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.

 

[cache]

I have a related question. I am not looking for fancy dns, just want to know how conventional way is done.
I have my web content uploaded at dedicated server. The server hastwo ip addresses, they are
68.178.248.150 and 68.178.248.165
the above addresses are where the contents, not the DNS server address.

My question is this:
at the registrar where I have registered the domain, how do I change the DNS? Can I
simply enter the above two IP addresses as my DNS server address? I know the DNS IP addreses usually are something like ns1.somednsserverdomain.com and ns2.somednsserverdomain.com, but I thought since I already have two ip addresses with web contents, how bother with dns server? Isn't that simply associate these two
address with your domain the simplest solution?

Thanks in advance for answering.

 

[npcomplete]

I have a related question. I am not looking for fancy dns, just want to know how conventional way is done.
I have my web content uploaded at dedicated server. The server hastwo ip addresses, they are
68.178.248.150 and 68.178.248.165
the above addresses are where the contents, not the DNS server address.

My question is this:
at the registrar where I have registered the domain, how do I change the DNS? Can I
simply enter the above two IP addresses as my DNS server address? I know the DNS IP addreses usually are something like ns1.somednsserverdomain.com and ns2.somednsserverdomain.com, but I thought since I already have two ip addresses with web contents, how bother with dns server? Isn't that simply associate these two
address with your domain the simplest solution?

Thanks in advance for answering.

The short answer is that your proposal will not work. At the registrar you need to enter the IP or fully qualified domain of the DNS (like NS1.Fabulous.com). The DNS system is a hierarchical database. It starts with "." or "dot" which is the root, and is implied at the end of any domain. The resolution process that turns the domain into an IP address starts at the "dot" and proceeds backwards. For example, Namepros.com. is resolved by going to the root servers (the implied dot at the end) and figuring out who is responsible for ".com.". That will point to the DNS server for .com. The next step (ignoring caching, which takes precedent) is to ask the .com server for the address of "namepros". If there is a third level domain, like "something.namepros.com.", then the process repeats. So basically the root servers point to the tld servers, the tld servers point to the second level domain servers (dns for namepros), and so on.

So if you entered the IP address of your website into the registrar nameserver field, then the DNS resolution process would go to your IP address you entered and expect to find a *real* dns server there, and not a nameserver (unless you are also running a nameserver on the same IP). At that point the resolution would break down.

Marc

 

[cache]

thank you for your answer. If I run a nameserver on the same IP, then I will add more load on the same server (I prefer not to do that).

I see that mydomain.com offers "Powerful free DNS management services", but when I logged in my account, I don't see anyway to setup a dns server. Is the "Powerful free DNS management services" for people paid their hosting solution?

If I just want to map my own domain to the IP address on the private server without extra load on the private server, are there any good free DNS services I can use?

 

[npcomplete]

thank you for your answer. If I run a nameserver on the same IP, then I will add more load on the same server (I prefer not to do that).

I see that mydomain.com offers "Powerful free DNS management services", but when I logged in my account, I don't see anyway to setup a dns server. Is the "Powerful free DNS management services" for people paid their hosting solution?

If I just want to map my own domain to the IP address on the private server without extra load on the private server, are there any good free DNS services I can use?

Compared to a web server load, a DNS server query is absolutely trivial wrt both bandwidth, CPU, and memory. DNS is also heavily cached so in most cases once a user at a given ISP goes to your site, then the ISP's DNS server (or whoever the user uses for the main resolver) will be cached, and then the *next* query from that ISP will use the ISP cache, unless the DNS is setup for non-caching.

Sometimes we deliberately force non-caching, for example in distributed agent systems used for "Battle-Hardened Distributed Computing" (my field) where computers and links occasionally blow up or suffer from Distributed Denial of Service. In that case you want the caching turned off to allow rapid relocation of vital agents after destruction/decommission of a server/link. An "agent" can be thought of as a "mobile job/task" that can be moved around the collection of servers as needed for load balancing, risk abatement, etc. In that case you don't want the cache remembering the "old" location of an agent since the agent moves around the system. The reasoning is the same though: the load from DNS is trivial compared to agent CPU/memory/messaging resources.

Sorry, but I cannot answer the questions about commercial/free services... just technical stuff. I have run my own DNS servers for 12 years.

 

[TheBulldog]

It is a million times easier to change ip's for 2-4 nameservers, then 200+ domains.

Heck, even for 5+ domains if you were moving a single hosting or reselling account, it is a million times easier.

Just make sure your domains are backed up and transferred first.

 

[cache]

npcomplete,
you are right the dns traffic may not be significant. However since I bought a windows server and did not want to pay for plesk, I am not quite sure how to create the nameserver. Is domain forwarding a good option? (I don't want to lose the page rank etc).

 

[npcomplete]

npcomplete,
you are right the dns traffic may not be significant. However since I bought a windows server and did not want to pay for plesk, I am not quite sure how to create the nameserver. Is domain forwarding a good option? (I don't want to lose the page rank etc).

I used a windows NT DNS server many years ago. It was "ok" and free, but there are lots of better ways to do this. I know a lot of people avoid Linux, but in that world just about everything is free, works, and is stable.

My Linux servers have been up and running for years without reboot. Can you say that about anything in the windows world? For just DNS service the server does not need to be powerful. Around here (Seattle) you can pick up a good used box for about $25 that is capable of running Linux and a DNS server.

If you still want to run on Windows, then google "bind dns windows" and you should be able to find something. Bind has been ported to Windows. Basically I used a Bind port many years ago, but finally shut it down. Here is a link to some windows ports of Bind:

http://www.isc.org/index.pl?/sw/bind/

Never tried any of the recent Windows ports though. Maybe somebody else around here is familiar with Bind on Windows.

 

[cache]

Just want to report my resolution.
All the sudden I thought one idea: simply change the type "A" record field at the registrar. I just tried this and it worked! This means the registrar is providing the
nameserver.