how to create site prefix with apache2?

Question

I have recently purchased a domain name. I can forward it to any ip, I would like.

I lets say i forwarded ilovecarssometimes.com (thats not what I have registered).

I pointed it at my IP:Port I am able to get to it no problems.

I have another folder where I keep my files at home I can get to it from my local network by going to LocalIP/~user but when i got to ilovecarssometimes.com/~user it doesn't seem to work.

What am I doing wrong? Maybe getting it to point to bmw.ilovecarssometimes.com would be a better solution?

Also resources that teach apache2 from a noobs perspective would be nice as well.

Please and thank you.

Answer 1

example.com is specifically reserved for cases where you don't want to expose your real domain name. This site is not for home users, but since your question is related to Apache, I'll point you in the right direction.

Domain names can't be pointed to ports; just IP addresses (with common setups). So your domain example.com must currently be pointed to some server IP 1.2.3.4. It sounds like you have a virtual host setup for it, especially if you get different results from entering example.com vs 1.2.3.4 into your address bar.

If you want different sites for various domains, like site2.example.com you'll have to use virtual hosts, one for each different site.

Mapping your home's public_html (or similar folder) to exmaple.com/~user is a function of the userdir directive in your httpd.conf file (or similar since I don't know what OS your running). Apache has tons of documentation, and although it's quite technical, if you read through it you'll find it contains many simple examples. System Administration takes some learning and effort, it's not all easy.