Tuesday, September 11, 2012

How to Point a Domain to the DNS of a Web Host?

If you have a domain name and a web hosting provider, and want to know how to configure the Domain Name Server which is abbreviated as DNS. This tutorial will teach you how to do that work, which is easy for an experienced web developer but a hard for a beginner. You should point your domain to the DNS of your web hosting account to have your domain working with your web hosting system. First of all, after registering your web host account with your domain name, has you ever see a name server which abbreviated as NS and an IP address or A record? A web host will surly give you such details after the registration of your domain name. However, if you did not see them, go to the "Domain Manager" on the "Control Panel" of your web hosting provider. The domain manager helps you administer the domain names in your web hosting account. You can add new domain names there to host them in your web host, or delete existing ones if you don't need them anymore, and all of the DNS resources of your web hosting account are all listed there, including the NS, A record, and mail exchanger record also known as MX record. Now, if you still didn't see what you are looking for? Try to find the DNS by yourself in your web host account or in their Frequently Asked Question(s) which is also known as FAQ. But if you still didn't find it, you can contact their support about their NS and A records for your domain. There are two ways to host your domain name with your web hosting provider. The easy way is to run the name server of your web host, just go to the "Domain Settings" of your domain in your domain name provider, use the "Custom DNS" and point the NS records to the NS of your web hosting account! A DNS name server on a web host are often with primary which looks like ns1.webhost.com and with secondary like ns2.webhost.com and some web hosts has more than two NS, it is a server that stores the DNS records for a domain name, such as A records and MX records. After that, it usually takes 24 to 48 hours defend on your domain name provider before the propagation be complete. The domain manager of your web host will tell if the DNS is still not propagated or if your domain is properly configured to work with their system! If it's now working, your web host will have a full control to your domain name.

The hard way is to use the domain name server service manually but it is so useful and more advanced, because you can host your website with another full-featured hosting such as web host, application-specific web hosting such as blog software, and web application such Google Apps including Gmail. To use that service, just go to the "Domain Settings" of your domain name, use the "DNS Service" and point the A record with the hostname of your domain.com to the IP address or A record which is looks like 00.111.22.333 of your hosting account. In the mean time you can also designate your www.domain.com and sub.domain.com to go to a separate IP address of any host. An A record is used to point Internet traffic to an IP address. After that, wait until it works but if you still waiting over than 48 hours, you should better check the configuration that you've made. And if it works, your domain name and/or subdomain that you've pointed will now in control by the account(s) of the host(s) who own the IP address(es) where you've pointed your domain name and/or subdomain. If you also want to receive your e-mails from the mail server of your web host, you can also specify that through the MX record when you set up the mail server of your web hosting provider, only if they have that feature! A MX record is a type of resource record that specifying how e-mail should be routed with the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. For example in your domain name's "Domain Settings", create a field with a type of MX record and point it to the MX which is looks like mail.webhost.com and to the priority if it has, that your hosting account have given to you. If your host have more than one MX, simply then create more MX record fields. And if your domain name provider doesn't have a MX priority's field, then ignore the MX priority, and if your web host doesn't has it, simply just keep the default value of the MX record's priority. And wait until it works but if it's not done within 48 hours, it maybe have a problem on your configuration or server, you should contact the support of the server that you've using about their MX record. And if it works, you can now use the web mail of your web host and create an e-mail address under your domain name, like mail@domain.com a awesome, custom email address!

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