Forum Moderators: phranque
Probably my igonorense, but time has come to register few domains myself. Previously other associates used to do it for me or i didnot had chance to do in the corporate environment. Question is : I need to just to park domains with an ISP and forward to our website. How does this work? any recommendations? cheapest isp possible. My boss just love to save money! Guys my jobs depend on it!(Joke). Also how do i manage the domain and what about email for the domain? how do i forward to our company.
Dispite of being in the IT Industry for last 10 years this is still slight grey area to me and i guess i cannot be expart on everything. Please don't think I am lazy. I didnot get round to it.
Many Thanks
Bravo
Im my experience, really any domain selling company can do that for you, it does'nt even have to be an ISP. Just pick anyone that seem trustworthy and cheap enough for your budget.
There's even terms for it to enter in your favorite SE: "Domain parking" or "Domain forwarding" :)
When you get a little more experienced (domains and stuff can be a whole new world even for experienced webmasters) you might want to use a dedicated DNS service to manage your domains, but that's probably way too advanced for your purpose right now. Should the need arise, just ask ;)
/claus
Its all down to 'horses for courses'.
I use Fasthosts in the UK.
It costs me about £30 per month for unlimited hosting and I have around 250 - 300 domains.
I buy from UKREG which is Fasthosts registration arm, and pay pennies for the domains.
There is a control panel which gives me all the facilities I need to add unlimited pop3 emails, park the domain, ftp etc.
On the other end of the scale there are free hosting companies, you buy the domain from them and they host it free.
Be mindful of bandwidth charges though ... often there is no such thing as a free lunch!
I read about the domains about two years ago. Claus would you please Collaborate on dedicated DNS. I am an IT Administrator in my current company with others. This won't be a problem for me to understand. Many Thanks.
Peewhy This is very useful information. I will certainly keep in mind about registering 200 domains. I just need only few for the time being.
I will search internet for parking domain. I just need to understand the machnism. So I register my domain with an isp. ISP goes to NIC and register my domain and gives me tools to manage my domain and emails. I am talking just interms of parking domain. With the tools I point my name server or IP address. Do I need a fixedIP Address?
and what next?
Bravo
I've sent a sticky which you might find useful.
Peter
Domain names
First, your domain name is simply a pointer to some IP-address. As to where you buy, how many, how much, etc. there are differences across countries and TLDs (Top Level Domains, ie. .com .us .tv etc)
Basically you buy a right to use a domain name for as long as you pay the (semi-)annual fee to whichever office takes care of the collection for the TLD of your choice. Usually, with this right comes an obligation; that you have at least two "name servers" responding to the name at any time. This is not the same as "web servers" as name servers do not display web pages: All they do is to respond to a query for eg. www.example.com by doing a lookup in a table and pointing to the right IP-address or even by saying that there is no IP.
So far so good. This means that you can buy a domain name whereever you like to (Some TLDs might just have one place, or restrictions on purchase, though). All that is required is the name server thing, and the company you buy from usually set this up "behind the scenes" without you having to bother with it. All that you have to do is to pay the annual or semi-annual (or whatever) fee to the relevant office or authority responsible for collecting the fee on behalf of the TLD administrator (eg. InterNIC or whatever)
So, now you own a domain name, say, "example.com". You also have name servers responding to the domain. Basically, they are saying to whoever points their browser at "example.com" that: "That's right, this name is bought and paid for - i cannot tell you where to find any content though, as i haven't been told an IP address yet, so why don't we just let your browser write "The page cannot be displayed" or something like that."
Now for the hosting. Hosting is essentially just space on a disc somewhere to hold your pages. Fortunately it comes with a web server that can handle requests for pages and send them back. Hosting and domain names are totally independent. You can host your pages at a hosting company in Hungary and buy your domain name in China if you desire (and, if your'e able to - i think China is a little restricted on that point). You don't even need a hosting company - you can host your own pages if you have a web server yourself.
Then, what about the ISP? You mentioned it, so i have to explain. ISP service is totally independent of domain names and hosting. The ISP is basically the company delivering the (modem/ISDN/DSL/T1...) connection between your PC/LAN/whatever and the www. You don't have to have an ISP to have a domain name, and you don't have to have a domain name to have an ISP. The same goes for hosting. A lot of ISPs sell domain names and provide hosting as well as internet connections, but you really don't have to be an ISP to do that (again, some countries may be different)
I almost forgot now... so, let's talk about email. I'll do it really really quick. Email, and hosting, and domain names, and ISP services are totally independent. The "send mail" part is actually also independent of the "recieve mail" part, but it's getting a long story and you get the picture i believe.
Temporary wrap-up
You have four separate things to consider. Of these, only one, two, and three are relevant:
There are firms (ISPs) that can handle all four for you. Usually they are also good at it, meaning less problems for you. Usually they also charge higher prices than hosting companies or domain selling companies. (Most hosting companies also sell domain names, although they do not provide ISP services (internet connections))
Of course you need an ISP in order to upload your pages to the hosting company. If you host your own pages (on your own server/PC) you don't need to upload, but you still need an ISP to let others access the pages on your server. If you do not have an internet connection, your pages will not be visible from the internet. Also, in some cases (definitely not all), an ISP is necessary in order to do the "send" part of the email issue.
