Resolving a domain name to a home server.

[Head Boy]

I'm trying to set up the DNS so that a domain will resolve to a server running on a home network with a dedicated IP. The dns is resolving to the IP, but I get a DNS error when I try to access the site. If I type the IP number into my browser, then the site pops up correctly. DNSreport tells me it can't retrieve the NS records. I can see that there could be a problem if a proxy is being used, but is there any other problem than can cause this?

What is the best structure - Do I create one "A" record to create a 3rd level name, and a couple of CNAME records to point to it?

[Head Boy]

Originally Posted by seksi

The problem is probably specific to the dns-diy.com service we are trying to use... if tere was more information on that site as to what kind of input it expects in the input fields that would help, one problem could be specifying a "." after the fully qualified domain name in the registrar's tools that point to the domain service, but they make that look like a mistake within the dns-diy.com domain management site. There is a long delay for the root DNS servers to find the registrar's data, but I don't know how long it should take for a different registrar to have the currnet DNS server names in the whois returns on networksolutions.com. Because of that long delay, and the fact I don't have too much time to get this right, I would like to know exactly how to do this if I have to try anymore modifications.

I looked through the O'Reilly DNS and BIND book before plugging in the info I did, in the dns-diy form, thinking it was supposed to be more or less the same as the records you would have for BIND...

Copied from the main forum.

[Head Boy]

I think that the way to do this is to create an "A" record and a couple of CNAMES, but I've never tried this. I was hoping to get some other comments rather than just experiment around. If I don't get a reply by tomorrow morning, then maybe I'll start to try this for you. Let me know if your server will be off-line in about 8 hours time.

[seksi]

Using nslookup I found that it is currently working on the ns1.dns-diy.com nameservers to use www.rubberfreak.org and irc.rubberfreak.org (which is matching the wildcard "*.rubberfreak.org" but somehow not "rubberfreak,org" all by itself. So that is part of the problem. Then there is the very slow propagation of the DNS record to the root servers?

[seksi]

I think it is working now, just looking at the dns-diy.com nameservers, with the following command:

nslookup rubberfreak.org ns1.dns-diy.com

What I had not done is create an A record that would resolve the second level domain on its own (in the dns-diy.com management app, it is a blank field in the host column)

Then I have an A record for "www"
and an A record for "*"

so it works. No I just have to wait patiently for no longerthan another 36 hours, and that should work all over the internet!

Just so others can follow this, I have a static IP we are pointin to in all of these cases, but I want the flexibility to create a new third-level domain name (a host name) record to point to a different IP if need be (e.g. setup a new machine that could be named irc.rubberfreak.org, without possibly interrupting traffic to the webserver). Then I could either change "*.rubberfreak.org" to point to that different IP, or just add a new A record "irc.rubberfreak.org"

[Head Boy]

I've got this working for your site using the name www.hotelhints.com
It looks as if you were using an alternative name server - the correct one is ns1.dns-diy.com. Sorry I didn't spot this sooner.

[seksi]

Yep, we've got it figured out, and with the right name server, the latest domain I registered through you is resolving without any problems, after just a few hours!

Thanks!

[Head Boy]

It would have been easier if I hadn't made a typo in the DNS entry that I told you. One of these days I'll start getting some sleep.