Why is http://domain.com different than http://www.domain.com on some sites? Is this an error?
What's the most normal cause of this behaviour, and how can it be resolved?
Jack.

Technically speaking they can be different since you need to apply 'A' records for both the domain name with and without the 'www'. In reality, the 'www.' site is a subdomain for the main domain but since it is used quite frequently, most people would associate them to be the same. To match them, you need to create the alias record pointer so that the site can accept both the domain name with and without the 'www'.

Make sure that the 'www' record points to the same IP as the one without and then ensure that the web server accepts both formats.

and how would one go about assuring that those are set up?... in other words... what am i looking for, and where?

i'm having the same problem

Generally speaking, you need to check the DNS Zone settings.

If you are using Apache, you need to ensure that the virtual hosting settings in httpd.conf is also configured to listen to both the 'www' and non 'www' url.

edit: hmm just looked at my httpd.conf

<VirtualHost 69.93.151.21>
ServerName www.teampendragon.com
DocumentRoot "C:/websites/TeamPendragon"
ServerAdmin admin@teampendragon.com
ErrorLog "logs/teampendragon.com-error_log"
CustomLog logs/teampendragon.com-access_log common
</VirtualHost>


there is my VirtualHost setup for www.teampendragon.com... but for some reason people are still resolving it to 69.93.71.218

here is the DNS entry i have setup in orbit:


$TTL 86400
@ IN SOA teampendragon.com. support.teampendragon.com. (
2005030602 ; serial LAST:c20387team
900 ; refresh period
900 ; retry period
86400 ; expire period
86400) ; minimum TTL period

teampendragon.com. IN NS ns1.theplanet.com.
teampendragon.com. IN NS ns2.theplanet.com.
teampendragon.com. IN MX 10 mail
teampendragon.com. IN A 69.93.151.21
www IN A 69.93.151.21
ftp IN A 69.93.151.21
mail IN A 69.93.151.21





any ideas?

apparently it's an issue with my computer as it seems to be resolving properly from everywhere else... hmm... now it's even more peculiar

Apparently so. I am getting the xx.xx.xx.21