Redirect visitor from one domain to another but keep the requested domain name

Question

So I have a client who wants to have a multilingual web site that can be accessed by 2 domain names:

domain_name_1.ru

domain_name_2.ee (default)

The client doesn't want to log in and out every time he/she needs to create content for both sites. The site itself is running on WordPress and right now the russian version of the site can be viewed by typing in:

domain_name_2.ee/ru

NB! the domain names are hosted at 2 different web hosts.

domain_name_1.ru web hosts only options are 1) to redirect the domain 2) to change name servers

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Because of this, I'd like to know if it is possible to run both sites on 1 WordPress install and by using .htaccess can the domain name domain_name_2.ee/ru be masked to domain_name_1.ru when the user visits the site?

Answer 1

I managed to redirect and keep domain_name_1.ru in the the address-bar by going to the host and creating an alias for it. Here is a list of my steps:

• created an alias for domain_name_1.ru
• created a sub domain of ru.domain_name_2.ee
• installed WP at htdocs directory
• enabled MultiSite
• created the MS network
• made the necessary MS changes to wp-config and .htaccess files in the htdocs directory
• made changes to the name servers by creating a wildcard (*) A/AAA record with redirect to the IP address
• created a new site with a domain name of domain_name_1.ru in WP MS.

Answer 2

The way you want to do this is setup the domain_name_1.ru domain to use the domain_name_2.ee/ru directory as its document root (can do this using virtual host and the DocumentRoot directive). Otherwise you'll have to use mod_proxy, and ensure that it's loaded, and reverse proxy the request to the other domain:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?domain_name_1\.ru$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://domain_name_2.ee/ru/$1 [L,P]