How do I route my domain to my website?

[Zero]

A while ago I was able to get a domain for free at www.registerfree.com. But I'm not sure how to use it to route my domain to my website. How do I do this? I'm albe to enter the primary and secondary DNS settings but I'm not sure how it works. Do I just enter the primary and secondary dns addresses of my webserver or what? It doesn't seem to work like that though. I was hoping that I could just enter the url of my website so anyone that uses my domain will be forwarded to my website. Thanks for your help.

Zero

 

[Russ]

<< Do I just enter the primary and secondary dns addresses of my webserver or what? >>



Yes.

Russ, NCNE

 

[BoberFett]

No

Primary and Secondary domain servers only point to the DNS that is serving your domain. You need to have whoever is providing DNS services set up their server so that www and whatever other server names you want point to the IP address of your server.

Simple, yes?

 

[Russ]

BoberFett,

Unless his registration service is different than the one I use, for basic web site access, all he has to do is change the Primary and Secondary DNS servers in the template. MX is another issue, though.

Russ, NCNE

 

[BoberFett]

Russ

I think perhaps we're not sure what exactly he's trying to do. Set his Primary and Secondary DNS or link an IP to a server name/domain.

 

[Zero]

Ok, I'll try and explain better. I have a website at www.whateverblahblah.com/blahe/blah/`blah. and I registered a domain at www.registerfree.com. When I go to registerfree.com to manage my domain there are some dns settings I can make. I did have this set up on another website I had but that free webserver is no longer up so I want it to point to this new website I have. When it worked the first time, I actually contaced the server admin and asked him what his dns addresses were so I can route my domain name to my website on his server. He gave them to me and I think I remember him saying he had to set some settings on his server for it to work properly. It ended up working. So, now I have a friend who has a webserver who let use it for my website only I don't think he knows exactly what to do on his end. He gave me his dns addresses but that doesn't seem to be enough. I think he may have to set something up on his end but I don't know what. Can someone explain to me what needs to be done so I can tell him? I really appreciate the help.

If I'm not explaing it well enuf, I can post a login to manage the domain. It will only allow you to mess with the dns settings and not anything else like the contact info, admin contact, billing info, etc. It doesn't matter if anyone changes anything on the dns settings cuz it's not working now anyway. If there is any worry on my end I can always remove/change the account so nobody can get to it anymore.

Zero

 

[Russ]

BoberFett,

Good point. If the service he used has their act together, though, this will be done automatically simply by changing the DNS entries, as long as his host has assigned an IP address.

Now, if he's hosting on his own server, we'd be getting in to an area I've never dealt with.

Russ, NCNE

 

[Russ]

Zero,

BoberFett is going to know a lot more about this than me, but has your friend configured an IP address to resolve to your specific domain name?

Russ, NCNE

 

[Zero]

Russ,
proly not. I'm sorry i'm not real knowledgable in this area so it's hard for me to explain. So you're saying he has to configure an IP address? You mean besides the one he has for his server, or is that the IP your referring? How does he get this IP address? From his ISP? Is this going to cost him? Lets see......okay, explain the process. When I set the dns setting when managing my domain, how does it work? Let's say you type in my domain(www.smackthatass.net - its a q3 clan website not porn. get your mind outta the gutter), info travels from:
- the place to where my domain is parked?
- then the dns entries point to the webserver?
and then he has to have some settings on his webserver that say &quot;when a request comes for www.smackthatass.net, forward to www.whateverthenameofmycurrentwebsiteis.com? If so, how does my buddy set this up on his server? Any online documentation to point me to? Thanks a bunch.

Zero

 

[Russ]

There are Domain Name Servers all over the country. What they do is store &quot;associations&quot; between names and numbers. You type http://www.mydomain.com in your browser, and it checks with a DNS, which looks up the name and says, &quot;ah ha! That name belongs to 209.209.209.209 (example number). Then the server directs all web traffic seeking that particular name to that number.

The only real reason we even have names is because it's easier for us humans. The machines can get along all day with only numbers.

Now, an IP address has to be assigned to the name by whoever is hosting the domain. I think. I'm weak in this area. Then what happens is that when you change the DNS entries, all the servers around the country have to update their &quot;association&quot; information. This is called propogation and can take two to three days to be complete nationwide.

Russ, NCNE

 

[Zero]

Thanks Russ. I know what DNS does but I wasn't sure exactly how it would work in this situation. Thanks for clearin things up a bit. Now I have another Domain at mailbank.com but it's not really mine. But I can manage it very easily. There are no DNS settings to make. I can go to mailbank.com, log in, manage my domain, and type in the url of where I want it to point to. I can have my domain point to anandtech.com if I desire to do so. Is it possible to set up my other domain (www.smackthatass.net) in a similar manner...? so I can just have any traffic that goes to www.smackthatass.net gets forwarded to www.whatever.com/blah/`sheesh without having my webhoster(is that a word?) make any settings on his server?

Zero

 

[Zero]

Where ya at boberfet? I need yer help bro!

Zero

 

[BoberFett]

I'm here, but pretty well drunk off my ass. I'll try to help as much as possible.

I'll to explain it as simply as possible.

