nameserver help needed for newbie

[antium]

I have recently aquired a dedicated server with a fresh install of DirectAdmin. I have been trying for two days to get the nameservers properly set up, and would appreciate someone putting it into 'dummy' speak for me.

Some things already appear to have been filled in by the hosting company. If i go to 'DNS Administration', then there is 'server780.mywebhost.com' there. If I click on that it appears to say it's using 'ns1.mywebhost.com.' & 'ns2.mywebhost.com.' as it's nameservers.

I already have domain names I'd like to use registered with another site. I have read the guides I could find on this forum about how to setup nameservers (ns1.mydomain.com), but I assume it doesn't work because 'mydomain.com' is registered by a different site, not the dedicated server host.

If i change the DNS info at the domain name site to 'ns1.mywebhost.com & ns2.mywebhost.com' then leave it for 72 hours, it does nothing. Putting in 'ns1.mydomain.com' does nothing either.

I really could use some help, although I'm sure I haven't written this very clearly at all. Thank you for trying to read my rambling.

 

[DirectAdmin Support]

This is our "starter" guide:
http://www.directadmin.com/newinstall.html

If you've got an external DNS server, then follow the above steps anyway to create the domain. Make sure the domain resolves to your DA servers IP address.

It is easier if you keep everything on the DA server itself, because new subdomains will also require A records added to the zone. DA does this automatically if the zone is local, but if it's controlled elsewhere, then you'd have to do it for each entry, by hand.

Check www.dnsreport.com to see what your parent nameservers are actually set to.

John

 

[antium]

Hi,

Thank you for posting the link to the guide. I hadn't found that one. I have set everything up exactly how it says to, and everythiing looks perfect.

When I go to domainnameregiser.com to change the nameserver entries for the domain name, it won't allow me to save them. It says " 'ns1.mydomain.com' is not a valid server. 'ns2.mydomain.com' is not a valid nameserver."

Should the nameservers be available straight away? Or will it take a while?

If it's supposed to be available straight away, then I don't understand what I've done wrong.

Thank you.

EDIT: I've just found another site saying that I will need to wait 24-72 hours for the nameservers to become usable. I thought this wait was only when you linked a domain name to a nameserver. Hopefully this will solve it. Thank you for you help. Now to sit here and wait... *waits*

 

[antium]

Make sure the domain resolves to your DA servers IP address.

What does this mean?

My dedicated server is hosted with one company. The domain name is registered with another.

how can ns1.mydomain.com be a nameserver for my DA server, when mydomain.com is in no way associated with the server?

Still, when trying to set the nameservers for mydomain.com (at the domain name registering company), I get - "ns2.mydomain.com' is not a valid nameserver.'ns1.mydomain.com' is not a valid nameserver."

This doesn't seem to be working. If i can't even get past step one, then how am I supposed to do the rest? *wonders if I should have stuck with shared hosting*

EDIT: Already in DA before I used it (must have been put there by webhost was server780.webhost.com (as stated in first post). Should I be using this for my nameservers? Or the domain that is registered somewehre else?

 

[antium]

Hi... Just letting you know that I'd solved this. Was easier than I thought.

For any other newbies searching through old forum posts, what I didn't realise was that I had to actually create the nameservers in the domain registing companies control panel. This is probably obvious to most people, but I'm sure someone with limited knowledge will need to know one day