Frames, iFrames, graybox, and _blank

[dgdot]

Hello all,
I have an external web page that I need to display on my site. it's a real estate site linking to an "idx solution".
My current solution is to place it in a frame. I'm looking for something a bit less "clunky" looking.
After a lot of trial and error and searching, it looks like iframes are out of the question since I need the iframe to automatically resize according to the dynamic content of the external page. There are scripts to do this, but not for an external page. I don't want to specify a long static page for obvious reasons.

My concern with a standard link is that although the external page is somewhat personalized for me (I can add my company logo), I have no way to provide a navigation menu on that external page. Visitors would be "trapped" on that external page with no way to get back to my site (except via the BACK button).

That leaves me with leaving it in a frame or simply having a new window open when a visitor clicks on the link for the external page.
edited to add: Another solution would be to use the Greybox/Thickbox/ solution and open the window in a new,centered window with all the bells and whistles.

What's the conventional thought on which would be preferred?
Many thanks!

 

[Logan]

Generally, a standard hyperlink to the external page is the accepted norm and when this is used, the link's text is set to the name of the external site. This informs the users that when they click on the link, they're going to be taken to an external site.

If you want to allow users to view external pages, but stay in your site, you could set up a page that has links to navigate around your site across the top of the page and an iframe filling up the rest. this isn't going to cause problems, because essentially what you'll have is a web browser on your page.