DNS question

I've managed to completely confuse myself.

I have a domain registered at a registrar and hosted at a provider.

The provider has given me primary and secondary DNS names and ip addresses.

I have entered those at the registrar's site. All whois queries work and
email is configured and working properly. I can find the web site from
anyone's browser.

I now have a new company which has built commercial web pages for me, and I
need to make them active. This company says I need to change my DNS addresses
with my registrar to make this work. Is this correct? They will then take
over hosting the domain (become my NEW provider)?

They do NOT do any email, so if I make the DNS server changes at my registrar,
will my email break?

If not, then I'm not sure I understand how any of this works.

I thought that my provider (ISP) puts up A and MX DNS records which allow
resolution of my web pages and my email addresses. If I switch to a new
provider that claims to not do email, who will make my email work?

thanks,
-chuck
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Re: DNS question

Hi Chuck,

On Tuesday 10 May 2005 09:01, Chuck Campbell wrote:
> I've managed to completely confuse myself.
>
> I have a domain registered at a registrar and hosted at a provider.
>
> The provider has given me primary and secondary DNS names and ip addresses.
>
> I have entered those at the registrar's site. All whois queries work and
> email is configured and working properly. I can find the web site from
> anyone's browser.
>
> I now have a new company which has built commercial web pages for me, and I
> need to make them active. This company says I need to change my DNS
> addresses with my registrar to make this work. Is this correct? They will
> then take over hosting the domain (become my NEW provider)?
>
> They do NOT do any email, so if I make the DNS server changes at my
> registrar, will my email break?
>
> If not, then I'm not sure I understand how any of this works.
>
> I thought that my provider (ISP) puts up A and MX DNS records which allow
> resolution of my web pages and my email addresses. If I switch to a new
> provider that claims to not do email, who will make my email work?

That provider is probably giving you a load of BS. I've seen providers who
actually "need" the DNS resolvers on their servers, but in each case it's
just a matter of total utter BS on their side. The only thing you need to do
is point the www entry to the providers webserver.

Alternatively if you'd rather play along and transfer the domains nameservice
to them, you can still add an MX entry pointing elsewhere if they don't
provide email services.

J
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Re: DNS question

All you need to do is have the company that hosts your DNS currently
setup an A record to point www.yourname.com to the webhosting companys
servers. Leave your MX records alone so you don't have an interruption
in email.

Nick


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nick Mitchell
Network Security Specialist
Nitec Security
Voice - 302.542.7992
The invention of IQ does a great disservice to creativity in education.
- Joel Hildebrand
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Re: DNS question

On Tue, May 10, 2005 at 09:14:50AM -0600, Jens Knoell wrote:
> Hi Chuck,
>
> On Tuesday 10 May 2005 09:01, Chuck Campbell wrote:
> > I've managed to completely confuse myself.
> >
> > I have a domain registered at a registrar and hosted at a provider.
> >
> > The provider has given me primary and secondary DNS names and ip addresses.
> >
> > I have entered those at the registrar's site. All whois queries work and
> > email is configured and working properly. I can find the web site from
> > anyone's browser.
> >
> > I now have a new company which has built commercial web pages for me, and I
> > need to make them active. This company says I need to change my DNS
> > addresses with my registrar to make this work. Is this correct? They will
> > then take over hosting the domain (become my NEW provider)?
> >
> > They do NOT do any email, so if I make the DNS server changes at my
> > registrar, will my email break?
> >
> > If not, then I'm not sure I understand how any of this works.
> >
> > I thought that my provider (ISP) puts up A and MX DNS records which allow
> > resolution of my web pages and my email addresses. If I switch to a new
> > provider that claims to not do email, who will make my email work?
>
> That provider is probably giving you a load of BS. I've seen providers who
> actually "need" the DNS resolvers on their servers, but in each case it's
> just a matter of total utter BS on their side. The only thing you need to do
> is point the www entry to the providers webserver.

Who (in my current situation) needs to point the www entry? I assume you mean
my current provider needs to change something to point web resolution to
a different address? What (so I can speak intelligently with them) needs to be
changed?

