Setting up a DNS on MSW Server 2003

[neon9634]

I have windows server 2003 and have never successfully setup a dns.

I bought a domain and i am currently running the hosting myself- the downside is, the domain is fowarding to my servers i.p. and it looks really shonky and even with cloaking nothing works properly.

I really, really want to setup a dns and do everything on the one machine. Has anyone any suggestions? websites? or books?

Thanks guys, your help is much appreciated.

Nathan

[SpacemanSpiff]

Nathan,

If I read your question right...sounds like this is what ya need to do:

1) redirect your domain to ns.domain.com and ns1.domain.com (where domain.com is YOUR domain), or at least one of them, with the IPs (or IP) for your server

2) Set up a DNS forward zone for domain.com, set the SOA to domain.com and create MX and CNAME entries for mail.domain.com and www.domain.com. A right click on the new forward zone for domain.com will get you right to both of those.

3) Reload the zone, and you should be all set when your domain registrar fixes your listing (say 2 days)

I hope I read your question right, but that will get you started. Good luck!

[neon9634]

Okay,

Once i have done all that... when people type in the domain will it automatically goto the wwwroot website? or do i need to set up a redirect or something.

BTW- im new to server 2003

Thanks dude, Your a legend.

Nathan

[SpacemanSpiff]

well, you already have IIS up and running right? If so, then yes. You can always use NSLOOKUP to check even before your registrar updates. Just make sure you have an NS entry for whatever ns.domain.com you're pointing everything to. Basicall it goes like this:

1) User types in domain.com
2) registrar DNS record (on a bunch of DNS servers) says go to ns.domain.com, which is ****.xxx.xxx.xxx IP
3) your server gets a request for domain.com, which it checks against any NS records that say ns.domain.com
4) if it finds one, it forwards that request to the server IP (yours...same server probably) with the right A or CNAME entry.

Say they type in www.domain.com then you need an A or CNAME record for "www", etc.

I hope that makes some sense...

[sprstrjesus]

I managed to set up my DNS and pointed my domain to my new name server. My problem is when I type www.mydomain.com I get a page but when I type [mydomain.com...] I get nothing. Can someone help me with this? What is it that I have to do?

[Webwork]

It likely has to do with the settings you entered when you created the virtual server in IIS. You need to tell the server to respond to both domain.com and www.domain.com.

[sprstrjesus]

Thanks for the help. also, do I need to make any DNS settings for each additional domains that I want to host? I mean do I need to add new zones? if I need to add a new zone. what records should I add for forward annd reverse lookups?