A few months back I came across a rather unusual solution. I asked my hosting provider to implement this for me, and what they did is the following.
<html>
<frameset border="'0'">
<frame src="'http://some_domain.com'">
</frameset>
</html>
The result of this is when you go to some_other_domain.com, you will get the above html file, which contains a full screen frame that is actually some_domain.com. In most cases, the important thing here is the address bar. The address bar will reflect some_other_domain.com.
Essentially there is a mirage that you are on one domain, when the content is really coming from another domain.
I recently came across another use for this workaround. I have several files and links that are helpful in pursuing a CCNA. Directory Browsing works great for the files. If I delete a file or add a new file, the change will be reflected to the user when they next browse the directory. The problem is then links. A windows shortcut will not work directly from directory browsing, the user would have to download it to their computer and then open it as a windows shortcut - which is also limiting it to the windows platform. So I came up with what I thought was a clever little solution.
I created a very simple html file that simply redirected you to the desired destination - the user would never even realize it happened.
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title></title>
</head>
<body>
Redirecting to <a href="http://www.securecottage.com/demo/rsa2.html">http://www.securecottage.com/demo/rsa2.html</a>
</body>
<script type="text/javascript">
window.location = 'http://www.securecottage.com/demo/rsa2.html';
</script>
</html>
This worked great until one of my peers told me that the back button didn't work. Moments later it clicked - of course back doesn't work, back brings you back to this page - which then redirects you to the originally-desired page. Ever had to fight with the back button! This is usually why!
While I know I could write some javascript that would solve this problem. I decided to use the mirage approach. So the above is now:
<html>
<FRAMESET border='0'>
<FRAME SRC='http://www.securecottage.com/demo/rsa2.html'>
</FRAMESET>
</html>
There is a drawback here though - now it appears that my domain is hosting the above page when it really isn't (by just looking at the address bar). But given that I am just looking for a simple solution for a link; this does it as well as solves the back button problem and even has fewer lines of html.
