Want your webhost? Think again. A little Network DNS rant/rave..interesting
 

This is a interesting rant and rave of mine thought give a shout for anybody who wants freedom (aka everybody using unix) and wants there own (stick in something in regards to internet)
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Ok here is the setup:

Server box
ISPConfig installled using the PERFECT GUIDE for Ubuntu or what not.
Domain Name: www.mydomain.com
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Ok so here is the situation:
I go through comcast which gives me an IP address that is set via DHCP but never changes and can get set to use static. I have my server box setup with a static IP. Now I want my server to basically do this:

1. Random person goes online to get to www.mydomain.com.
2. Redirects them to MY DNS Server configured using ISP config - Note referenced later. (Questions Below)
3. DNS Server says hey we got a www.mydomain.com in our lists. Redirect to my local folder say "/home/www/www.mydomain.com".
4. Displays and work with contents of /home/www/www.mydomain.com
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Ok so here is the question. Lets say I have a domain name purchased from say Godaddy, Verizon, etc. Ok as I see it there is no way to get #2 above to work properly. Because of the following (WARNING I am be wrong):

1. Person gets on plain client computer and goes to www.google.com
> TRANSACTION occurs: Basically computer/connection goes like this: client request -> DNS server of internet connection -> DNS Server of Internet company goes to Public Database (ICANN??) thats says www.google.com is dnsed/owned by say 24.23.577.56 (DNS server of google).
2. DNS of Google says www.google.com = get files from our local server(s) that are located at "/home/www/google.com" (for example).
3. Google displays contents of "/home/www/google.com".
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SO then in reality YOU the purchasers of www.yourdomain.com from Godaddy are really paying Godaddy.com to pay the public database (ICANN??) 25 cents where they charge $2-$10 for hosting you name.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PUBLIC DATABASE (ICANN/or whoever) GOES DOWN? Natural disaster probably wont affect it because it probably gots tens of location around the world. But what happens if team of dedicated people say ok we are taking over Public database (ICANN??) and take it down completely? Does that mean the internet back bone is gone? Internet will not work? Sure new one can get setup but the whole point of it is WHO HAS THE CONTROL?

I'm afraid your post is awfully confusing. You appear to be trying to explain DNS and your web server at the same time.

Firstly if you have a dynamic IP address then I suggest you don't run your own DNS server, even if it hardly ever changes. The reason is that you will need to inform the high level DNS servers and these take some updating. You will also need to get the current slave (secondary) updated to point at your new primary DNS server. Instead you should get a DNS provider to point your domains www record at your webserver. This is how I have set my server up, I also get a dynamic IP address, however I get the same IP address all the time, except for about once a year or so when they make some changes to the infrastructure and hence change my address.
You also need to know that if you do decide to host your own DNS you need at least 2 servers (or someone that will act as a secondary for you).

To cover your point about the root DNS servers going down, this is a risk, as far as I know it has only ever happened once, and even then it didn't hit all the servers.

Here is a good explanation of the resiliance of the DNS root servers.

If you are concerned about the charges for providing DNS a few dollars is not much of a charge. It takes a lot to manage DNS entries on the Internet, which need to be registered on local DNS servers, before the delegation can be setup from the higher level servers. A DNS provider has to have at least two servers that they need to manage and update.

Who has the control? Nobody, or it's shared whichever you prefer.


So what's your concern, and if you think there is a better solution - lets hear it.