Registering domain names, DNS server????

Slydice

Before you read, i dont care if this was brought up before sorry
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What the hell is a DNS server, where dye get one how does it work,

does it cost money

can u get ones without banner adds and so forth????

if i own a domain name what services can i get for free
and where can i get them?

em thats all answer if ye know or can help in some way please

phaxx

Quick explanation, every computer on the internet has a unique address that points to it, called an IP address. These look like: 159.134.237.6

Back in the old days, when there were only a few hundred hosts on the net, everyone kept a list of all the adresses and what machine they were, but as the number of hosts began to grow rapidly, this became impossible.

DNS was the answer to this. Simply put, it's a way of attatching a name, ie, "www.boards.ie" to an address, "216.247.239.48"

The names, as you can see, are far easier to remember.

When you want to go to boards.ie, you type in "www.boards.ie" in the address bar. Your computer then asks a DNS server what the IP address of the right machine is so they can communicate, they can only talk to each other if they know the IP. The DNS server then responds with "216.247.239.48". I won't go into detail of how it knows, but that's all you need to know for now.

There you are, that's what DNS is. Regarding a DNS server for your site, what you need here is a computer to be the authority on what "www.slydice.com" or whatever you chose points to.

You're going to need both Primary and Secondary DNS servers - both services are available from www.granitecanyon.com

If you need any help with this, don't hesitate to ask.

Apoligies if this isn't explained well - it IS 3:20am after all!

phaxx

Forgot to mention - www.granitecanyon.com's services are free. I don't know of anywhere else offering this, but I'm sure some other people do. Lads?

dahamsta

Before you read, I don't care if I get too simplistic sorry...

What the hell is a DNS server

DNS stands for Domain Name System. The DNS is basically a protocol (a set of rules) for translating domain names (www.boards.ie) into IP addresses (216.247.239.48) so you can find the correct computer when you're using the Internet. And you need to do this because computers use numbers, not characters, when they work. This makes using the Internet much easier, because you don't have to remember all those numbers. A DNS server is what is used to do that work, and it ties in with all the other DNS servers in the world - in a roundabout manner - to make sure everything is up to date. This is called propogation.

where dye get one

Well, BIND is the most popular DNS server in the world - and it's free to boot - but unless you have a permanent connection to the Internet it will only be useful for a handful of tasks. You'll find plenty of other DNS servers available on the DNSRD (DNS Resource Directory) though, which I'll link to below.

how does it work

Well, it does what I explained above primarily, usually by "talking" to other DNS servers. If you request a domain name, it looks it up locally to see if it can find a match. If it finds one, it supplies the IP address to whatever is requesting it, and its work is done. If it doesn't though, it queries another DNS server to see if it can find a match there, and continues "up the chain" of the DNS until it finds what it's looking for. When it's done, it then caches the result, like a browser, so it doesn't have to do it again for the same domain name. And again, just like a browser, those records run out in a certain amount of time (TTL, or Time To Live), and it all starts again. Again, this is propogation at work.

does it cost money

Well, that depends. You probably don't need your own DNS server, because your hosting company will invariably allow you to use theirs. Of course, if you want to get into it, you can spend tens of thousands of pounds on a leased line to your location, and set up your own.

can u get ones without banner adds and so forth????

DNS servers have nothing directly to do with banner ads. Those ads are usually served by your host to generate revenue on top of the measly fee they charged you for the domain name. If you want to get rid of the banners, you usually have to upgrade your account or move to a proper host.

if i own a domain name what services can i get for free
and where can i get them?

If you own a domain name, you can probably get the services you require from wherever you registered the domain name, but usually for an extra fee. If you want free services, you could probably find them if you look around (Google Is Your Friend), but I couldn't recommend any because, as a rule of thumb, free services are crap services. Without knowing the domain name and more specific details, I can't help you any more.

If you're actually interested in the DNS (and not just looking for something for nothing as I suspect ), you could do worse that starting at the aforementioned DNSRD. If you're *really* interested, you should buy a book called DNS & BIND by O'Reilly.

HTH,
adam

dahamsta

I hate it when that happens...

Phaxx is of course right, granitecanyon is a pretty good service, although you really need at least a rudimentary grasp of the DNS to use it properly.

