Can I use the same domain name for 2 separate web servers?

Question

Here is my problem: As a hobbyist, I have managed some webpages for other small groups.

• I run a mailing list for a group on a server I manage (list@myserver.com).
• They have an anchor page at www.myserver.com, with no useful info on it.
• They have their main page at www.theirserver.com, that has a scheduling program that is heavily used. I don't have access to this server, or DNS for theirserver.com.
• The group would now like to use myserver.com to access theirserver.com

I have changed the mail.myserver.com to and 'A' record with the IP address of my server, and I have updated the MX record to point to mail.myserver.com. This works fine.

I can point www.myserver.com to theirserver.com for a redirection that keeps www.myserver.com in the URL. But I can't change the root of myserver.com to a CNAME to point to theirserver.com. Additionally, I get a 403 error with the www.myserver.com CNAME redirection.

My question is if there is a way of pointing only web requests to a server that I don't control, such that the URL shows myserver.com or www.myserver.com, but the content is strictly theirserver.com?

Answer 1

The answer to this is both Yes, and No.

Yes, you can add it to two servers, if your settings (e.g.in cPanel) are configured to allow domains to be added if the DNS is not pointing there.

No, you cannot have the same domain name publicly visible from two sources. Your DNS with either point to the one server, or the other.

One server can be used as a DNS fallback for the other, this is somewhat common practice for backup servers.

That said, it's also possible to accept email for a domain on one server, while having the publicly visible website on another server. This is even necessary for some web hosts which don't support email for your domain, as I've seen it done; to do it, MX records on the other server are set up with the a-records for the mx sent to this server's IP but the domain DNS pointed to a different server.

Also, you can definitely point a subdomain to another server. A subdomain works on the global internet network just like it was a completely different domain name. To keep the same domain on multiple servers for different features like mail, forums, etc, subdomain is a great way, users wouldn't even realize they were on a separate server since the root domain is the same in their browser. Sharing a single database is a completely different topic though; easiest way especially for newbs is to have each server with its own database.

p.s. don't try to send the www version of a website to a different server, that's not how the internet works, and terrible practice, not to mention many network issues as well as local, usability, and seo issues.