Domain parking
You already have a website. Or perhaps you don't. Doesn't really matter here. Domain parking simply means to register a domain and pay the recurring fee for it, without pointing it at anything. It's just like buying a TV, putting it on standby, paying the electricity bill, and never turning it on. Or, like buying land without building on it, but still paying taxes, if you prefer.
What happens is that you buy the right to use it for as long as you pay the fee. The "Registrar" (the company you bought the domain from) will then set up the name servers and point every request to a big black bottomless hole (or sometimes a page stating "this domain is bought at xxx", "this page under construction" etc.). Mail to the domain? Down the hole it goes.
Domain forwarding
You already have a website. It can be hosted at a hosting company, at your favorite ISP, or on your own servers. Doesn't really matter here. Domain parking simply means to register a domain, pay the recurring fee for it, and point it at something (while also paying some company for the pointing service). Most hosting companies and registrars can also make domain forwarding.
What you do is to tell the company that you bought the domain from, that you would like it to point at IP xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx or at www.example.com. Technically, it can be done in at least three different ways, but to keep the post short (!) i'll just skip it here.
Oh, and you can tell the company to forward your email to another address at the same time. Technically it's something completely different, but most domain forwarders also offer this option.
So, do you need a static IP / fixed IP?
Well, there are always more than one way of doing things. The way the Domain Name System (DNS) works, static is always easier to handle. If your company has a static IP, you can simply get the registrar, or hosting company (or any other party running DNS services.. coming) to point the domain name you just purchased to your IP. Then, wait a few hours (or days, depending on, well... whatever) and it works.
Otherwise (when having a dynamic IP), your IP will shift sometimes, and if there are people requesting your page when the IP has changed, they might end up looking straight into a bottomless black hole in stead of looking at your pages.
Then how come that there are people running their own server and homepage from home on an old PC with just a DSL line and a dynamic IP-address? Well, because there is also such a thing as "Dynamic DNS". This is essentially the same as "ordinary" DNS, except for the fact that it's pretty advanced, so it can adapt to changes in IP (i'll keep it as brief as that, let's just say it's "some hi-tec mumbo-jumbo" for now, otherwise the post doubles in size)
DNS... get on with it now...
Okay. I'm sorry, all the stuff above was really necessary to tell in order to explain the DNS part, i know it was a long story, but it was really just the most important points and some deviations in order to make the story even shorter. As a result of this, it is really easy to explain what DNS is.
DNS service is what the "domain forwarding company" does (as mentioned above). And then some.
It's the glue that ties your email, and hosting, and domain names together using a set of rules (or "records") that you set up. And it's totally independent of ISP, registrar, email solution and -provider, website host etc. That was easy.
Wrap up - what's the need for it?
Well, to be honest, most people can live a happy long life publishing websites, changing email addresses and hosts at random without even knowing about it. Also, most people can really **** up every little bit of web property they own by using it, so it's not for everyone.
That said, most DNS services do come with an user-friendly interface of some sort, similar to the "control panel" peewhy mentions, but not with exactly these possibilities. It enables you to control where your domain names point to, which subdomains are accepted, where they point to, where your email goes per domain etc. It is most useful if you shift provider of web- or mail hosting, or have some amount of domain names that you use actively for some purpose. Or, if you simply trust nobody else.
Then again, it's complicated to learn, makes a terrible mess when messed up (which is easy), and there are companies who do this as part of their hosting plans for you. I'll restate that: Most hosting companies regard it as a weird exception if you want to handle this by yourself, as it's already included in the price you pay them plus it's not easy. Some will even deny you the possibility, and others will not even know what you are talking about, although they do the same for every customer.
so...
Go for a decent web hosting company. Or a good all-round registrar. They will handle all this for you. Even when you have hundreds of domains. I'm sure that whatever peewhy has told you could very well solve all of your problems.
DNS is one of those things that you really don't need to do just because you can. You only need to do it if, in fact, you really need to. By then you will know, i suppose. Alternatively, if you're one of those people who like to tear things apart to see how they work you might learn a lot of new stuff here. And you might disconnect a website/email or more in the process, don't say i didn't warn you. Anyway, they'll be back once you get things sorted out and it propagates.. no more words about that now.
Hope this helps ;)
/claus
Firstly please accept my deepest gratitude for taking time to explain me so well in your content. Peewhy just post me his telephone number to establish my requirements. I knew about the name server and its purpose. Your explanation made it more clear. I need to do my home work and read about Micrososoft window2000 sever. We have few administrator and each responsible for diffrent servers. I know DNS, Nameserver, StaticIP by reading it 2 years ago. The more you involved in practical setup of the servers the more you learn. Many Thanks.
Bravo
