Hosting my own site? Email? DNS? "Please help me Mastuh"

[Zero]

If you are serious about giving me advice/help please start your responses with "Young Grasshoppuh, ......".
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Here's what I have:

-Broadband (dynamic IP)

-NAT Firewall (linksys router)

-Apache server hosting my test site

-Windows 2k Server running exchange 2000 and DNS services(not configured yet)

-Registered Domain(ability to edit name servers and manage name servers based on my domain)
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Here's what I want to do:

-Use my registered Domain to point my apache server(its already set up...if you type my IP address, http request are sent to the apache server)

-Host my email for www.mydomain.com ie. me@mydomain.com.

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I know what DNS is and how it works(for the most part), but I don't know how to make it work for me yet. I've been doing a lot of research/reading and I'm still a little confused on how to accomplish my goals. I've read about using a service like zoneedit.com for managing DNS for my domain?...or something like that. And also using dyndns.org for dealing with the dynamic IP issue? I've read quite a few post on this board but still am unable to put it all together to work for me. I appreciate your help...thanks in advance!!

Zero

 

[dexter333]

Use zoneedit for your DNS servers or bind and dyndns to establish a static hostname. Then for any records you want to create, set them as a CNAME to your dyndns hostname. So say you wanted anandtechsux.zero.com to go to your box at home, you'd put "anandtechsux.zero.com cname zero.dyndns.org" in a zone file for zero.com along with the necessary ttl stuff at the top and a proper named.conf . I don't know how to use DNS services in 2k, only bind.

 

[Zero]

Thanks Dexter.....I'm kinda following ya. Let me read what you wrote a few more dozen times and I might get it. I'm sure what you wrote is pretty clear to most DNS knowledgable peeps, but i'm DNS illiterate when it comes to configuring. Maybe you can help me understand a little better if I throw a few more questions in the mix.

But first, let me try and make one thing clear.......with what you responded, www.zero.com will be pointed to my apache server?

Ok, so, do I have to edit my current name servers for my registered domain? One of my registered domains is www.eyegotcha.com. I registered it through registerfree.com. When I go to registerfree.com and go to "domain maintenance", do I just leave the current name servers:
DNS 1: ns3.registerfree.com
DNS 2: ns4.registerfree.com
?

My understanding is that since I registered my domain through registerfree.com, these current DNS servers point my domain to a "parked" site of theirs. So when you go to www.eyegotcha.com, you see an underconstruction page of theirs. Now I'm guessing I can pay them a fee to have them create a record of some sort that will point www.eyegotcha.com to my IP address.
So, the next logical thing in my mind is to use zoneedit.com(to manage dns for me) or setup Bind(like you said) and I can set up my own DNS server and create my own records so that www.eyegotcha.com goes to my IP address?

Lets see If I can get this straight. I can use dyndns.org and and get a subdomain from them that points to my ip address(which then is routed to my web server). So now, dyndns.org will allow me to create my own sub-domain with one of their TLDs. So now I would have zero.mine.nu (zero = the sub-domain I chose.....mine.ru = is their TLD) which now would point to my IP address. And then I can use their automatic updater to automatically report to them my IP if it changes. So, no matter what, zero.mine.nu will always point to my IP address.....even if it changes.
Ok....i've figured out this much. Now the next part is a little confusing....but not too much I hope.

So now I have zero.mine.nu. So now, I think this is where you said I can use zoneedit.com to manage DNS for me so that www.eyegotcha.com will forward or link to zero.mine.nu somehow? This is where I'm a little lost. I created a free account with zoneedit.com and, while logged in, I can "add zone". But if I type in eyegotcha.com in "add zone" section, I get an error:
Error: Permission Denied
You are not currently entitled to edit this domain name.
Your request has been forwarded to the administrator of 'eyegotcha.com'

Well, the domain is registered to me. But I'm guessing that I'm getting the error message because, the current DNS entries should be zoneedit dns servers? So I need to change them? I'm not sure. Anyway, any help from here would be great! Thanks!

Zero

 

[Zero]

Ok....looks like I answered my own questions. Here is a step by step setup for zoneedit:
http://www.dslwebserver.com/main/fr_index.html?/main/sbs-zoneedit-registration.html

Sure enough, I needed to change my name servers with my registrar. So I changed'm. But it looks like it might take a day or so for the change to actually take effect. Then I should be able to login to zoneedit and "add zone". We'll see.

Zero

 

[bobmarley2]

I second doteasy.
35 bucks for life!
Email and basic web hosting.

I really thought it was too good to be true.
What the heck, if it doesn't work I'll get my money back.

Aside from some initial email issues (due to my temporary server), now that I'm off of the temporary server(2 days), it rocks!

Thought I'd mention this since it's nice not having a monthly/yearly bill at all.

Thanks MitzEclipse!

http://www.doteasy.com/index.cfm?A=000000000000