Nameserver setup

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elfis

Verified User
Joined
Feb 5, 2005
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5
Hi all,

I'm not a reseller but have dedicated hosting for my own site; I would now like to link my domain (registerred at dotster) to my server. Unfortunately it's a mystery to me on how this is done. At my previous host i just pointed the host records for my domain to NS1.ITAHOST.COM and NS2.ITAHOST.COM and that was that (itahost.com being the guys where I had my hosting done). But at my new host they are telling me I need to create my own nameserver using directadmin at the reseller level which would look like: ns1.mydomain.com.

The logic in this seems to escape me completely .... if a webbrowser is trying to request the ip belonging to www.mydomain.com then its not logical that its being redirected to ns1.mydomain.com right?

isn't my hosting company supposed to tell me where to point my host record to ? If not then how am I supposed to set this up. At the 'nameservers' section at the reseller level there is only one ip available and has status "server"; according to a tutorial I was given I need at least one ip with status "shared" ....

god i hope i'm making and sense and someone can shed some light on this for me.
Greetz,
Emile
 
You say you're not a reseller. You say you have dedicted hosting for your own site. You say you have a reseller level.

So now you've confused me.

I guess a few questions are in order:

Do you have access to the server as admin?

If not, do you have access to the server as a reseller (do you end up with a reseller control panel when you log in)?

If not, do you have access to the server as an account user (do you end up with a user control panel when you log in)?

What you do depends on what kind of access you log in with.

Most hosting companies, even for dedicated accounts, include DNS services and all you have to do is assign the nameservers, just as you indicated.

However since your host has already told you that you should create your nameservers you do need to register two nameservers (hosts) with the same registrar you used to register your domain.

Exactly how you do that depends on your registrar; if you post your domain name either I or someone else might be able to lead you in the right direction.

Jeff
 
jlasman said:

Do you have access to the server as admin?

If not, do you have access to the server as a reseller (do you end up with a reseller control panel when you log in)?

If not, do you have access to the server as an account user (do you end up with a user control panel when you log in)?
Click to expand...

I log on to direct admin using the "admin" username and then I have access to both admin, reseller and user account levels.

Exactly how you do that depends on your registrar; if you post your domain name either I or someone else might be able to lead you in the right direction.
Click to expand...

the domain name I would like to use is:
ihomevideo.net

I registerred it with dotster
Greetz,
Emile
 
elfis said:
I log on to direct admin using the "admin" username and then I have access to both admin, reseller and user account levels.



the domain name I would like to use is:
ihomevideo.net

I registerred it with dotster
Greetz,
Emile
Click to expand...


Hi,

From what I see at (Whois) Dotster.com you are probably using the nameservers of Dotster. If you can change your DNS settings at dotster you basically have 2 options...

1) Point the www, mail, ftp (and any other records you may want) to the IP of your dedicated server. This would mean that any changes to your DNS would have to be made at Dotster everyting (ie, if you add a subdomain inside DA you'll have to add the records to Dotster DNS manually).

2) Run you own DNS on your dedicated server. For this you need 2 IP addresses, set up your account and add the records ns1.ihomevideo.net and ns2.ihomevideo.net with the correct IP addresses to your DNS (on your DA box). Go to Dotster and register the nameservers with them, go to your domain control panel and tell Dotster that it should use your nameservers to resolve the DNS queries for your domain. Any changes you make in DA will be reflected in the DNS immediately (remember that it will take time to propagate accross the internet so you may only see the change on the internet a couple of days later).

