DNS Setting for the Registrar
 

Hi,

I have just registered my web site xxxx.com with a registrar.

I have set up my machine as mail.xxxx.com with DNS for name-ip lookup

My registrar is asking for the name-servers so that it can resolve the xxxx.com to ip address.

I have a constant connection to the net with a static IP.
my isp provider is not my registrar.

Can anyone help as to what names and ip addresses i give to the registrar and they are asking for 2 name-servers so, which would be the second NS.

A poor sort of registrar if they don't give you the option to use their name servers.

Normally, you would use the name servers of your registrar. It seems that you need to find a hosting service for your zone file, or at least for the secondary one.

I'd advise against hosting your own name servers as there's a very good chance that your ISP (to whom your IP address belongs) will not set up a reverse lookup for that address. Not good for a name server!

If you're determined to go ahead, then the primary DNS server should be your own IP, the secondary should be the IP address of whoever is doing the secondary for you (you need to get someone to do this).

Ensure that you get the zone file correct and allow the secondary to do zone transfers so it will reflect any changes you make.

I used to work as a hostmaster, and it's very easy to foul things up!

Good luck.

Carl.

A poor sort of registrar if they don't give you the option to use their name servers.
--well they do have the option by pay to pay $$

Normally, you would use the name servers of your registrar. It seems that you need to find a hosting service for your zone file, or at least for the secondary one.

--Found one (http://www.granitecanyon.com/)

I'd advise against hosting your own name servers as there's a very good chance that your ISP (to whom your IP address belongs) will not set up a reverse lookup for that address. Not good for a name server!

--Please could you explain...

If you're determined to go ahead, then the primary DNS server should be your own IP, the secondary should be the IP address of whoever is doing the secondary for you (you need to get someone to do this).
--Ok

Ensure that you get the zone file correct and allow the secondary to do zone transfers so it will reflect any changes you make.

--is it not that the zone files for both the name-servers be on the same lines with a few address changes


I used to work as a hostmaster, and it's very easy to foul things up!

Good luck.
--Thanks again for you speedy answer it helped me on my way... :-)

Carl.

The 2 bits you ask:

(I've used 192.168.0.0 as an example subnet)

Your DNS server will be performing forward lookups for your domain.
e.g.
www.yourdomain.com. IN A 192.168.0.10
mail.yourdomain.com. IN A 192.168.0.11
ns0.yourdomain.com. IN A 192.168.0.12

however the reverse lookups for these hosts would be found in the zone file: 0.168.192.IN-ADDR.ARPA which you don't control.

Your ISP will be controlling the above zone file for your IP address. Most ISPs won't modify this for your benefit. The chances are that this would be a name for your connection, e.g. 10.0.168.192-dial-modem.yourisp.com

The forward lookup for ns0.yourdomain.com would resolve to 192.168.0.12 in the above example. However the reverse lookup for the IP would NOT match.

You're not supposed to do this! In reality I've never seen any problems caused by it, but..............


Your zone file should be the same in the primary and secondary nameservers. The secondary obtains the zone information from the primary. Any changes to the primary should be reflected in the secondary in accordance with the "Refresh" time set in the zone file.

Your zone file should contain the names of both DNS servers, e.g.

yourdomain.com. IN NS ns0.yourdomain.com.
yourdomain.com. IN NS nameserver.grancan.com ; example only

When passing this information to your registrar, you would specify the fully qualified names and IP addresses of the primary and secondary name servers.

The hostmaster of the secondary name server would ensure that it was secondary!

Hope that helps,

Carl.