Use own dns server with web hosting service?

[denpgeorge]

So im not actually running my own dns server, Im using a free service from powerdns.com. Its great cause I can set up everything I want with it, like aliases, url forwarding, and email forwarding. Now I want to use a web hosting service with this domain whose nameservers are pointed to powerdns.com. Thing is, I think the web host requires that the nameservers be set to theirs for the webserver to know which web to serve. I dont know a whole lot about dns, so thats just my guess. I know even less about how the webserver, which hosts multiple webs im sure knows which to serve based on the address. So Im just wondering how that works. I did a dns query of my domain using the "host" command in unix against my web host's nameserver, and it gave me this result (the results are different if you specify any other nameserver):

$ host -a www.nettur.net dns1.datapacket.net
Using domain server:
Name: dns1.datapacket.net
Address: 208.195.14.226
Aliases:

Trying null domain
rcode = 0 (Success), ancount=1
The following answer is not verified as authentic by the server:
www.nettur.net 3600 IN CNAME nettur.net
rcode = 0 (Success), ancount=6
The following answer is not verified as authentic by the server:
nettur.net 3600 IN SOA dns1.datapacket.net help.datapacket.net(
2002033122 ;serial (version)
3600 ;refresh period
600 ;retry refresh this often
86400 ;expiration period
3600 ;minimum TTL
)
nettur.net 3600 IN NS dns1.datapacket.net
nettur.net 3600 IN NS dns2.datapacket.net
nettur.net 3600 IN A 208.195.14.226
nettur.net 3600 IN MX 10 mail.nettur.net
nettur.net 3600 IN MX 10 nettur.net
Additional information:
dns1.datapacket.net 3600 IN A 208.195.14.226
dns2.datapacket.net 3600 IN A 208.195.14.227


It would look like the "IN A" line should be the address, but it happens to be the same as the nameserver's ip. And nothing opened up in the browser at that address. So anyways, do you think it is possible for me to keep using my dns service with this web host, or should I just give it up and switch my nameservers over? Im guessing it really just depends on the host. Ive sent in a support ticket, but I havent gotten a response from them yet, and I was hoping I may get an answer quicker here.

 

[Wizkid]

nettur.net 3600 IN A SOME_IP

where SOME_IP should be the IP that your hosting company gave you. This is your hosting account IP, not their DNS ips. ie, if you go to http://SOME_IP you should see your website. Then just do a CNAME record for www.nettur.net and you are set

 

[denpgeorge]

Thanks for your reply, but Im still curious about a few things. I was able to get it working shortly after I posted the message. But Im still curious as to how it actually works. It still doesnt work if I try to open http://IP_ADDRESS, but it does work from www.nettur.net now that Ive added the cname entry. So how the server distinguish this, and also distinguish from other web sites which are probably hosted on the same machine?

Another problem, or more of just a slight annoyance... when I try to open the website using Frontpage extensions, like web folders or from vs.net it will only work when I use http://nettur.net rather than http://www.nettur.net, but they both have identical cname entries... Its not that big a deal, in fact its less typing. But I was just curious why that would be like that?

Thanks!