Finding the Right Terminology
When I first started thinking about this topic I was just surfing the web and I began to notice URLs that looked strange to me. These URLs did not list a file name. I wondered how that could be. Examples look like:
http://dotnetofasp.net/howtoblog/2009/12/wordpress/how-to-setup-wordpress/
http://www.ikailo.com/94/url-modrewrite-workaround-iis-60/
No Filenames for post slugs / permalinks
Etc. and so on.
It took me a really long time to even know how to search for something like this. I had no idea what this technique was called. I searched things like “blog directories” “weblog, no file names” “SEO, Blogs”. Mostly I thought that since this technique is helpful in getting your page found by search engines, I could find it on an SEO site. As you can guess these searches returned things unrelated to what I wanted.
Finally, a bright idea… Look for a forum about blogging, a forum about just writing a blog…. I signed up at this forum called Blogging Tips. I put up a post and the nice British chap that runs the site was quick to respond. Seems like a pretty good forum thus far. This forum could help you understand how to make money on your blog but for me it answered the question above.
The name given to this technique is post slugs. Later while searching I found another name, permalinks. From here on out I will use the two words interchangeably. Finally I had put a name (a couple names actually >>> permalinks and post slugs) to what I wanted but how could I use them? How could I set up my own permalinks?
Windows and ISS Hosting Problems, Errors, Nightmares, Other Bad Words
With some reading I soon learned that my Windows hosting was not setup to handle permalinks. For some odd reason this was not supported. I emailed my hosting company(ixwebhosting) for some advice but was assured that it could not be done. This was after I sent several ideas I had gotten from the WordPress website. They talk extensively on how to use permalinks. Take a look at the section entitled “Permalinks without mod_rewrite“. The options listed there include:
1. Microsoft’s URL Rewrite Module
2. PATHINFO Permalinks
3. Custom 404 Redirects
The man from my hosting company that I talked to said it was not possible.
Well……………………………drum roll………………………………………………………………it can be done……. and I did it…………………..actually I just followed the advice of a great programmer so really I did little but copy but you can do the same….. I used custom 404 redirects. Below are links on how to get your permalinks working. I have also listed some other links in case you want to do this a different way.
New Version of a 404 redirect << The link I used
Older Version of a 404 redirect
Another Technique Using An isapi-rewrite 3.0 from helicontech.com
Allows for a real 404 page in addition to permalinks
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