how to ensure that 'www' is always included in the url?

[ABLady]

on my server, when I type:
http://www.mysite.domain/forums/ (http://www.mysite.domain/forums/)

the www remains in the url when the page loads; However, if I leave the '/' off the end of url like so:
http://www.mysite.domain/forums

the 'www' part gets dropped in the page that loads... like so:
http://mysite.domain/forums/

My question:
How do I set my server so that the 'www' never gets dropped?

[sebe]

try setting UseCanonicalName in httpd.conf to Off.. eg,

UseCanonicalName Off

also, if you always want www. in the url you can use rewrite to change mydomain.com to www.mydomain.com

you can add this to htaccess file or httpd

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^mydomain.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.mydomain.com/$1 [R]

just replace mydomain with yours.

[ABLady]

Thanks sebe,

I'll try these settings.

[splooge]

What does Options -> Site Name / URL / Contact Details -> Forum URL contain?

In your apache settings, make sure the path to your documentroot doesn't have a trailing slash. '/'

Also make sure your <Directory /path/to/doc/root> directive doesn't have a trailing slash.

[ABLady]

Okay splooge... I'll check the server settings to see about these two items you mentioned.
Thanks for your input.