Using your own NameServers ?

[Mark]

Well after changing nameservers on about 180 domains by hand at a certain site recently (*cough* Ahem - NP need mass editing -RJ- :p) I "then" decided it would be easier to set up my own Nameservers and just point those to the IP's of my new hosting account(s) and several parking services.

Example :
ns1.oneofmydomains.com ns2.oneofmydomains.com Point to the IP's of this parking company and ns3.oneofmydomains.com ns4.oneofmydomains.com points to another Parking company etc ... So if I switch hosts/parking from now on I just have to reset the IP's and wait a bit for them to switch over.

Many others doing this ? Noticed any downside to doing this ?

Just seems like a time saver when Bulk editing is not available.

 

[filter]

:hi:

ns1.oneofmydomains.com ns2.oneofmydomains.com Point to the IP's of this parking company and ns3.oneofmydomains.com ns4.oneofmydomains.com points to another Parking company etc ... So if I switch hosts/parking from now on I just have to reset the IP's and wait a bit for them to switch over.

Not sure I understand exactly how this setup is supposed to work ... Are all 4 nameservers in your example supposed to be active at the same time? I think I'm missing something here.

As for DNS in general ... IMO usually a good idea to use nameservers other than what the registrar provides - though motivation is more for reliability / flexibility rather than convenience. (Registrar nameservers are that much closer to "single point of failure" as well as lock-in if you ever have difficulty dealing with the registrar)

I've used zoneedit.com to provide DNS for a few domains for years, they are "good enough" (actually really good - never had any problem with their DNS service) - I think they have some bulk admin features. Costs money (not much, but a few bucks) to use zoneedit for more than 5 domains though.

So I also use the DNS service that comes with my fastmail.fm "enhanced" email account (which costs about $40 per year) - handles up to 50 domains. I don't think there's any real serious bulk admin capability though maybe I just haven't found it (haven't really looked for it).

I also use other another commercial DNS provider (DNSMadeEasy) for just a few domains - but strictly for reliability, which costs accordingly ...

Have thought about actually setting up my own DNS servers but haven't gotten to the point where the time + effort + cost to do that adds up in any reasonable way (would want to have well-administered DNS running on at least 2 solid servers in different parts of the country / world) ... so I don't mind paying a bit to use a professionally run service when it makes sense to do so, just for a few "core" domains.

 

[npcomplete]

I have been running my own name servers for over ten years. I also use commercial dns for critical domains containing websites and mail. Customers bounce off the walls when mail goes down, so extra care is needed. This has saved me a *lot* of money over the years. With a fixed IP high quality commercial server I can point lots of domains to the IP and deliver different pages via perl.

Never did it quite the way you did it (different dns for different IP's, which is strange). I understand why you are doing it that way, but once you have it on your own server you could write a script to update your dns files automatically, and not worry about different dns servers saying different things.

Marc

 

[Mark]

Thanks for the posts -

I'm not really even talking about using it on my own server/host - Simply setting up nameservers on a few of my domains that are pointed toward "others" NS.

If you have any domains reg'd here at NP (The only place I've played around with this so far) - You have the ability to set up nameservers from the domain management page. I started messing with it only a few weeks ago ... And I'll be the first to admit I'm not very "Tech Savvy"

From the page in the management section.

This feature is used to register and create your own nameservers and is intended for webmasters who are setting up their own DNS servers.

Not sure I understand exactly how this setup is supposed to work ... Are all 4 nameservers in your example supposed to be active at the same time? I think I'm missing something here.

Yeah - I actually have 3 pairs of NS set up on the same domain already - All pointing to 3 different Parking companies nameservers IP's .... and it is working. Please don't ask me how or why though

I personally think it could be a decent way to "Brand" yourself or a domain with so many whois request being made these days.

I've also set up a few NS on my small Reseller plans - No problems there either so far ... But I'm not brave enough yet to send any traffic domains toward this set up.

 

[cache]

don't quite understand this:
"So if I switch hosts/parking from now on I just have to reset the IP's and wait a bit for them to switch over."

You still need to do the mass editing for this, right?