I think it's the only decent one left though. There was at least one other, but I think it shut down.

adam

Cliph

I find zoneedit to be great. It's free and the services are easy to manage.

b20uvkft6m5xwg

I'm a bit lost still. I too haven't a clue about DNS. [ Although good effort Adam ]

For instance I just bought a new domain on Saturday http://www.leinster.cc
Why or how could DNS be useful to be me?? Or what kind of things in general is it useful for??

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80p.
SAVE CHIP !!

dahamsta

I'm a bit lost still. I too haven't a clue about DNS. [ Although good effort Adam ]

Thanks 80p. And please, if you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'm no expert on the DNS - far from it in fact, I don't even have a copy of DNS & BIND - being as I am more interested in the politics involved, but I have a reasonable general knowledge.

For instance I just bought a new domain on Saturday http://www.leinster.cc

Well, you see, there's something I could be anal about for a start. What you typed there is a URL (Uniform/Universal Resource Locator), not a domain name. The domain name you registered is simply leinster.cc. Which brings me to another piece of verbosity - you didn't "buy" leinster.cc, you registered it, which is a method that can be equated with renting. You can't buy a domain name. They may "sell" on the open market, sometimes for millions of dollars (the current record is $7.5m for business.com about two years ago), but they're still only rented. You still have to pay a fee periodically to keep it. Picky, ain't I?

Why or how could DNS be useful to be me?? Or what kind of things in general is it useful for??

Well, you see the whole point of the DNS is that it's useful to you and nearly everyone who uses the Internet every second you're online. You never notice it, but it's constantly working transparently in the background, translating domain names into IP (Internet Protocol) addresses, so computers can find each other. After TCP/IP, it's the biggest workhorse of the Internet. Without it, you would need to record the IP addresses of all those websites you visit, and you'd see a lot less advertising for the Internet on the traditional meeja.

How could it be useful to you in particular? Well, if you run your own servers you can run your own DNS, so your own and your clients websites are accessible from their domain names instead of IP addresses. You can benefit from a wonderful technology called "name based virtual hosting", which allows you to host multiple domain names - and so websites - on just one IP address, thus saving time, effort and quite possibly money getting blocks of IP addresses assigned to you. And that benefits the Internet as a whole too, becuase there's a shortage of IP addresses out there - which is why we're slowly but surely moving to a new IP address protocol, IPv6.

How's that to get you started?

adam

b20uvkft6m5xwg

Thx Adam,
I'm getting there now gradually. Its obviously makes the backend of the WWW work a little more effieciently.
It does though seem more oriented for ppl who are running their own servers ?

It is though well explained & no doubt has been logged along w/ all the other useless bits of information in my cranium to be dragged out on that proverbial rainy day!!

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80p.
SAVE CHIP !!

dahamsta

Thx Adam, I'm getting there now gradually. Its obviously makes the backend of the WWW work a little more effieciently.

A lot.

It does though seem more oriented for ppl who are running their own servers ?

Oh, absolutely. But a little knowledge about the DNS and TCP/IP can go a long way to understanding how the Internet works, which can come in handy when you're trying to understand technologies that run on top of it. Email, FTP, HTTP, etc. all become much easier to understand with just the fundamentals. And when you get into scripting in, for example, Perl or PHP, it helps again, with things like opening connections (sockets) to other computers on the Internet.

It is though well explained & no doubt has been logged along w/ all the other useless bits of information in my cranium to be dragged out on that proverbial rainy day!!

Ah, I know that feeling. Sometimes it feels like overload, eh?

adam

[This message has been edited by dahamsta (edited 10-08-2001).]

b20uvkft6m5xwg

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by dahamsta:
[BSometimes it feels like overload, eh?
B]</font>

Yep!
I dont want to start pushing all the info I really do need out of my brain- I'm starting back to college in month!!

I do want to start getting to terms w/ PHP though because everyone tells me how much easier it is for updating sites etc.
Maybe it can be a bit of pet project in the next few months!!

Thx for the help though!

Top 3 TV shows in Iraq....
1.Husseinfeld
2.Allah McBeal
3.Suddennly Sanctions

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80p.
SAVE CHIP !!