Understanding Domain Blocking in One Article

When browsing the Internet, many things happen behind the scenes that affect our online experience. Among them, domain masking plays a unique role in the operation of the Internet.

Domain masking, also known as URL hiding or masked redirection, is a type of domain forwarding that hides the target URL from web users. When domain masking is set, the browser will redirect the user to the new domain, but the browser bar will retain the previous URL, making the user feel that the location has not changed. For example, from "squadhelp.com" to "atom.com" through domain masking, the user will be taken to the latter website after entering the former in the browser, but the browser bar will still show "squadhelp.com".

Many companies use domain masking for different purposes. First, companies with multiple domains will point different URLs to the main website, which can simplify the URL, prevent confusion, and ensure that visitors always go to the right website. Second, online marketers often use this to redirect website traffic to affiliate links while making the affiliate website appear to be part of the marketer's main domain.

In terms of the mechanism of operation, domain masking routes Domain Name System (DNS) lookups through special proxy servers. When a visitor types or clicks on the "hidden domain", they are redirected to the "target domain" in the background. On the web browser, this process happens seamlessly. On the back end, the web hosting provider uses masking software or configuration to associate the masked domain name with the main domain name. So, when the user types or clicks on the masked domain name, it seems to be a direct interaction, but in fact the domain name is just an alias of the original URL and IP address.