DNS/Registrar/Hosting questions galore!

March 30, 2007 10:39 AM

Registrar & DNS Quetions Galore. How do I setup with a registrar my domains so they point to my hosted directories?

Email/site/setup question.
I have two sites, one that I want to point to a .mac account (that'd be web.mac.com
\myusername) and a typepad account (myusername.typepad.com\blogname).

I don't want to use redirected frames, but rather just have my urls go to the right place.

I intend to use Google's Apps (google/a) for my email (for both.)
My registrar isn't very helpful (directnic.com).

My question are:
1) This is possible to do, right?
2) Where can I go to get the registrar/DNS stuff that has the services I need?
I don't mind transferring my sites (and probably would prefer to.) Stability is important - as I have a hosting company that bugged out on me (taking a valuable name)
3) Bonus: How hard is it to get a registrar to correct the DNS record when you're listed (as owner) but do not have an account with them? Registrar is WildWestDomains

posted by filmgeek to computers & internet (4 comments total)

You have to do a web redirect; a host out on the Net somewhere must answer for www.yourdomain.com and issue an HTTP redirect to http://www.mac.com/yourdomain. There is no other way to do this. Most registrars offer this service now.

Namecheap will do this exactly the way you want: they have the option of either using frames or a pure redirect, whichever you prefer. If you'd like to see an example, go to www.dubiousquality.com, which uses Namecheap frameless redirection to go to Blogspot. (I don't write that blog, btw, I just helped set up that redirect, so I know exactly how it works.)

Namecheap is quite stable, but if you want truly bulletproof DNS hosting, use Joker. Joker is an actual registrar, with Tier 1 hardware, where Namecheap is a reseller on Tier-2 grade stuff. I haven't seen any problems with Namecheap for a good year or two, but at one point they were a bit flaky. I've never seen Joker fail ever. Their website is a bit amateurish and their English is a little spotty, but they know what the hell they're doing on a technical level.

That said, I'm not sure that Joker does the exact kind of redirection you want, so make sure before signing up with them. I'm certain Namecheap will do what you want, and their website controls are much, much better.

A registrar cannot correct a DNS record unless and until it's hosted with them. To my best knowledge, you have to transfer the name to them first and then make corrections.
posted by Malor at 11:06 AM on March 30, 2007

Domains can't point to a web URL. That isn't how DNS works. A domain points to an IP address, and the server on that end decides what to do with the request. What you're describing is sort of like virtual hosts. I have multiple domains that all point to the same IP, which is a web server running Apache. Apache decodes the requests, and depending on what domain the browser is asking for, it serves pages from the appropriate docroot. Since you don't have control over the web server configurations at mac.com or typepad, I don't think there's a way to do what you want.
posted by autojack at 11:07 AM on March 30, 2007

Agreed with Malor and autojack.

DNS points ONLY to hostnames. You need another link in the chain that tells browsers what exact URL to use once the browsers figure out where to go with the DNS entry.

So you either configure your web server that's hosting your stuff to answer to the DNS hostname and redirect to your directories, or you find a third party service whose only job is to answer to the hostname and redirect to your directories on some other server.
posted by kalessin at 12:25 PM on March 30, 2007

All he has to do is choose a registrar that offers the web redirect. Namecheap will work just fine.
posted by Malor at 8:06 PM on March 30, 2007