> Alternatively if you'd rather play along and transfer the domains nameservice
> to them, you can still add an MX entry pointing elsewhere if they don't
> provide email services.

I can't add an MX for email, the (new) provider would have to do that,
correct?

Are there some tools which let me see what A and MX records exist now, and
where they actually are living?

thanks,
-chuck


--
ACCEL Services, Inc.| Specialists in Gravity, Magnetics | (713)993-0671 ph.
2401 Fountain View | and Integrated Interpretation | (713)993-0608 fax
Suite 320 | Since 1992 | (713)306-5794 cell
Houston, TX, 77057 | Chuck Campbell | campbell@accelinc.com
| President & Senior Geoscientist |

"Integration means more than having all the maps at the same scale!"
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Re: DNS question

The only changes that you need to make is to add a record for the www name
which points to the company hosting your website. I think the terminolgy
may be a little bit confusing. From the sounds of things he isn't hosting
all of your services. So you would keep all of your other records (MX and
such) pointing at your current service providers.


On Tue, 10 May 2005 09:01:59 -0600, Chuck Campbell
wrote:

> I've managed to completely confuse myself.
>
> I have a domain registered at a registrar and hosted at a provider.
>
> The provider has given me primary and secondary DNS names and ip
> addresses.
>
> I have entered those at the registrar's site. All whois queries work and
> email is configured and working properly. I can find the web site from
> anyone's browser.
>
> I now have a new company which has built commercial web pages for me,
> and I
> need to make them active. This company says I need to change my DNS
> addresses
> with my registrar to make this work. Is this correct? They will then
> take
> over hosting the domain (become my NEW provider)?
>
> They do NOT do any email, so if I make the DNS server changes at my
> registrar,
> will my email break?
>
> If not, then I'm not sure I understand how any of this works.
>
> I thought that my provider (ISP) puts up A and MX DNS records which allow
> resolution of my web pages and my email addresses. If I switch to a new
> provider that claims to not do email, who will make my email work?
>
> thanks,
> -chuck
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-admin" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html



--
| Richard Nairn Specializing in Linux
| Nairn Consulting Web / Database Solutions
| Calgary, AB
| Richard@NairnConsulting.ca
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Re: DNS question

On Tue, May 10, 2005 at 11:20:02AM -0400, Nick Mitchell wrote:
> All you need to do is have the company that hosts your DNS currently
> setup an A record to point www.yourname.com to the webhosting companys
> servers. Leave your MX records alone so you don't have an interruption
> in email.

Thanks, I think this is the info I was looking for.

I call my existing provider and request they change the current A record
to point to a different IP address (or is it at a different server name?)

This would allow my web pages to resolve to the new location, right?

-chuck
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Re: DNS question

On Tuesday 10 May 2005 09:23, Chuck Campbell wrote:
> On Tue, May 10, 2005 at 09:14:50AM -0600, Jens Knoell wrote:
> > Hi Chuck,
> >
> > On Tuesday 10 May 2005 09:01, Chuck Campbell wrote:
> > > I've managed to completely confuse myself.
> > >
> > > I have a domain registered at a registrar and hosted at a provider.
> > >
> > > The provider has given me primary and secondary DNS names and ip
> > > addresses.
> > >
> > > I have entered those at the registrar's site. All whois queries work
> > > and email is configured and working properly. I can find the web site
> > > from anyone's browser.
> > >
> > > I now have a new company which has built commercial web pages for me,
> > > and I need to make them active. This company says I need to change my
> > > DNS addresses with my registrar to make this work. Is this correct?
> > > They will then take over hosting the domain (become my NEW provider)?
> > >
> > > They do NOT do any email, so if I make the DNS server changes at my
> > > registrar, will my email break?
> > >
> > > If not, then I'm not sure I understand how any of this works.
> > >
> > > I thought that my provider (ISP) puts up A and MX DNS records which
> > > allow resolution of my web pages and my email addresses. If I switch
> > > to a new provider that claims to not do email, who will make my email
> > > work?
> >
> > That provider is probably giving you a load of BS. I've seen providers
> > who actually "need" the DNS resolvers on their servers, but in each case
> > it's just a matter of total utter BS on their side. The only thing you
> > need to do is point the www entry to the providers webserver.
>
> Who (in my current situation) needs to point the www entry? I assume you
> mean my current provider needs to change something to point web resolution
> to a different address? What (so I can speak intelligently with them)
> needs to be changed?
>
> > Alternatively if you'd rather play along and transfer the domains
> > nameservice to them, you can still add an MX entry pointing elsewhere if
> > they don't provide email services.
>
> I can't add an MX for email, the (new) provider would have to do that,
> correct?
>
> Are there some tools which let me see what A and MX records exist now, and
> where they actually are living?

