I know there are quite a few here with .co.uk domains, so hopefully somebody can help me figure out some confusing language.
There's a little yellow "caution" flag next to the name. When I click on it, I get a "restrictions summary".
Most of it makes sense:
Minimum term: 2 years - check
Minimum name servers, 2 - check
Maximum name servers, 4 - disappointing, but - check
DNS Zone: Name servers submitted for registration must be authoritative for the domain prior to registration (check - so, I have to set up my DNS server before registering the domain) and must be for the life of the domain, not just during the registration
Huh?
Am I stuck with the nameservers that I initially set-up, forever?
Or are they just saying that you are required to always have authoratative name servers?
I want to have "vanity DNS", so that I will have "glue records" served. (i.e. I will have ns1.example.com, ns2.example.com, etc. - though they will actually point to my third-party DNS provider's servers).
There seems to be a catch-22 here. I need to "register" these servers at the registrar. But you can't register name servers until you've registered the domain. But you need to specify the name servers at the time of registration. Catch-22!
When I got to "configuration" to configure the domain prior to registration, there is a place for nameservers, but no place for their IP addresses. And I see no other way to register the name servers. (Registering a name server requires a name and an IP address.)
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Domain Renewal: Domain must be renewed at least 60 days prior to expiration date. Grrrrrr! But, check.
NOTE: Due to the special registry requirements of this domain tld, most domain functions will involve a wait time while the registry of record reviews and approves the requests. - Er, any other gotchas I'm missing?
"I will have ns1.example.co.uk, ns2.example.co.uk, etc"
My registrar requires that my domain be active in DNS before they delegate it - what can I do?
Some registrars require that DNS servers answer for a domain before they delegate that domain. If this is true than your domain must be preactivated. We automatically preactivate domains in the majority of country TLDs that require preactivation. Such domains will be on the DNS servers within two hours. If our servers aren't answering authoritatively within two hours, contact support and request that your domain be preactivated. Please be sure to include your username, and the domain(s) you want preactivated.
I've never had to specify DNS when buying a .co.uk domain, I've always specified this after it was registered and live on the register control panel.
All I've ever done when bying a .co.uk domain is pay for it, then wait for it to be registered.
Also using the register control panel I can change the DNS whenever I want to, in fact I did it last week for two .co.uk domains I own.
Bear in mind that there are apparently prohibitions on the registrars that a .co.uk domain can be transferred to so you might want to check with nominet before you do this
FWIW I have been a since-the-start Nominent member ("registrar" I guess) and can tell you from a practical point of view that you can freely change the DNS servers for a domain, at least from my experience. Your registrar *may* impose additional restrictions. I have my name servers for .uk domains under .uk, .net and .com, for robustness. I change them from time to time, eg when I [de]commission a nameserver host.
It is sensible of a registrar to make sure that your initial set of DNS servers is working and correctly set up.
Various people, such as RIPE, insist on correctly-functionaing DNS before delegating. Again, entirely reasonable and saves a lot of embarrassment and effort all round.
Rgds
Damon
Thanks everyone for the replies!
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Not so sure that adding .com nameservers adds to "robustness". I think it may actually REDUCE robustness.
If you use .co.uk nameservers (or use "vanity nameservers" to create aliases in .co.uk) then you get "glue records". This means there is no need to look-up the IP addresses of the nameservers - they are supplied at the same time (and in the same record) that the record for your base domain name (e.g. example.co.uk) is served by the registry's DNS.
All my records have the same .uk/.com/.net nameservers, basically, so whatever domain (under one of those three) gets looked up gets a glue record in the response too, as you suggest.
I'm thinking about adding a .org NS so that there will be a glue record for my main .org site...
Rgds
Damon
All my records have the same .uk/.com/.net nameservers, basically, so whatever domain (under one of those three) gets looked up gets a glue record in the response too, as you suggest.
I think we are saying the same thing, then. :)
So, for your .co.uk domains, you use all .co.uk nameservers. For your .com domains, you use all .com nameservers, etc.
