★ wanayoo — archive 1999 http://www.stars.com/Location/Meta/refresh.html

The WDVL: Meta Refresh

Sometimes you may want to 'redirect' a request for one URL, to another. For example, the original URL has become obsolete and you'd like to direct the user to another URL. Or perhaps you want to create a slide show effect, where a sequence of pages is displayed without user intervention. This page shows how.

CGI/HTTP Location header if the page is generated by a CGI script.
Server redirect. I haven't done this in a long while and don't remember; and the exact method is server dependent.
Using the META tag in the HTML document head.
```
<META	HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh"
	Content	= "30;
	URL=http://Stars.com/Authoring/HTML/Head/meta.html">
```
Not all browsers support this; Netscape and Microsoft do. Be sure to place a link in the old document to the new one. Some browsers will not do the redirect if they are busy when the specified time arrives, e.g. loading images, so the delay time needs to be set high enough to allow that the page has had enough time to load completely. This may require some experimentation, preferably over a 28.8 Kbaud modem or slower.
Don't do this gratuitously - it can be annoying for the reader to be suddenly whisked off to another page (as you are going to be after this page has been here 30 seconds..).