Nameservers, IP Address, Forwarding, domain registration and
trouble shooting.
Introduction and scope
Almost Everyone
who knows about the internet knows what a domain name is. It is
what identifies a unique website or email server. When you send
an email to someone@domain.com, the domain.com forms the domain
name. When you type in http://domain.com in the address bar of
your browser, the domain.com is the domain name of the website
you are going to see.
But how does the computer know
which page to show when there are almost infinite number of
domain names possible ? How does it know where to fetch the
webpage from ? This article answers these question and explains
what you need to do to register and setup your domain and tell
all the computers in the world that yourdomain.com should show
your web page.
How to choose a domain name
?
There are many top level domains (TLDs) the most
popular are the .com, .net and .org - Countries have their own
like .us, .in, .ca, .au etc and then there is the new breed of
domains like .tv, .info, .ws and so on but the most
powerful king of all is the .com Why ? Because it came first ?
In the domain market, single word domains sell for thousands of
dollars and .com costs around 10 times more than the others and
is as difficult to get a new name. There is a myth that domains
with hypnens (dashes) are better for search engine rankings, I
think there may be some truth in that myth, but domains without
dashes always seem to cost more than the ones with dashes.
The best way to register a domain is to determine the keywords
you are going to target by using the free trial of keyword
popularity and competition analysis from
acker.com and get a domain with those keywords in it.
Another school of thought abandons this approach and advocates
brand name domains like yahoo.com instead of
everything-portal.com google.com instead of
the-only-search-engine.com and ebay.com instead of
online-junk-acutions.com - you get the
picture.
Name Servers Explained
Every
computer connected to the internet has an ip address that looks
like 123.234.123.234
An ip address consists of 4 numbers
separated by dots, each number ranging from 1 to 255. What this
numbers mean is not important for us, all we need to understand
is that each computer on the internet has a unique ip
address and if the GoldenRobot wants to talk to R2D2 on the
internet, it has to know the IP address of R2D2 (name borrowed
from the movie Star Wars).
But Wait a minute, does that mean
that there are only 256*256*256*256 number of computers
that can connect to the internet, technically yes. But that
number is large enough for now until they start connecting ever
microwave and freezer to the internet (imagine your freezer
automatically placing an order for 2 liters of milk to the
grocery store when it detects that your milk stock is
diminishing!)
OK, now you must be thinking all the ip
address stuff is fine, but how does it relate to domain names ?
Remember that I said "if the GoldenRobot wants to talk to R2D2,
it has to know the IP address of R2D2 " - but all you give to
your computer is the Domain Name of the website you want to
visit, so how can it get the ip address ? Enter the
NameServer.
The job of a nameserver is to resolve a domain
name to an ip address. Simple.
A nameserver is similar to
a telephone directory except that instead of mapping person
names to phone numbers, it maps domain names to ip
addresses.
Imagine having just one telephone
directory for all the people in the world ! In the same way, if
they had just one nameserver for all domains, it would be
unmanageably huge and all the computers would have to contact
that one nameserver to get the domains resolved to ip
addresses ! Even a super-duper-mega-monster-computer would not
be able to handle such a load !
So we have many
nameservers. When you register a domain, you specify which name
server to use.
Now lets take our example
GoldenRobot
wants to talk to R2D2
It will have to follow these
steps
1> Look at the registrar entry for R2D2 to determine
which nameserver to use
2> Connect to that nameserver and
ask it for the ip address of R2D2
3> Connect to R2D2 using
this IP address
In reality it is a bit more complicated
due nameserver cacheing, and chained recursive lookups leading
to authoritative and non authoritative responses but our example
illustrates the basic concept and is sufficient knowledge to
setup your domain.
One misconception that I would like to
clarify, some people think that each domain name maps to a
unique ip address, not true. Just as many people in a house can
share a single telephone number, many domain names can share a
single ip address. The NameServer will return the same ip
address for all of these domains and when the browser connects
to that ip address, it says I am trying to reach suchandsuch.com
domain, the webserver then returns the correct page for the
domain requested. Obtaining a unique ip address (known as
dedicated ip) for your website is usually more expensive than
sharing the ip address.
How to setup your
domain name
Form the discussion we just had, you
would be able to appreciate that in order for you to get your
domain to point to your webpage, you need to do the following in
theory
1> Obtain the ip address for the web host where
your WebPages reside - this is the webserver ip
2> Make an
entry (Called as DNS Entry) in a Nameserver to resolve your
domain name to this ip address.
3> Configure your domain
to use this nameserver
Most of the time, step 2 will be
transparent to you as most webservers provide nameservers in
which they make the DNS entry for you when you purchase webspace
from them. Also, many good domain registrars provide their own
nameservers that you can use.