===
Changing the subject, some of the domains I transfered out of NP are still showing
from the domain management page at NP

 

[bbalegere]

I have tried this.There is no downside to this.
I have had no problem doing for my domains.The only benefit you get is that,if someone runs whois query on your domain they will not easily come to know which hosting provider you are using.

 

[Kate]

Basically you need to declare hosts at the registrar where the domain is registered.
For that you need to use the name servers of the registrar (at NP I assume it would be:
Name Server: DNS1.NAME-SERVICES.COM
Name Server: DNS2.NAME-SERVICES.COM
Name Server: DNS3.NAME-SERVICES.COM
Name Server: DNS4.NAME-SERVICES.COM
Name Server: DNS5.NAME-SERVICES.COM
(assigned automatically)

Then you create the hosts and enter matching IP addresses like that:
ns1 (ns1.domain.com) -> ip= 255.255.255.255
ns2 (ns2.domain.com) -> ip= 254.254.254.254
etc

Wait for propagation and you can start using your own name servers :gl:

Personnally I use a third party DNS provider for more redundancy.
PS: it would be good to have a minimum of 2 name servers per service, hosted on different IP classes (for redundancy).

 

[Mark]

You still need to do the mass editing for this, right?

Nope - in fact it eliminates that problem. If I have all of my Geo domains parked at "XDomainParking.company" I'll assign NS's for just my Geo domains using their parking NS IP's. And if I later decide to move my Geo's to "YParking.Company" - I simply have to reassign the IP's on those NS and wait for them to propagate across the web.

===
Changing the subject, some of the domains I transfered out of NP are still showing
from the domain management page at NP

-RJ- handles all Domain issues Contact him or use : http://www.namepros.com/namepros-domain-system-support/

 

[Keral_Patel]

Well after changing nameservers on about 180 domains by hand at a certain site recently (*cough* Ahem - NP need mass editing -RJ- :p) I "then" decided it would be easier to set up my own Nameservers and just point those to the IP's of my new hosting account(s) and several parking services.

Had similar experience recently with my address. Shifted my house and had to update each and every domain name one by one.

 

[Mark]

lol - Nick .... Isn't very fun is it ?

-RJ- is a busy man - But if we persist , Perhaps we'll get that addressed. I'll move more domains in if he does :red:

 

[Keral_Patel]

Yes Mark it was fun thing :D I didn't had many domains like you but still editing 22 to 25 domains and its addresses was a huge job.

Moreover I was working like Speedy Gonzales opened up 10 windows at one time and later found that I was updating the same domain name again and again

So it had to be done one by one

 

[Mark]

- I've done that in the past on NS as well .... You only do it once though

 

[Bill]

You know if you do PM RJ he can change them all at once for you....

-Bill

 

[labrocca]

Y'know this could be a valuable service for domainers if marketed properly.

 

[lau]

Yeh, i using my own nameserver
Easy for my domain parking

 

[Mark]

So much for this idea ...

Anyone doing what I described above ^ Might want to check some of your domains ... I've just noticed today a lot of my domains are no longer resolving correctly And my NS are still set correctly - It's not a cache problem either.

Weird thing is - The NS's I set up to go toward a Parking company's NS IP's are still working fine , But the ones I pointed toward my own Hosting account(s) are now going to Parking companies I've never even used.

Not cool

EDIT -

Just found out that some of the domains going to my hosting accounts ARE still working. Seems to only be certain domains .... Strange to say the least.

 

[lzy]

I've been doing this for quite some time. Makes everything easier. Perhaps you need to wait for 24-48 hours for the nameservers to propagate fully.

If you're using something else other than .com, it may take a longer time. I've tried that with my nameserver.tv but it took forever and the results were erratic.

 

[MattheP]

Talking about dynamic dns, I was using dnsexit.com for some time, and it worked fine and free. You can check it out if dont want to build your own dns server.

 

[Name Trader]

I've used www.DomainDNS.com in the past. But since mostly my domains are parked, usually, the registrars dns is good enough.

 

[Rob J]

I believe you have to register your nameservers with your registrar