Domain Masking

Table of Contents

• What is masking?
• Why masking is not a DNS function
• Can DNSimple mask my domain for me?
• What can I do?
• Have more questions?

What is masking?

Domain Masking (or URL Masking) is when you set up a website to display the content of another while hiding the destination’s URL. For example, using Domain Masking makes the website examplemail.com show the content of mail.example.com/email/login, without the user knowing they’re accessing mail.example.com.

This is often done with HTML iframes, or by setting up a proxy.

Why masking is not a DNS function

DNS (Domain Name System) translates domain names into IP addresses and provides other routing information, but it does not modify the content or URLs that web browsers display. When you visit a website, DNS tells your browser where to find the server, but the server itself determines what content to show and what URL appears in the browser’s address bar. Masking requires application-level functionality that runs on a web server, not DNS-level functionality.

Can DNSimple mask my domain for me?

No. URL modification is not a DNS functionality. We have chosen not to develop a helper for this.

If you don’t mind displaying the destination URL, you can set up a URL record to point to the destination.

If you control the destination website, you can set up an ALIAS or CNAME record to point to the destination, and configure the destination systems to redirect to the correct page.

Adding both an ALIAS/CNAME and a URL record does not combine behaviors of the two. It will return both records to the user, creating an inconsistent and incorrect experience.

DNS records serve different purposes and cannot be combined to achieve masking. A URL record performs an HTTP redirect, which changes the URL in the browser. An ALIAS or CNAME record points the domain to another hostname but does not change what URL the browser displays. These are fundamentally different operations that cannot work together to hide a destination URL.

What can I do?

If you want to mask the URL and present only your domain, you need to set up your own web-server to intercept and handle this. We recommend using a third-party app that requires no configuration other than DNS to work: brighella

This is not a DNSimple product or something we support, but we know it works well with our service.

Have more questions?

If you have any questions about domain masking or URL masking, just contact support, and we’ll be happy to help.