It used to be managed solely by Network Solutions (NSI) but now several companies administer domains. They ahve a database of domain names and those domains have primary and secondary DNS information in them. Let's say your main internet provider will be the primary. You need to tell them that you need server names setup for ZerosDomain.com. They can set up their database so that www and ftp and mail, etc, etc, will go to a specific IP address. So you need to set up info at two places. First with your service provider, who in this case, I'm thinking is your friend if I'm reading right. Tell him he needs to setup his BIND config files to host your domain. Then just setup your domain provider, registerfree.com and set his DNS servers IP address as your primary DNS server. It's a good idea to have a secondary server set up.

It's been a lot of work just to type this message so if you need more detailed help, your best bet is going to be to e-mail me or PM me tomorrow morning when I've sobered up a bit.

Sorry I can't help you out more right now.

 

[Zero]

Is there some sort of domain hosting service that I can use to route traffic to my domain to my website?

Zero

 

[BoberFett]

Do you already have this website set up? Where is it located?

 

[Zero]

Here's my site:
[l]www.alles-schlampen-ausser-mutti.de/start.html[/l]

And this is my domain name:
[l]www.smackthatass.net[/l]

Zero

 

[BoberFett]

Can the server that your site is hosted on host virtual web sites? By that, I mean can you assign an additional IP to that machine and have it route to your website?

Whoever is hosting your site currently should be able to answer that question, I'd hope.

 

[deepcover]

You need to find someone who can do a couple of things.
You need someone to host your Domain via DNS.
It looks like Freedom2surf is your primary and secondary nameserver.
You need to see if they will allow you to make changes. If not,
or they will charge a fee per change, transfer your daomin to
someone like DNSWiz.com. They provide a web based interface to allow
you to make any changes necessary to your domains DNS entries.
Then, You need an &quot;a-record&quot; to point an IP address to your domain name.
Example
Name Record Type IP or Domain Name
the-agency.net A 63.202.56.142
www.the-agency.net CNAME the-agency.net
You will have to point to an IP address that will do redirection for you.
example
I type www.the-agency.net, and my computer resolves 63.202.56.142, and goes there. If I wanted www.the-agency.net to go to
www.alles-schlampen-ausser-mutti.de/start.html, I need to do extra work, as DNS resolves a Domain Name to an IP, not a URL.
I could put a meta redirection page on 63.202.56.142 to send clients to
www.alles-schlampen-ausser-mutti.de/start.html.

So to do what you want, You need someone that will host the DNS for your domain, and allow changes, and someone to redirect your domain to
www.alles-schlampen-ausser-mutti.de/start.html.

Confusing, isnt it.

 

[Howard]

I have a similar problem...

I need a tutorial on how to route my domain to my free website. cstrikefan.com to crosswinds.net site.

 

[Howard]

^


nobody ever helps me

 

[deepcover]

Yucky, Do you have your domain hosted yet....?
And what are you redirecting to: Domain or Website URL...?
The reason I ask is....
If You are routing to a URL i.e. www.the-agency.net/cstrike/index.html,
You must have someone with a web server provide redirection service.
Meaning, there has to be a webserver with an IP address that has been
entered for your Domain in your authoritative DNS server.

Redirecting to a domain is Easy. You can have an entry made in your
domains authoritative DNS server. It can be an A ,IP Address, or
a CName entry, which is a name.

This stuff may seem complicated, but is incredibly simple once you get used to it. It was constructed in a very logical manner.

 

[Zero]

deepcover,
My primary and secondary domain name servers are f2s becuase I set it that way when I was trying to get my domain to work with my website at f2s. I'm not sure if you read the posts above or not but I can change the dns settings with my domain from f2s to whatever. I can do it right now if I decided to so. I'm just wondering what I set the dns settings to now to route to my other website.

Zero

 

[deepcover]

Zero

OK.....
With a registrar, you list your nameservers. In your case, it is F2s.
This is the nameserver that is responsible for publishing the records
for your domain to the rest of the world. For anything to resolve they
have to have records for your domain in their nameserver. There are various record types, A, Cnames, MX, and others. an &quot;A&quot; record points a domain name to an IP address. A Cname points a domain name, to another domain name. MX is used to point mail for a domain to the proper address.

When browsing by domain name, you start several things. On your local
machine a query is sent to a dns server. The dns server looks up who your
name servers are, and forwards a request for the record you asked for to
the server who is Authoritative then replies with the IP address that was requested. It eventually gets back to you.

So just having nameservers listed, doesnt do anything. If F2s does not have an address for www.domain.com on their server, nothing happens.
There are a number of commercial dns hosting services that will do this for you, but most will charge for hosting, or for each change for a
domain.
If F2s allows you to change the A-record associated with your www.domain.com record then you could just go there to point that
to where you wanted.

 

[hubbs]

I think I know what your saying. You want your domain simple so it's easier for people to remember and they don't have to type as much but you dont' want to set up a webserver. You just want your webpage being used?

 

[deepcover]

Going from the theme of the above post....
To just redirect the domain, point an Arecord to the IP of the domain You want to resolve to. If you need to point to a different page, you point the ip to a server that will do redirection for you.

It just doesnt sound like anyone is hosting your DNS and allowing changes.