Having your own Name Server?

Hi,

Pardon my Stupidity and Ignorance, but I noticed there's an option or function of maybe creating your own "Name Server" on DirectAdmin and there's an option to click on "Virtual" ? Is it possible to have our own DNS Name Servers? So that when people go look us up on "whois" like at networsolutions.com, it can show "ns1.yourdomain.com" ? Or is it even possible to mask my current host's dns nameserver "ns59a.genericdns.com" ? I noticed some Hosts offer you your own DNS Name Server, but I'm not sure if mine does. Can someone fill me in please? And let me know those options under "Nameservers" in DirectAdmin is for and functionality. I'd greatly appreciate it! Thanks!

I've been doing DNS for in the area of 20 years, and I find the DA nameserver options a bit hard to understand, so I know what you mean.

Yes you can have your own nameservers at your domain.

You need your hosting provider to assign you two IP#s; one for each required nameserver.

Then register the names and IP#s you want to use with the same registrar who registered your domain; for example:

ns1.example.com 192.168.1.30
ns2.example.com 192.168.2.31

(Registering the nameserver [or host] is not quite the same as assigning it; the function is often hidden somewhere on the registrar's website; you may have to look for it.)

Once you've registered the nameserver you may need to wait up to 72 hours before it's available on the Internet; while you're waiting, create A records for it on the domain where you've registered it; using the examples above you'd create A records in the example.com domain for ns1.example.com and for ns2.example.com, using the same IP#s you gave the registrar.

After the 72 hours have passed you may safely use those nameservers; to do so you'll have to go to the registrars where you've registered your sites, and assign the new nameservers for the domain.

Then you should go into the DNS for each of the domains (on DirectAdmin), and delete the old NS records, and create new ones, pointing to your own nameservers, using for example, ns1.example.com and ns2.example.com.

Jeff