Multiple HTTP sites resolving to one public address

[karl.jones]

We have 2 fw's which have some hosted web servers on a DMZ. There are about 6 different http sites that resolve to the same public IP address. How does the FW no which server or servers to pass the request on for the different pages. I think some servers may host more than one site, but just interested how the different sites are resolved to the one address.

Any one know how this may work

Regards

[mostiguy]

Google around for http host headers .

Basically, Joe User puts www.mmmmmbacon.com in the browser, hits enter. His pc does dns queries to resolve that name to an IP, and makes a TCP connection to that IP, but in the HTTP application level request, the URL is included. The web server, which is responsible for both that site, as well as nobaconpleaseweremuslimororthodox.com , groks the URL request, and knows which sites content to serve up.

Web server admins can configure a default web site, for use with ancient browsers that don't support HTTP 1.1 (all netscape//IE browsers >= 3.0 support HTTP 1.1, IIRC), as well as for people who put ip addresses in the browsers. So in our scenario, it would be up to the admin to determine which of those sites he wanted to set up as the default site for those scenarios.

Finally, host headers and SSL do not work together.

[karl.jones]

Thanks for that