Dotster DNS Management.


Dotster DNS Management.

DNS stands for Domain Name System and refers to how computers find other computers on the Internet. Unique IP addresses are associated with each computer on the Internet. These IP addresses are like house numbers on a street. They make it possible for other computers to find your computer.

To make finding computers easier for humans, DNS allows you to create an easy to remember name for your computer and associate it with your computer's IP Address. By adding an Alias record to a DNS server for your domain and telling it that mail.yourname.com is the computer with an IP Address of 192.168.1.22, you allow anyone on the Internet to find your computer by using the name mail.yourname.com.

You can add DNS Management to your domains during checkout.

To add DNS Management to an existing domain:

1. Visit "account management".
2. Click "my domains" and select the domains you'd like to order services for.
3. Select "add/modify services to these domains" in the task dropdown.
4. Select "DNS Management"

Dotster Web-Based DNS Management allows you to use nameservers located at Dotster for your domain. Using your Internet browser you can add, remove, and edit Alias records (Host records), MX records (Mail Server records), NS records (Name Server Records), and CNAME records. You have total control over the DNS records for your domain, without the hassle or cost of maintaining your own DNS server.

Dotster updates its DNS files hourly, so your changes will be implemented quickly. Remember though that due to DNS caching on the internet it may take longer to see your changes.

There are no messy configuration files to worry about with Dotster's Web-Based DNS Management. Records can quickly be added, removed, and edited using an intuitive interface.

Dotster uses multiple DNS servers located at co-location sites with plenty of bandwidth and low-latency access for your DNS needs. Don't be worrying about the stability of your connection, and losing customers because your DNS server is down.

Dotster provides a first or second line of protection for your DNS service needs. Dotster can act either as primary or secondary nameserver for your business.

For your DNS Management to work, you must use the name servers:
NS1.NAMERESOLVE.COM
NS2.NAMERESOLVE.COM
NS3.NAMERESOLVE.COM
NS4.NAMERESOLVE.COM

Kind of records.

Alias Record. A unique Alias Record should be created for each physical host in your domain that you desire to address using a DNS name such as mycomputer.mydomain.com. Enter a hostname for your computer and the IP address of the computer that you want that name to point towards. Technical Notes: An Alias is the same as a BIND "A" Record. You may add multiple Alias's with the same hostname but different IP's to provide systems redundancy if you have multiple computers providing the same services.

NS Record. A Nameserver Record specifies a host to act as a Nameserver for a domain. When you first log in to the DNS Management console Dotster's nameservers are set to act as the nameserver for your domain. The records for Dotster's nameservers apear in red in the Management Console. The hostname of a Nameserver must be an Alias. Do not use a CNAME.

MX Record. A Mailserver Record specifies a host to receive mail for your domain. i.e. Mail sent to dotster.com gets delivered to the host mail.dotster.com. The hostname of a Mailserver must be an Alias Record. Do not use a CNAME.

CNAME Record. A CNAME Record creates a pointer from a name to an alias name. i.e. You may wish to have the name ftp.yourname.com point to webserver.yourname.com. To do this create a CNAME record from ftp to webserver.yourname.com. This allows you to refer to already named machines without having to worry about IP addresses.

Basic Setup. For a simple single machine webserver/ftpserver setup you should create an Alias record with the IP address of your single machine and a descriptive name as the hostname. Ex. webserver.dotster.com IP Address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx. You can then create several CNAME entries that point to your single machine, such as www.dotster.com CNAME webserver.dotster.com and ftp.dotster.com CNAME webserver.dotster.com. People can now access your machine at either www.dotster.com or ftp.dotster.com

Basic + Mail. In addition to adding the ALIAS and CNAME records above you will need to add an MX record to tell hosts where to send mail for your domain. To add mail delivery to the webserver.dotster.com machine select "Add MX" from the console and type "webserver.dotster.com" into the Mail Server textbox. Mail for the domain in the MX domain box will now be delivered to the Mailserver machine.

Basic + MX + NS. In addition to the above two steps adding an NS record will allow you to either provide DNS for your root domain, or a delegated subdomain. Delegating a subdomain, such as subdomin.dotster.com means that all DNS for that subdomain will be handled by the server specified in the Name Server text box.

Other Records. You should not use a CNAME pointer as either a Mail Server or Name Server, for example, in the above scenario's don't use ftp.dotster.com as the Mail Server in an MX record. If you would like to use webserver.dotster.com as the Mail Server but with a name like mail.dotster.com create an A, or Alias record that points mail.dotster.com to the same IP address as webserver.dotster.com and then create an MX record that points to mail.dotster.com.

The "top red record" is one of the primary nameservers for your domain. It is the Dotster nameserver where your DNS records for your domain reside. If you delete all of these records from your domain then you will no longer have DNS service through the web-based DNS Management Console. You will have to point your domain to new DNS servers using the domain management pages.

Note: the IP addresses used in the examples are not valid and will not resolve on the internet.

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