Name servers and IPs --- help please!

[wickedthoughtz]

I'm trying to get some new name servers I ordered working. I requested them from yahoo, and yahoo says they are working fine and pointing at the IPs I requested. However my hosting company, godaddy, says that the reason I can't connect to my site via ftp is because my nameservers are not pointing to my IPs on my virtual dedicated server. So I have two companies I am trying to deal with, giving me contradictory information. How do I check on my own, what IP a nameserver is pointing to? I would like to rule that out as a possible error or fix it if it is, indeed, the problem. thanks.

[ashishp]

You do not even need to order them from Yahoo! simply "register" your nameservers at godaddy and when asked for the IP just use the IP address of yahoo's nameservers

eg:

If you registered example.com from Godaddy and hosted it at yahoo then:

1. When you created example.com hosting account at yahoo it must have told you to use certain nameservers. Lookup the ip address of the nameservers and note them.

2. You need to register/create ns1.example.com & ns2.example.com in the control panel given to you by GoDaddy. When asked for the IP address, just enter the addresses you found in step 1. One each for ns1.example.com and ns2.example.com

3. Modify you domain whois to use your own nameservers as authoritative
   

That's it. If your domain was functioning properly with yahoo nameservers and your nameservers are pointing to the same IPs then your site will work fine.

[wheel]

To check what IP address your computer thinks a website is located at, bring up a command prompt and type in:
ping www.yourdomain.com

That'll tell you what you're seeing for an IP address.

[ashishp]

do keep in mind that the IP that you will see from ping is the IP where the site is hosted, it is NOT the nameserver IP. :)

[Romeo]

the IP that you will see from ping is the IP where the site is hosted, it is NOT the nameserver IP.

This should perhaps read
... you will see from ping is the IP that the nameserver *thinks* where the site should be hosted, it is NOT the nameserver IP. :-)

You need a better tool than ping to check this:
-- try a `dig NS` lookup to know what nameservers have been put into the parent (root) zone file by your domain name registrar (or probably by yourself using the registrar's selfservice tools).
-- then try a `dig A` lookup from one or both of these nameservers (the dig can query a specicif NS) to know what these names servers think that your web space's IP addresses should be.
You may look in Google for "dig ip address" to find a suitable remote online service where you can do the dig (if you don't have one on your workstation).

If the name server entries themselves are incorrect, check with your domain name registrar.
If the IP address of your web space is incorrect, then check with the nameserver provider (yahoo? yourself?) to have this fixed.

Regards,
R.

[wickedthoughtz]

What does if mean if in NSlookup, it says " ** server can't find genericname.com"?
Also if I do a whois lookup in network solutions, it just shows my two newly regisered nameservers (with their correct IPs), but if I do a whois lookup at completewhois.com, it shows those (correct) IPs as the first entry for each nameserver, but underneath the first entry each nameserver has 6 additional IPs, all of who belong to yahoo. Here is an example of one with just the first 3 ips:
Name Server[from whois+dns, whois ip]: NS1.genericname.COM 216.69.169.#*$!
Name Server[from whois+dns, dns ip]: NS1.genericname.COM 68.142.234.xx
Name Server[from whois+dns, dns ip]: NS1.genericname.COM 68.142.234.xx
Name Server[from whois+dns, dns ip]:

The first 216.69.169.xxx are correct and what I registered. All the others are incorrect. One of the incorrect, 68.142.234.xx IPs is the one godaddy says my nameservers are resolving to. In the entry (the bracketed section) these incorrect IPs are listed as "dns ip", whereas my correct IP is listed as "whois ip". What is the difference between a "whois ip" and a "dns ip"? Thanks so much!

[Romeo]

whereas my correct IP is listed as "whois ip". What is the difference between a "whois ip" and a "dns ip"?

Sorry, I don't know what you mean by "my correct IP", and it is unclear to me what the completewhois.com shows and what a "whois ip"+"dns ip" could be.

From your first posting you seem to have:
-- registered your domain name example.com somewhere?
-- ordered a virtual dedicated server from godaddy?
-- ordered nameserver hosting from yahoo (and you did tell yahoo the IP address of your dedicated server)?
3 different things, though.

You didn't try the `dig` lookups?
I can show you to debug your situation with a standard tool -- can't help you with the completewhois.

A `dig example.com ns` should show you what nameservers are delegated for your domain in the parent (root) zone. This should correspond to what you see in a whois query for your domain name.
As you said, this seems to be OK.

A `dig example.com soa` shows you the authoritative master nameserver for your domain, ns1.name.server for example. It should be on the list above, of course.

Next, ask that nameserver what it thinks about your nameserver situation:
`dig @ns1.name.server example.com ns`
Ideally, this should show you the same list of NS records as in the whois lookup. If there are more, then these are 'stealth' nameservers. This may be weird but is OK, if they have the same data about your domain.

Now ask all your nameservers about the IP address they have of your dedicated server:
`dig @nsX.name.server www.example.com`
If you don't see the expected IP address of your webserver, you have to work this out with the nameserver provider, who has to edit the zone file accordingly.

If you don't have a local `dig`, use a remote one on the web (find one where you can query specific distant nameservers).

HTH and regards,
R.