Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of johnrhines
johnrhinesFlag for United States of America

asked on

Redirect/Hide Url

Is it possible to redirect an existing url on a website to another web page?  For example, can I redirect the Help link (https://www.experts-exchange.com/help.jsp) at the top of the Experts Exchange site to my own page?
Thank you!
Avatar of abel
abel
Flag of Netherlands image

Only if both links are on your own system and you have control over them. Otherwise, if I were on experts exchange and all of a sudden ended up on your site, I am sure that would be considered a large breach of security, but that's not what you mean, right?

In Apache you can configure redirects. In IIS you can do so too. Other servers must have similar methods.

In case you really want to fool somebody, you can put the hostname in the hosts file (available on both Linux and Windows) and have it point to your own IP address. That only works on the computer of the user. You cannot change DNS for people not in your reach (and you can do the same tricks on the router, of course).
Avatar of johnrhines

ASKER

This is only local that I am trying to do this, I'm not actually trying to change the url on the site.  Can I put in a specific url in the hosts file for the local computer?  If so, do you have an example?
The hosts file is at c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc (windows, I don't know about linux). A line like this:

127.0.0.1       localhost
192.168.1.65    https://www.experts-exchange.com
but that will redirect the entire web site.  Can I just redirect a specific URL?
not from the hosts file. You need to do that in your HTTP deamon. The hosts file is for TCP/IP, which is lower layer. The HTTP (application layer) must be served by an application that understands that protocol. Most common is to use a web server, but other options exist (as long as the tool you use understand the HTTP redirect it should be good).
May I ask what you are after? It seems like you want some proxy-like behavior: if someone goes to a previously loaded page, retrieve it from the cache. I am not sure, but maybe you can tell in a proxy to retrieve a certain page elsewhere (i.e., to make it serve the wrong page, actually).
Looking around a bit, I think this product might suit your needs. It does exactly this: redirect urls and it runs locally. Excellent for testing, also excellent for keeping certain sites out and to filter spam or ad content.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of abel
abel
Flag of Netherlands image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
> but given the constraints of my environment, the answers do not apply to my situation.  

can you elaborate on these constraints? You haven't followed up with any comments and perhaps there's a way around these constraints that I can help you with? Furthermore, for the PAQ, I believe that the answers are quite valid because they do solve the original question for all trivial and non-trivial cases I can think of.