Website forwarding

Published 23/06/2009 12.18 PM   |    Updated 12/02/2024 02.54 PM
How can I set up website forwarding?

If you have registered a domain name within your Fasthosts control panel you can set up web forwarding for this domain. This enables you to forward all web inquiries for this domain name to another. For example, if you wanted to forward  your .co.uk website to your .com website.

This service is free of charge.

If you already have hosting set up for the domain name, or you have delegated control of your domain, the options to set up forwarding will not appear. You need to contact us to remove hosting before completing this guide.  If your domain is registered with Fasthosts, but hosted elsewhere you  should use DNS to forward the domain name to your hosting account.

Difficulty

  • Beginner

How long will it take me?

  • The process should only take around 5 minutes.

  • It may take a couple of hours to fully take effect.

What will I need?

Video guides

Step 1

Log in to your control panel

Step 2

Select Domain Names from the Hosting & Domains menu

Domains menu

Step 3

A list of your domain names will appear. Click on the domain you would like to forward.

Select Domain

Step 4

Click the Add Forwarding button.

Banner

I can't see the forwarding option:

If you already have hosting set up for the domain name, or you have delegated control of your domain, the options to set up forwarding will not be visible. You will need to contact us to remove hosting for the domain name before completing this guide.

Step 5

Your domain name will be upgraded to an email and web forwarding package There is no charge for this service, but you may have to confirm your order.

Once confirmed, tick the box marked Enable Forwarding and enter the name of the website you want to forward to in the text box provided.

Forwarding

You can forward to a specific page on a website if you want.

Step 6

Select the type of forwarding you would like to set up on your domain name. Fasthosts offer three types of forwarding within your control panel.

  • 301 - Moved Permanently: This is the ideal if you want to permanently redirect one domain name to another. For instance, if you were forwarding ralphsdomainname.co.uk to ralphsdomainname.com. 301 redirects tell search engines that this redirection is permanent and this will not effect search engine rankings.

  • 302 - Moved Temporarily: Is useful for temporary redirections of your domain name, however over time this type of redirection can have adverse affects on your search engine rankings, This type of redirect should not be used for permanent re-directions.

  • Masked: Masked forwarding creates a frame around the destination website allowing you to enter meta tags, keywords, and to mask the destination web address. This has the advantage of not showing your customers the destination address, but can conflict with sites that are already using frames to display content.

You cannot use masked forwarding on a secure web address (https). The .mobi registry also does not allow masked forwarding to be used on .mobi domains.

If you choose to use the Masked forwarding option, you should enter a new title and meta tags for your domain name in the text boxes provided.

Step 7

Once done, click Save to finish setting up website forwarding on your domain name.

It may take a few hours for these changes to take effect. You can check your forwarding by clicking on the domain name again.

My website is still not forwarding

If your domain is still not forwarding after waiting for the changes to propagate, you will need to make sure the​ A records for www and non-www are pointing to the IP of your E-mail and Web Forwarding package. The steps below will show you how to find the correct IP address to use, and our guide​ Setting up Advanced DNS will show you how to edit your A records.

Step 1

Select Web Hosting from the Hosting & Domains menu

Web Hosting

Step 2

A list of your hosting packages will appear. Click on the e-mail and web forwarding package you want to find the IP address for.

Select package

Step 3

The Forwarding Server Host IP address is displayed at the top of the Web Forwarding page.

Forwarding Package IP Address

This article was last updated on 12/02/2024 02.54 PM