Basically option 1 is a lot of manual work and option 2 is automated. Option 1 however gives more security as your DNS is not dependant on a single server and option 2 everything depends on the status of your machine (expect an announcement later this month on thirdparty secondary DNS services for which will mitigate this risk)

Regards,
Onno Vrijburg
 
ok I think i got it figured out to some level. However some remarks:

shouldn't there be a third option in which I can just point my host record to my hosting company like ns1.quackweb.com and have them take care of it (as it is done with vps hosting).

second I would definately lean towards going with option 1 if I have to do things myself; however at dotster there is no dns managent included and needs to be purchased seperately (but it is available) ... ok this is not a problem but just to state it ;-)

So once I set up this dns at dotser all I have to do is set the A, MX etc records to the approriate ips? I'm still a bit in the dark on how the users' webbrowser is pointed to the correct directory (something like /home/public_html/ihomevideo.net/) but I take it that my server takes care of this when I configure the domain in directAdmin?

Greetz,
Emile
 
elfis said:
second I would definately lean towards going with option 1 if I have to do things myself; however at dotster there is no dns managent included and needs to be purchased seperately (but it is available) ... ok this is not a problem but just to state it ;-)
Click to expand...

The choice is yours, personally I wouldn't do that as I prefer automating settings. As you are only going to host your own domain it isn't too much of a problem though.


elfis said:
So once I set up this dns at dotser all I have to do is set the A, MX etc records to the approriate ips? I'm still a bit in the dark on how the users' webbrowser is pointed to the correct directory (something like /home/public_html/ihomevideo.net/) but I take it that my server takes care of this when I configure the domain in directAdmin?
Click to expand...

DirectAdmin has nothing to do with this part of it. On your DA box you have apache running, DA allows you to easily manage virtual hosts (by creating a user on your server). Apache has a configuration file called httpd.conf and each user has his own section of this configuration file. Simply said Apache gets the request and checks it's configuration to see if there is a virtual host setup for the url. If it finds a virtual host it looks in the configuration of the virtual host to find the location of the pages and then returns the requested page to the enduser.

Regards,
Onno Vrijburg
 
elfis said:
shouldn't there be a third option in which I can just point my host record to my hosting company like ns1.quackweb.com and have them take care of it (as it is done with vps hosting).
Click to expand...
This depends entirely on your hosting company. This question should be directed towards them. When someone rents a dedicated server from us we expect them to manage their own DNS on their DirectAdmin-based server, but we manage slave DNS so they have multiple nameservers at no charge. Your hosting company may offer the same features but just not be good at telling you. Ask them.
So once I set up this dns at dotser all I have to do is set the A, MX etc records to the approriate ips? I'm still a bit in the dark on how the users' webbrowser is pointed to the correct directory (something like /home/public_html/ihomevideo.net/) but I take it that my server takes care of this when I configure the domain in directAdmin?
Click to expand...
Your DA server will manage that automatically.

Note that if you use Dotster to manage your DNS, then you should make sure to create in your Dotster account all the same records that DA creates automatically for DNS when you set up a domain.

Jeff
 
i have set up a dns server at dotster and have the same records as the ones DA made for me. However I don't need to add NS records here do I? Since I don't use it ....

Now all I hope is that the domain will point to the proper user I created in DA. I'm a bit disappointed that my host didn't take care of all these settings since they knew the domain name I was going to use ...

Greetz,
Emile
 
Last edited:
Checking whois a moment ago, you're using ns1.quackweb.com and ns2.quackweb.com.

And they are NOT resolving anything; a dig of your domain does not return any A record at all.

What nameserver names did you set up at Dotster?

After you set them up, did you make the changes on their control panel so your domain is using them? It doesn't look like it.

We're a Dotster reseller, and if you want to move your domain to us we'll help you configure it, but you're still on your own in setting up your DA server as a nameserver (although that should "just work").

If you want us to help you further please contact me by email; the proper email address is in my sig.

Jeff
 
the guys at quackweb have set up a nameserver for me that point to the correct ips; my host records were updated yesterday so I quess they still need to propagate. If I do a whois at www.ns.com they already show up (NS1.BAT.CONNECTNETWORK.NET and NS2. ... )

In my browser i'm already directed to the proper IP (but now apache gave up on me ...).


Greetz,
Emile
 
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