I've signed up to have ZoneEdit.com manage my DNS services. Recently I have installed and configured my own DNS server and have one question.

Do I only use internal IP addresses to define the computers in my network and let ZoneEdit take care of directing all 'outside' traffic my way...OR if I kill zoneedit, can I assign both an internal IP and my external IP to my server and have it self propagate to all other DNS servers?

Hope this makes sense (and I haven't exposed my total incompetence)

Zoneedit is acting as your name servers. Name servers point to your actual DNS server. When someone types in www.yahoo.com, the name servers point to the DNS server for the yahoo.com domain. From there, the DNS server points to the computer that hosts the website (www) for yahoo.com.

When you set up your domain, you do need Zoneedit to point to your DNS server. Zoneedit would only containt your public IP address. Your DNS server will only contain internal IP addresses.

If you decide not to use Zoneedit, you then need to set up your own name servers, which would have to be running 24-7, so they can redirect requests for your domain.

Hope that cleared this up a little.

if you have a static IP address, you should manage your own DNS using BIND. you will have to actually register your nameserver in the name server registry. I boughy my domain names from godaddy.com and they let you add your DNS servers (HOST servers) ot the DNS registry.

bascially, the ability to run your own DNS servers depend on 3 things:

1. you need a static ip address
2. you need to be with registrar that lets you add domain name server entries to the name server registry. this is completely different from just the domain name registry which is what u pay for when u buy the domain name.
3. a server (like quintar said) that will be up 24/7 to resolve your hostname

as far as internal goes. the outside world will never see your internal ip addresses, only the 1 external. so to route requests to different boxes, you either need more than 1 PUBLIC ip address, or you need a method of port forwarding certain requests to certain internal boxes.

also, if you want your internal boxes to have real domain names, you can do this with BIND but you will have to setup 2 different "views". an internal view for your fake ips that external clients (like myself) cant see, and an external view that the outside public (like myself) can see. 192.168 10. and 1 other group of ips (cant remember) are not internet routable.

last post is my example:


i have a domain name myself : gigahurts.net (and gigahurts.org)


they both point to the same box (do a dig gigahurts.org and dig gigahurts.net)
i have 1 static ip address, but i have many hosts in my domain. www.gigahurts.net ftp.gigahurts.net rta.gigahurts.net and i think 1 more. all of these hostnames point to the same ip address (oh, there is mail.gigahurts.net). all point to the same box. because i only have 1 ip that can be seen on the internet.

i run web, email, dns and some other stuff on the box. i also have a domain name home.gigahurts.net (which i update via dynamic updates from my house to the box) and home.gigahurts.net points to my home IP address which changes (i have DSL). i even run a backup email server on my home box incase my main one goes down.

for all this i have 1 nameserver and 1 backup: ns.stepler.net

ns.gigahurts.org which again, points to the same IP as the rest of those things.

any boxes behind this setup that have non-public IPs you wont be able to see but any servecies that i need to route (like www or ftp) get routed to internal hosts via port forwarding but the internal clients and see different IPs for each box because they have an "internal" view of the network unlike everyone else in the world that only see the 1 IP address for each service. the only host on my network that has a different "seeable" IP is the home.gigahruts.net which is it's own zone but even still there are several computers behind that network as well that you cant see. i.e. i can run www ftp and email on the home.gigahurts.net zone and it will all look like it comes from 1 box.

the only way i was able to run a name server for my domain on the same box the ip resolves to was to add the entry ns.gigahurts.org to the NAMESERVER REGISTRY, which godaddy lets you do. (u have to add the nameserver's name and the ip address and it takes a minute for it to be approved).

question: who is your domain name registrar??



i suggest you try to run your own nameserver. if for any reason the box goes down, it's not like having the name resolve helps any (atleast if u are doing everything from 1 computer)

I guess I know even less than I thought I did.

I am running named which enables me to resolve my internal IP addresses to thier hostnames. Omnis is my nameserver registry and I am able to point directly to my IP and hostname. I have only one external ip and use port forwarding for the different machines. Where my knowledge becomes hazy is how my DNS interacts with other machines in the 'real world'. Here are the questions:

1) Name Servers vs DNS servers
I thought these were the same things but quintar said 'Name servers point to your actual DNS server'. If they are different, what is the program used to host a Name Server? What port number do these programs use and do I have to enable incoming packets to this port or just outgoing? If I set my domain name registrar to my IP will that bypass Zoneedit?

2) Named vs BIND
If named is the DNS server, what does BIND do? Is it another server, or client tool?

3) Nameserver vs. Hostserver
"A Host Server is a name server that is created within the Root Servers of the Internet to resolve domain names." -Omnis.com
Same thing or different??

At this point I'm surprised that I've got any of this to work at all. Thanks for all of your help!