How to setup a CNAME to map a custom domain to an Apple Mobile Me site

Question

My site is published with iWeb and is hosted at URL like this:

http://web.me.com/foobar

With pages like this:

http://web.me.com/foobar/site/about.html

I have a custom domain (e.g., www.foo.com) for this site. According to these instructions, I should define a CNAME with my registrar that maps www.foo.com to web.me.com.

My question is:

After I configure the CNAME, what happens, precisely, when someone types in:

http://www.foo.com

Which URL are they really hitting? And what will show up in the address bar? (Obviously I don't want them to land on http://web.me.com but rather http://web.me.com/foobar)

Answer 1

It looks like they are also adding a little "URL redirection" too, but maybe not mentioning it. The CNAME will land any requests of www.foo.com to web.me.com. More than likely at web.me.com it will be looking at the HTTP request information and see that the original request/read came in for www.foo.com which will allow it to actually map to web.me.com/foobar.

Whether they "stealth" the return to show the "true" URL is not addressed. It may display the "true" URL in which the http address will then reflect web.me.com/foobar or if it is "stealthed" then the http address will remain www.foo.com or become www.foo.com/foobar.