)]

[Justin]

that the "system" will try the other ns-entry if the first one isn´t available.
This is 100% true, but you have to keep in mind that if the name server is not on the same machine as your site (which is usually the case), the name server can be fully functional even while your web server is down... so there is no need to try another name server (because presumably all name servers should point to the same web server for a given domain).

Hope the above was clear...

------------------
Justin Nelson
FutureQuest Support

[andreas]

hi...

[QUOTE]Hope the above was clear...[QUOTE]

yes, "all lamps light up". :)

thanks
a n d r e a s