.com and .net share a registry, so you will get glue records even if you mix-and-match these.
This is a commonly-overlooked configuration issue. It would most commonly affect .org domains. slashdot.org is an example of a high-profile .org website that does NOT have glue records, because it has .com nameservers! (Wikipedia got it right, though)
The second most commonly-overlooked case would that of an American website with a .com starting a .co.uk site (my case) which is why I mentioned it here.
To clarify for others, you do NOT need to have seperate nameservers for this - just "alias" names registered in the appropriate registries. Of course, you should also consider the geographic distribution of your nameservers.
All my domains basically have 3 nameservers, a .co.uk (hosted in the UK), a .com (hosted in the UK) and a .net (hosted in the US).
Any domain of mine within the .uk or .net or .com zones that has those three NSs above given as its name servers is likely to get a glue record delivered along with the other info as you suggest when the top-level DNS servers are hit with the query.
My .org domain look-up potentially require an extra step to resolve the IP addresses of one or more of the nameservers having got their names (without glue records) from the top-level DNS server. I may fix this by adding a real (or alias, as you suggest) NS under .org.
Rgds
Damon
All my domains basically have 3 nameservers, a .co.uk (hosted in the UK), a .com (hosted in the UK) and a .net (hosted in the US).
OK, now I understand.
First, you've dealt with geographic diversity by having namservers in both the U.K. and U.S. (I've done this by using a DNS provider that has servers on multiple continents and uses IPAnycast routing.)
(Note that resolvers do not choose a DNS server in any particular order - or at least they are not guaranteed to do so. You should assume that they are picked at random.)
You use all three on each domain, giving you either one (in the case of .uk) or two (in the case of .com or .net) nameservers with glue records.
I'm not sure that most (or any) resolvers will give priority, though, to the nameserver(s) with glue records.
A better approach would be to register "vanity DNS" servers in .com, .co.uk, and .org. You can do this with your existing servers, without having to add any additional ones.
Let's say right now you have:
ns.example.co.uk 1.2.3.4
ns.example.com 4.5.6.7
ns.example.net 4.3.2.1
You might even have:
ns.foobarDNS.co.uk 1.2.3.4
ns.xyzzyDNS.com 4.5.6.7
ns.examplewebhost.net 4.3.2.1
It's irrelevant if your nameservers domain names are currently in YOUR domain or not - all that is needed for vanity DNS is to know the IP address(s) of the namservers that answer authoratitivly for your domain(s). You are going to give them aliases in your domain(s).
First, create A records for 3 nameservers in each TLD:
ns1.example.co.uk 1.2.3.4
ns2.example.co.uk 4.5.6.7
ns3.example.co.uk 4.3.2.1
ns1.example.com 1.2.3.4
ns2.example.com 4.5.6.7
ns3.example.com 4.3.2.1
(No need for .net - shares registry with .com)
ns1.example.org 1.2.3.4
ns2.example.org 4.5.6.7
ns3.example.org 4.3.2.1
Wait for these to resolve.
Next, "register" these new (old, really - just alias names for them) nameservers through their respective registrars. You will need to enter the names and the IP addresses. Some registrars like to play hide-and-seek with this operation, so it may not be obvious where to do this. :) The dead givaway that you've found the right place is that you will need to enter an IP address.
Finally, change your nameservers, as well as your SOA record (important! The SOA record lists the "origin" for your domain. This should be whichever server is the "primary" namserver, and should be in the same TLD) for each domain, to use the set of names in the corresponding TLD. The nameservers don't have to be in the same domain - just the same TLD. So, you can use one set of .co.uk namserver domain names for ALL of your .co.uk sites, (example2.co.uk...) one set for ALL of your .com/.net sites, one set for all of your .org sites.
Thanks for the suggestion: I shall re-read it and digest.
I've been doing my own DNS since the year dot, well in the UK anyway, using the same old makefile, etc, etc, so it may well be time for a review!
Rgds
Damon
