Remove WWW prefix from your website

Question

How does Stack Overflow (and other web sites) remove the \'www\' prefix when it\'s entered as part of a URL?

Is it a redirect, a rewrite or something else entirely?<

Answer 1

You need a default dns entry added pointing to your web server.

ping site.com and verify ip is pointing to webserver, if not you need to get the default DNS entry added.

for a basic setup:

You'll have to add host headers http://www.visualwin.com/host-header/

Create 1 site with a hostheader of www.site.com

In the Home Directory tab, set it to a permanent redirect to http://site.com

Create a 2nd site with a host header of site.com

If you want www.site.com/file.html to redirect to site.com/file.html you will need a more advanced setup with something like ISAPI_Rewrite or use custom 404 pages to do it.