What are wildcard subdomains?

[Gaby-HostDept]

Can any one explain me what are wildcard subdomains and how to configure them into your website. what are the advantages of using wildcard subdomains:help:

 

[Rado_Ch]

The WildCard subdomain means that everything.yourdomain.com exists without you specifically adding them through your cPanel. This is often used in multisite web applications, like WordPress MU was, before they stopped its development.

As for setting it up, you can check out the thread they have ab out it in the cPanel forums:

http://forums.cpanel.net/f34/how-make-wildcard-subdomains-61990.html

Hope you find this useful :rolleyes2

 

[Alex - A2 Hosting]

This really is something you should already know. The above has answered your query but I'm curious, is this for you or a customer that is asking?

 

[valley_webuzo]

An entry as follows in your Apache configuration for a particular domain will do the trick:

ServerAlias *.example.com

Why do you want to implement a wildcard subdomain ?

 

[Collabora]

"wildcard subdomain" is a misnomer. There is no such thing. There is only wildcard DNS records and wildcard domains. A domain is a subdomain of another domain if it is contained within that domain.

 

[Rado_Ch]

"wildcard subdomain" is a misnomer. There is no such thing. There is only wildcard DNS records and wildcard domains. A domain is a subdomain of another domain if it is contained within that domain.

That's just arguing about semantics here :rolleyes2
Though I agree that the official term should be Wildcard DNS Record, still the term "wildcard subdomain" has a pretty wide usage and can be seen in many reputable sources. If you are a person with more basic knowledge of terminology and see this used in the cPanel or WordPress forums, won't you logically believe that such a thing exists? :rolleyes2

Potato-patato

 

[Collabora]

That's just arguing about semantics here :rolleyes2

Not really. The concept is described in the RFCs.

What about host2.*.host1.domain.com?

 

[dafthost]

From wiki :

A wildcard DNS record is a record in a DNS zone that will match requests for non-existent domain names. A wildcard DNS record is specified by using a "*" as the leftmost label (part) of a domain name, e.g. *.example.com. The exact rules for when a wild card will match are specified in RFC 1034, but the rules are neither intuitive nor clearly specified. This has resulted in incompatible implementations and unexpected results when they are used.

 

[HostZealot]

Therefore, wilcard subdomains are like unicorns. They most likely exist, we all know what they look like and we mostly understand what they are needed for.

Yet nobody ever saw a live one.

 

[Collabora]

Therefore, wilcard subdomains are like unicorns. They most likely exist, .

So you believe in unicorns? Now I see where your fairy tale visions of overselling and unlimited plans comes from

 

[HostZealot]

you made my day

So you believe in unicorns? Now I see where your fairy tale visions of overselling and unlimited plans comes from

I literally ROFLed on this Did you miss the part about "most likely"?

As I said - we have numerous images, tales, songs and other stuff about unicorns. These are majestic creatures, usually described as snow-white horses with spiraled golden horns on their foreheads. A virgin should go to forest debris to meet one and tame it, as legends state.

Did any part of this text mention that I believe this?

You are seeing things, my friend. Just the way Mr. Putin sees fashists in Ukraine. Maybe visiting a doctor should no longer be postponed?

Seriously, this was merely an example, a joke. If you are trying to judge me and my principles by this joke... well... you'd better look for a log in your own eye. With all due respect.

 

[Collabora]

I literally ROFLed on this Did you miss the part about "most likely"?

No, I did not. One must believe in the existence of X if one believes X is most likely to exist. Or at least reject non-existence
.
.
.

 

[HostZealot]

Ok then. How come multiple cultures around the world, including European, Indian, Chinese, African and even Peruvian tales and folklore depict the same creature and the same way to tame it?

It is a mystery like resemblance of Egyptian and Majan pyramids, or Nasca images, seen only from great altitude... and many many others.

We never believe in existence of anything we cannot observe, feel or taste. Yet a huge amount of people worldwide believe in God.

Well, existence or non-existencce of unicorns (or God) is not a theme of discussion on a hosting forum anyways.

I only said wildcard subdomains theoretically exist, yet no clear instructions on their setup and usage are available.

 

[Collabora]

You go on believing in unicorns and similar myths such as overselling is the same as overloading and unlimited plans require infinite hard drives...If it make you sleep better at night

 

[HostZealot]

You go on believing in unicorns and similar myths such as overselling is the same as overloading and unlimited plans require infinite hard drives...If it make you sleep better at night

I see you think you know the subject better than anyone around. You may sleep well at night as well.

Where did I say infinite hard drives are required?

If you still cannot understand unicorns were mentioned merely as an example of something not existing (the same as wildcard subdomains) - please accept my sincere apologies for this misunderstanding.

 

[Collabora]

you're apology is gracefully accepted

 

[ughosting]

Wildcard subdomains are a concept that various control panels support.
They can be very useful in setting up Wordpress in MU mode.

Directadmin has a page demonstrating to admins how this can be done

http://help.directadmin.com/item.php?id=127

It can also be achieved in CPanel I believe with some effort.