how do i get to have my own nameserver?

[MrLeche]

I'm new in this stuff. and when looking onto whois records, some domain names carry their own nameservers, i practically have a hosting provider which registered a domain name for me and hosting on a nameserver named after my domain name. how does it work?

I've read a lot of site telling that nameservers are practically a machine that converts name into IP addresses. but how are they named?

do we also buy nameserver names just like we buy domain names?

here: lets say www.site.com's whois lookup says that www.site.com is having a ns1.example.com and ns2.example.com,

then eventually, when you upgrade your host to a reseller, your nameserver turns into ns1.site.com ns2.site.com basically named after you domain name.

how do the process go? is name being bought? just like buying a domain name? if it is? where do you buy such things? do domain name registrar provide nameserver names? am i on the right track? Thanks!

[edited by: Webwork at 10:30 pm (utc) on June 10, 2006]
[edit reason] Charter [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]

[laserline]

I am still new to this as well (and new to this forum this is my first post!), but the way I got mine was when I upgraded to a dedicated account my host gave me ip addresses that I needed to register with my domain registrar. Then I was able to use my primary domain name as a private nameserver.

I am sure that there are other ways and hopefully one of the bigboys will be able to answer this question better than I can :)

[Webwork]

Hello MrLeche and welcome to WebmasterWorld.

No, you don't buy a nameserver name like you buy a domain name for your website.

Typically you have 2 options: 1) You use your hosting company's nameservers. (Most common); or, 2) You set up you own domain name server.

You set your nameservers by first entering them - the nameserver domains (ns1.example.com, ns2.example.com) into the WhoIs record for the domain. You do this in you domain registrar's control panel. You would know what nameservers to enter if you have a hosting arrangement that allows you to use the hosting services name servers.

You enter the name servers - ns1.example.com and ns2.example.com - which directs http requests to that named nameserver, which in turn has an internal routing record that sends the http request to the IP address of your host's server, which host server then uses internal settings to route the http request to the virtual server that is home to your website.

[arfy]

The way I got mine, was when I signed up for a reseller account with my host, they set it up them selves after asking me what name would I like to use as my nameserver.

This is useful because your clients cannot find out the name of the company from whome you have bought the reseller account from as they can only see your company name in the name server and not the hosts.

So this arrangement is good for everyone.

[MrLeche]

yes. i think i know that part, im a reseller for about 3 years now. but this time around, I'd like to know how the naming process go.

before i was a reseller i used my HP's(hosting provider) nameserver say, ns1.example.com then i upgraded my account from 75mb to 2GB which is a reseller's account which gave me a lot of priviledges (WHM, host account creation) it is cpanel integrated if you're familiar with it.

but the mystery for me that i would like to know is. if example i'll be a HP. how do you set nameservers to use your client's domain name so that they can resell their respective accounts.

i'd like to be a hosting provider, well just so to take care of our clients ourselves, coz its been a lot of headaches these past few days that my HP server goes down, my clients get upset and of course they don't even know that im just a resller.

[edited by: Webwork at 2:00 pm (utc) on June 11, 2006]
[edit reason] Charter [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]

[jtara]

I think what you are referring-to is "vanity DNS". This allows you to have DNS servers in your own domain, even though they might actually be run by somebody else.

I don't recommend running your OWN DNS servers. You are almost always better-served by using your registrar, hosting service, or (my favorite choice) a third-party DNS provider.

But in any case, the process for setting-up your DNS to be in your own domain is the same.

You first have to "register" your name servers. This is DIFFERENT from specifiying which name servers to use for your domain. The process varies from registrar to registrar. You will have to dig-in to your registrar's documentation to figure out how to do it.

Here's the dead givaway: to "register" a domain server, you need to specify BOTH a domain name AND an IP address. The IP address can be the address of your own machines, or can be the addresses of name servers provided by your registrar, hosting service, or third-party provider.

When you register a name server you are basically declaring "this is a name server". Nothing else. You don't say what domain(s) the name server resolves.

Oh, prior to registering your name server(s) you need to add A records to your domain for your name servers.

Once you have registered your name servers, you can reference them in exactly the same manner as you would reference your hosting provider's, registrar's, or third-party name servers. Create NS records, giving the names of your name servers.

When you do this without actually running your own nameservers, this is called "vanity DNS", because it will APPEAR that you are running your own DNS servers, even though you aren't.

You can set-up vanity DNS to use any domain name that you control. It does NOT have to be the same as the domain(s) that it serves DNS for. If you have, say, 10 domains, you can use one of them to set-up vanity DNS, or you can have each of the 10 have it's own set of vanity DNS servers. In fact, though, these can actually all be the same DNS servers.

This actually solves a practical problem - it allows you to have "glue records" in the case where your DNS servers primary domain names are in a different registry than your site. Not having "glue records" results in a (slight) degradation in DNS performance. The most common situation where this occurs is when you have a domain which is not in the .com or .net TLD. Most nameservers will have their primary registration in .com or .net. (Which actually share the same registry.) If you have, say, a .org, users won't get glue records if you use a .com nameserver. The solution is to do a "vanity DNS" registration for DNS servers in your .org domain. Now the user will get glue records, and DNS lookups will be slightly faster than they would be otherwise.

[wmuser]

"i'd like to be a hosting provider, well just so to take care of our clients ourselves, coz its been a lot of headaches these past few days that my HP server goes down, my clients get upset and of course they don't even know that im just a resller."

I am not sure if WHM has a feature for it but you can set it from server name server config file,there you can allow particular domains (clients names) to use your name servers.

That way other domain names wont be able to use your name servers.

[MrLeche]

that's the dilemma, i'm pratically having a reseller's account of 3GB space, the packages includes "1 private nameerver", 2 ip addresses, unlimitted domain names(which isn't included in the price) and unlimited subdomains.

so what i can just control basically is creating an account setting space, creating script features etc.

except for the setting your own nameserver name thing. that's why i don't know how it goes or how it is processed.

if you are telling me that setting a nameserver fomr a third party, if by chance i get privilegde to have it, then that means i could have any nameservers i want as long as i control the domain name.

currently i have 20 sites hosted on my reseller's account. the pace isn;t even halved. and i control most of there domain names. but all of ther nameservers point to what my provider say so. which is only one named after my domain name, i couldn't create another name for a nameserver. if i really can, then i guess i haven't learned it yer.

i planned to learn how these things go because i;m planning to change my provider, but i worry about my existing nameserver named after my domain. i couldn't just use a new nameserver if i my old exists and that my old provider provided that to me.

[wmuser]

You can ask your host whether if you are allowed to manage name server allowed names list.
Someone who has root access will tell you exact info as without root acceess its impossible to control all aspects of own name servers

[MrLeche]

uh... i dont think i got what you mean. Not that it means something but I uh I think i should really know the how tos on DNS. This is really complicating for me. But i guest i gave it a try.

I'll try to learn what DNS does, whats an example program etc., etc. and then maybe things will clear on my mind when I'm really into it.

Thanks forthe insight I'll try my best to learn what it is and I'll get back in this thread.