DNS and nameserver question

[seeker]

I know that many of you have answered similar questions, but I would *really* appreciate if you can answer the following questions.
To facilitate the example, i will use ficticious examples.

Lets say i got a new dedicated server at companyA and the gave me 5 IPs.
the first 2 are 5.5.5.100 and 5.5.5.101
they told me to point those 2 for my nameservers.

lets say the domain i want for my nameserver is example.com

is registering NS1.example.com --->5.5.5.100
and NS2.example.com --->5.5.5.101

enough to make my new sites (newsite.com points to NS1.example.com and NS2.example.com) work?

in the above example, whois for example.com will show the default nameservers (such as GoDaddy or enom etc...) and not NS1 of course.

Now, does the above scenario work?
if it does, does that mean that everything will work, but www.example.com will show the registrars default page?

Can i NEXT point example.com to NS1,example.com and NS2.example.com to create a site for example.com or is that 'looping' within itself?

If you didnt understand any of the above, i am sorry, its Friday night here, and i am tired

Would realy appreciate the help!

[Mr Webname]

ns1.example.com 5.5.5.100
ns2.example.com 5.5.5.101

Will be the nameservers on your server - (they need to be listed on the server).

If www.example.com is hosted on the server and uses ns1/ns2.example.com then the whois will show them as the nameservers, not the registrars details.

Pointing www.example.com to those nameservers is necessary to make the name reolve successfully, it will not cause it to loop.

Allow up to 72 hours to resolve.

[FusionX]

Allow up to 72 hours to resolve.

72 hours ???

Aren't we in the new era of rapid DNS updates? Or am I missing something??

FusionX

[chatcher]

...
is registering NS1.example.com --->5.5.5.100
and NS2.example.com --->5.5.5.101

enough to make my new sites (newsite.com points to NS1.example.com and NS2.example.com) work?

No, you must also run a DNS server (such as BIND) on the machine that has those addresses. (By the way, it doesn't make much sense to run both primary and secondary DNS on the same box. If one fails, they both fail. You may as well only use one name server for your domains.)

The machine at the IP addresses you register as your name servers must be a name server (capable of answering DNS queries for the domains that use those name servers).

Can i NEXT point example.com to NS1,example.com and NS2.example.com to create a site for example.com or is that 'looping' within itself?

Yes, no problem to use name servers in the same domain as the domain that uses them (but those name servers need to be able to answer DNS queries).

[seeker]

thanks for all the replies!

I had registered the ns1 etc... at my regitrar, and the 2 different IPs instead of one was supplied by the Hosting company and they adviced to point ns1 and ns2 to 2 different IPs, i have no idea why.

I had not however pointed 'example.com' to the ns1.example.com and ns2.example.com

I'll do that know.
thanks!

[theparrot]

you don't need to point example.com to the ns1. & ns2. but you must have entries for these (A records) in the example.com zone file. www.example.com will show whatever server is found at the A record you entered for it.

for the nameserver to work you must have nameserver software, and the zone files properly loaded into that software.



there is no looping, that is what the purpose of registering the ns's ip is to avoid.
the chicken and egg of how to look up a zone that is a nameserver for itself.

Having both nameservers on the same machine is pointless.

[seeker]

ok...
what are A records?
do I look for them on the server (cpanel) or in the registrar (in this case GoDaddy)?

[Mr Webname]

Log in to WHM and click on "Edit Setup".
Scroll down and you will see entries required for Primary & Secondary nameservers - complete these fields.

[seeker]

Thanks Mr. W!
at least now I know where all those 'things' are
I went there, and the Hosting company had already filled in what looks like the correct info.
I clicked on were it says assign IP (it already had the correct ns1.example.com there), and the IP's where correct.
Now for the elusive 'A' records, it said click to assign. I clicked, it showes a bunch of info, and asks me to accept If I think it looks correct.
WHM is relying on my opinion on If it 'looks' ok?
wow.
It looks ok I guess, but so would a pizza right now.
lol
still, it has been over 48 hours (just about 48 hours) that I created my first test domain (from the time I changed dns settings) and it still doesnt show the familiar page. Just says it cant find anything.

On my old server I had like 40 sites, and everything was running smoothely, until of course the company went bankrupt....

[theparrot]

In this case you said you were using the registars nameserver for example.com, so you set the A records using the dns management controls they provide, not your local cpanel controls.

BTW, one of my simple acid tests for hosts to avoid that has server me well, is do they make simple mistakes like put both name servers behind the same router. In this case they did far worse, putting them both on the same server.

[Mr Webname]

Nameserver/server issues are not always an issue of neglect - they are often an issue of cost or more often customer choice.

[seeker]

it works!!! it is resolving!!!!


I dont know how to thank you!
I can get my sites back!!!

[theparrot]

Nameserver/server issues are not always an issue of neglect - they are often an issue of cost or more often customer choice.

well for the issue of costs, as I said it works well as a q&d screening test. With so many web hosts, a quick way to eliminate some like this has served me well. And 9 out of 10 times when a client has a problem host, this test would have worked to avoid them. If they can not afford to do nameservers right, do you really want to use them as a host?

As for customer choice, lets take this as an example..... was seeker even asked if he wanted to go against recommended best practices?

[seeker]

ok....
I am still here.
???
I might not know the functiioning of a few things (or many), but I had 40 sites up.

[theparrot]

Yeah, the topic has driffted a little. You are fine as long as none of those 40 domains have any functions elsewhere and it is ok for some mail to bounce if your server is down.

Now that more people are doing this (having nameservers on one host), more mail clients are becoming resilent to it as well I think anyway.

I was just giving some advice on a q&d way to weed out hosts, and Mr. Webname was just disagreeing with my making that an absolute rule.

[seeker]

parrot, you seem to have a lot of knowlege and I respect that.
all I needed was a simple answer on wow to get the dran thing working.
Are u a programmer?

[theparrot]

I do programming, network admin, and unix system admin, as well as some other things for my day jobs.

The comments about it being pointless and not a good idea, to have both nameservers on the same server are directed at your host who set it up this way for you, and not you btw.

[seeker]

ok, thats great. It must make you feel proud.
I wish I could.
I started programming on an Apple II in the late 70s and then an Atari 800.

Your info helps.
its just , sometimes, what seems like less important things help others, well, they helped me