Depends on the DNS setup. You can look up individual records with dig (like
in: dig yahoo.com NS) or you can use the regular "host" command like so:

host -t NS yahoo.com
host -t MX yahoo.com
or plain:
host yahoo.com

in rare cases you can also grab the whole DNS table by using:
dig @ns.yahoo.com yahoo.com AXFR
where you put in any of the nameservers which are authoritative for the
yahoo.com domain. Most DNS servers have this disabled though.

Hope this helps
J
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Re: DNS question

Forgot...

On Tuesday 10 May 2005 09:23, Chuck Campbell wrote:
> On Tue, May 10, 2005 at 09:14:50AM -0600, Jens Knoell wrote:
> > That provider is probably giving you a load of BS. I've seen providers
> > who actually "need" the DNS resolvers on their servers, but in each case
> > it's just a matter of total utter BS on their side. The only thing you
> > need to do is point the www entry to the providers webserver.
>
> Who (in my current situation) needs to point the www entry? I assume you
> mean my current provider needs to change something to point web resolution
> to a different address? What (so I can speak intelligently with them)
> needs to be changed?

In the current situation, you would have to. Either with a CNAME entry, or
with an A entry.

> > Alternatively if you'd rather play along and transfer the domains
> > nameservice to them, you can still add an MX entry pointing elsewhere if
> > they don't provide email services.
>
> I can't add an MX for email, the (new) provider would have to do that,
> correct?

If you have the authority to make DNS changes to your domain, you could do
that.

J
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Re: DNS question

You need to call your web-hosting company and ask them what the ip
address of the server your site is hosted on and then have the A record
pointed to that.

Nick

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nick Mitchell
Network Security Specialist
Nitec Security
Voice - 302.542.7992
The invention of IQ does a great disservice to creativity in education.
- Joel Hildebrand
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Re: DNS question

> Are there some tools which let me see what A and MX records exist now, and
> where they actually are living?

www.dnsreport.com can help you out with this .....
>
> thanks,
> -chuck
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Re: DNS question

Chuck Campbell wrote:

> I've managed to completely confuse myself.
>
> I have a domain registered at a registrar and hosted at a provider.
>
> The provider has given me primary and secondary DNS names and ip addresses.
>
> I have entered those at the registrar's site. All whois queries work and
> email is configured and working properly. I can find the web site from
> anyone's browser.
>
> I now have a new company which has built commercial web pages for me, and I
> need to make them active. This company says I need to change my DNS addresses
> with my registrar to make this work. Is this correct?

No. Your DNS provider needs to change the addresses of the A records.
That's all.

> They will then take over hosting the domain (become my NEW provider)?
>
> They do NOT do any email, so if I make the DNS server changes at my registrar,
> will my email break?
>
> If not, then I'm not sure I understand how any of this works.
>
> I thought that my provider (ISP) puts up A and MX DNS records which allow
> resolution of my web pages and my email addresses. If I switch to a new
> provider that claims to not do email, who will make my email work?

The registrar ensures that the DNS servers for the parent domain (e.g.
com) have NS records for your domain (e.g. yourdomain.com) which point
at your provider's DNS servers.

You need to ask your provider to make the A records for yourdomain.com
and/or www.yourdomain.com point at the web-hosting company's web
server(s). Leave the MX records for yourdomain.com pointing to the
existing mail (SMTP) server(s).

The company which provides web hosting doesn't need to host your DNS;
they just need to have the appropriate A records pointed at their
server.

--
Glynn Clements
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