While registering a domain
or after registering a domain, you will need to set it up to use
two or more nameservers. It is common to use multiple
nameservers so that if one of them is down the others may
be used.
You have three options to set the nameservers
- 1> nameserver provided by your web host
Your
webhost will usually have their own nameservers. In their
documentation they may say you need to use something like
ns1.yourwebhost.com and ns2.yourwebhost.com - If you use these,
you need not bother about the webserver ip address or any other
settings, just configure your domain to use these and you are
all set. - 2> nameserver provided by the registrar
that you register your domain with
If you use this option,
you will need to know the ip address of your webserver (provided
by your webhost). As you will be using the nameserver provided
by your registrar, you will need to set it up to point to the
correct ip address for your website by creating a DNS entry. The
ip address for your webserver is called as the A record and the
ip address for your mail server is called as the MX record,
CNAME records are used if one domain needs to be similar to
another domain, but you do not need to understand these options
for a basic setup. Many top notch domain registrars in the
industry provide advanced DNS management like forwarding your
domain to another site, subdomains, email id management,
wildcard dns etc - 3> third party nameservers
This
is an option that very advanced domain managers prefer when they
wish to have more features and greater control over their DNS
records which may not be provided by the registrar or the
webhost.
Now a days, the line between the
web hosts and the domain registrars is fading as most domain
registrars are providing web hosting and most web hosts are
providing domain registration. If you purchase your domain
registration and web hosting from the same company, chances are
that you may never need to do any setup at
all.
What to look for in a
registrar
It is always a good idea to register your
domain with a domain registration site rather than with your
webhost so you can be able to shift your webhost in case you
need to without loosing your domain.
A good domain registrar
should provide you the following features
- No Cost
Domain Forwarding - To Point your domain to anywhere you choose,
you can even use a long free web host url and forward your
domain to it. - No Cost for Change of Registrant - Makes
sure you can change registrars (transfer out to another
registrar) for your domain without paying a heavy fee.
- No Cost Domain Parking - You get one page saying
your site is under construction or something like that.
- Domain Name Locking - makes sure that no one can
initiate a transfer request until you unlock your domain
- DNS Server Changes - You should be able to login to
your own control panel and make any changes yourself
I use
my domain needs, they provide 1 year registration for $8.75 and
$7.75 for a domain transfer including one year extension.
They also have special prizing for bulk
registrations.
Trouble Shooting Domain Name
Problems
What can you do if you have trouble setting
up your domain? First of all, remember that it may take up to 48
hours for your domain changes to propagate across the internet.
If you wish to verify the settings on any domain, you can
use our recommended
tool
The whois report on any domain will tell
you about the current nameservers attached to that domain in
addition to the contact addresses, the registration date, expiry
date and the date when the last modifications were made to that
domain record. If the nameservers are not correct then you know
you have to change them by logging into your domain name control
panel or by contacting your registrar support. If the name
servers that are shown are correct, then you can use the
kup tool (Advanced DNS Lookup) from the same page to
determine the ip address being returned for your domain by any
nameserver. Here you should enter one of the nameserver
that you find in the whois output and see what ip address it
returns for your domain name.
If it does not return an ip
address then the nameserver has to be configured to point your
domain to the correct ip address, or you may be using the wrong
nameserver.
If it returns an ip address, You can try typing
the ip address directly into the address bar of your web
browser, if it gives a 404 page not found error, then either the
ip address is wrong or the webserver is down. If it returns some
generic page but not your webpage, that is all right, this is to
be expected unless you are using a dedicated ip address. Make
sure that the IP address returned is the correct one that
your web host is providing to you. If you are sure that the ip
address is correct and still your website does not show when you
type in your domain name in the address bar of your browser,
then it may be that other people are able to access your site
and only you are not able to access it because your local
nameserver does not resolve your domain or resolves it wrongly.
In that case, if you can find out the nameserver your local
machine is using, you can enter that nameserver in the nslookup
tool at and see what ip address it is returning. If your local
nameserver is returning the wrong ip address all you need to do
is wait till the dns changes propagate to your local nameserver,
If your local nameserver is returning the right ip address, then
you must contact your web host to inform them that their
webserver is not configured to handle your
domain.
Conclusion
We have covered a
lot of ground here, from registering a domain to setting and
trouble shooting it. Even if you never need to configure a
domain, understanding the concepts behind what goes on
behind the scenes when you type a domain name in your browser
should make you feel good about yourself. And if you are
one of those people who eat domains for breakfast, this
article should give you a head start into the advanced
configuration options available and with a little practice, you
will be well on your way to become a Jedi Knight of domain
management. May the force be with you, always.
By
Mufad.
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