Re: [cobalt-users] Virtual Name Server

["Rodolfo J. Paiz" <rpaiz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 5/9/01 09:24 PM -0400, you wrote:
> So, if I already have regular A and MX entries set up as follows:
>
> (1)  A record for james.com pointing to IP1 with PTR on,
> (2)  A record for www.james.com pointing to IP1, and
> (3)  MX record that directs james.com to www.james.com.
>
> ===================================
> Then, I only have to add two entries:
>
> james.com   IN   NS ns2.james.com
> ns2.james.com IN A  ip-address-of-myISP-dns
> ===================================
> Is my understanding correct?

Yes. Note that ns2.james.com. <-- requires a dot at the end in order to be 
"fully-qualified." The rule is simple: if the name ends in a dot, it's the 
entire name; if not, BIND adds your domain name to it. So as you wrote it 
(with no dot), it won't work since ns2.james.com.james.com. will not exist.

> If so, how do I handle the name server host
> registration with NSI?

You're not actually using Network Solutions, right? If so, I (personal 
opinion) suggest you run, don't walk, to another registrar.

This is going to sound odd, but I don't really understand "nameserver host 
registration with NSI" since other registers (mostly bulkregister for me) 
don't hassle me with it. But I *think* that any name-address pair you 
provide for which DNS works and which answers is OK with them. So 
registering ns2.james.com as a nameserver with your ISP's IP address should 
work as long as they already answer for the zone. Let me know if I happen 
to be right.

But seriously, how many domains do you register (on average) in a month or 
a year? You really should look at www.bulkregister.com, www.opensrs.com, 
and others. NSI and Register.com are quite expensive, but of far greater 
concern is the poor service for which NSI is notorious. I have some 
personal experience with that, and I've heard horror stories from too many 
other people. If you don't register a whole lot of domains, there are 
plenty of resellers in the world that will do it for you; many people on 
this list will offer such a service, even.

> Since NSI requires unique IP address, I am thinking
> that I would register ns2.james.com with IP2.  After the registration is
> done, can I safely use the IP2 for other purposes?  Or, should I keep an A
> record that points ns2.james.com to IP2?

Is IP2 the ISP's IP, or another of yours? If yours, I don't ever point 
records to wrong places... it's hard enough to keep track of things even 
now. KISS, my man, KISS.

As for the unique IP thing, forget it. You can run any number of services 
on one IP; *no one* had better care what else is on it. The point of a 
nameserver host, as I understand it, is that they want to verify that the 
nameservers you list actually answer for the zone you're registering. As 
long as that basic condition is met, you can do anything else you please.


--
Rodolfo J. Paiz
rpaiz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx