Domain DNS zone file settings for home server?

SentralOrigin · 10-14-2011, 07:38 PM

I've bought a domain and am currently trying to configure the zone file so that it'll point to my DynDNS address since I'm hosting a website from home.

I have software on my router set up so that it automatically logs in and updates DynDNS with my public IP address should it ever change.

In my domain manager settings, I've left the DNS servers as the default (with the domain registrar/manager's DNS servers). I'm editing the zone file so if I make a CNAME record for "www" that points to "mydns.dyndns.org." (with the trailing period) is that correct? I'm not sure how long it takes DNS zone settings to propogate but if I try to go to www.mydomain.com, it says no website found as if my site didn't exist. (But if I go to mydns.dyndns.org, it shows my website fine).

Also, I want to set up a forum on a different host, say forum.mydomain.com
And my phpBB forum is in the folder /var/www/htdocs/forum/ (since my website's index.html and everything is in /var/www/htdocs/), is it possible to point forum.mydomain.com to /var/www/htdocs/forum/ ? (Since www.mydomain.com points to the index.html in /var/www/htdocs/ ) I'm using Apache on Linux.

lithos · 10-15-2011, 01:19 AM

1. you can not 'host' your dynamic dns domain (that's why DynDns is doing it for you)

2. for a subdomain on 'real' host you need to create a DNS entry in your zone ()

Code:

; zone fragment for example.com
; name servers in the same zone
$TTL 2d ; default TTL is 2 days
$ORIGIN example.com.
@              IN      SOA   ns1.example.com. hostmaster.example.com. (
               2003080800 ; serial number
               2h         ; refresh =  2 hours 
               15M        ; update retry = 15 minutes
               3W12h      ; expiry = 3 weeks + 12 hours
               2h20M      ; minimum = 2 hours + 20 minutes
               )
; main domain name servers
              IN      NS     ns1.example.com.
              IN      NS     ns2.example.com.

; A records for name servers above 
ns1           IN      A      192.168.0.3

; subdomains
forum           IN      A      192.168.0.3

this subdomain forum is pointing to the same server IP that hosts 'main' domain example.com

so you need to create Apache HTTPD virtual host for subdomain (vhosts examples):

Code:

# Listen for virtual host requests on all IP addresses
NameVirtualHost *:80

<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot /www/example1
ServerName www.example1.com

# Other directives here

</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot /www/forum/
ServerName forum.example1.com

# Other directives here

</VirtualHost>