Third-Level Domain Names

Third-Level Domain Names

The Web Standards Group recommends that public UCSB Web sites be available via both their specific third-level domain name (e.g., http://department.ucsb.edu) and the WWW domain (e.g., http://www.department.ucsb.edu), so that users may access a site using either URL.

To accomplish this, create a Domain Name Service (DNS) Alias record in your DNS server for the domain name you wish to add.

Both the original domain name and the alias should point to the Web site’s home page. Departments that prefer only a single URL used in practice should include a redirect page at the alternative URL. The redirect page should notify the user of the preferred address (for an example, see http://ucsb.edu).

For SSL-secured sites, the WSG recommends the use of redirect pages to take users from either unsecured URL (e.g., http://department.ucsb.edu or http://www.department.ucsb.edu) to the secure domain for which the department has an SSL certificate (e.g., https://department.ucsb.edu).