Moving my domain from AletiaNIC...

[Sterling]

I'm a noob (no kidding?). Just can't figure out how to get started. I bought a domain name from Aletia months ago, and just got the host from Jaguar.

AletiaNIC has a 10 page freebe site they give you, and I had done a bit with it. (I don't know if that makes a difference).

There's a "DNS configure" settings menu on Aletia where you can change the IP address (number) associated with the domain name.
There were two numbers there, and I don't know what they were or if they were the same.
I entered the two name servers sent to me by Jaguar.
There is an option to choose " A (address) ", " CNAME (alias) ", "URL redirect ", " URL frame ".
After reading the descriptions, I chose URL frame.

Have I done this correctly, or not. And if not, have I screwed up because I no longer have the original IP numbers that were in the "DNS Configure"?

Also, why are there two?

Thank you, and thanks for your time on this forum for us newbes!

[jason]

No, you haven't done it correctly. The URL frame option is designed for situations where you have a page at some place like GeoCities that doesn't give you the option of using your own domain name. With it, when someone typed in your domain name, the GeoCities page would come up inside a frame, allowing someone to navigate your site while your domain name stayed in the location bar.

You could put your site's IP address (not the name servers) in one of those fields and select 'A' and everything would work, but then you are forced to manage your own DNS. If JPC moves your site to a different server and changes your IP, you'll need to update it again.

The easiest thing to do is to go to the 'configure' page for that domain in AletiaNIc and change the settings in the 'custom name servers' section. You can use ns.jaguarpc.net and ns2.jaguarpc.net, or any of the the other ones you'll find on the network status page. That way JPC will be managing your DNS for you and you don't have to worry about it.

Note that it will probably take about three days for any changes that you make to your DNS settings to propagate across the net, meaning that your site may not be "seen" by some people for a few days after you make the change.

--Jason

[Sterling]

Thanks, Jason. Need I worry about trying to retrieve the original IP #s assigned to me by AletiaNIC, or were they just addresses to the complimentary site they gave me when I registered my name?
Do I need the old numbers anymore?
Do I need to put both numbers that JPC gave me?
ns.jaguarpc.net xx.xxx.xx.xx, and then;
ns2.jaguarpc.net xx.xxx.xx.x(x + 1)

I don't understand the reason for 2 IP #s.

Also, in entering as you instructed, what do I choose for the "record Type" field?

Thanks again, Jason.

Originally posted by Sterling
...There were two numbers there, and I don't know what they were or if they were the same.
I entered the two name servers sent to me by Jaguar.
...have I screwed up because I no longer have the original IP numbers that were in the "DNS Configure"?

Also, why are there two?

[jason]

You don't need to worry about the original numbers. In fact, you don't need to worry about numbers at all. If you are still in the area letting you select things like 'A records,' you're in the wrong place. Log in to AletiaNic and click on the link where it says "you have X domains registered." Click on your domain on the list. On the next page it probably says something like "Current service: Our DNS Servers." If so, click on "Change Service" and select "Custome DNS Servers" and click "Save Changes." Then click on "Configure" and you should see what I'm talking about. Enter ns.jaguarpc.net and ns2.jaguarpc.net in the first two boxes and click "Save Changes." Then you should be good to go.

I'm not sure what the original two IP's you saw would have been, but the reason for two DNS servers is for redundancy. If one of the servers goes down, the other one can pick up the slack, and your site will remain accessible. If you want even more redundancy (two servers is the norm, but you can add more), add ns3.jaguarpc.net and ns4.jaguarpc.net in boxes 3 and 4 on the aforementioned page.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

--Jason

[Sterling]

Jason, doing this has changed my main menu at AletiaNIC, and given me far fewer options.
This is an indication that I've done it correctly?

What I gleen from your explaination of the second server IP as a back-up; this has to do with server down time? Aletia brags a 99.97% up-time service, so is it even necessary for anyone to have a third and/or fourth redundancy?!

The NIC site states that the changes I made won't happen for about a half hour.
Will it be several days before I can access my site through JPC and begin building it?

[jason]

When you made the change, it should have listed four boxes for DNS server addresses. If that's what you saw then you're good.

Enom, the company that does registrations for AletiaNic, refreshes their database every half-hour or so, so the actual changes will be made available in a half hour. DNS servers cache the records they receive (see below), so it can take up to a couple days for all of the caches to be discarded and refreshed across the Internet, and that's the reason for potential downtime.

JPC/Aletia boasts of 99.7% uptime, but nothing is infallible. Listing multiple DNS servers just gives you a cushion in case something goes wrong with one of them. It also helps with load balancing. The DNS servers are separate from the server that hosts your site. The DNS system is the 411 Directory Assistance service for the Internet. It maps domain names to IP addresses. In order for a computer to connect to another, it needs to know the IP addres of the other computer. Since as humans we remember names better than numbers, we use the domain name and the DNS system finds the number. This also gives site owners the flexibility to move their sites without having to change the way we access them (like would happen if they moved their physical business and changed their phone number). Also, JPC has about 20 client servers, but most clients are using the same two DNS servers. The DNS servers are sending out considerably less data on each request than the client servers, but they take in many more requests. Listing more than the standard two (according to the Internet specs, you must list a minimum of two) may actually help speed your resolution time to a small (but likely unnoticable) degree.

DNS servers work on the principle that if you make one request to a certain domain, you are liekly to make more. You computer is configured with the addresses of two or three DNS servers that reside at your ISP. When you enter a domain name, one of them looks to see if it knows anything about the name you are requesting. If it doesn't, it goes to a top level server (maintained by the domain registrars) and asks where it can find that info. They return a list of possible servers (the ones you list in AletiaNic, for example). The ISP's server looks at the list, picks a server, and asks it for everything it knows about that domain. Since this process takes time (only a few fractions of a second, but compounded by all of the traffic going across the Net everyday, it becomes significant) and sometimes means transferring a considerable amount of data, the ISP's server caches the info for a period time (usually a day or so) in case you make additional requests to that domain.

So, when you make a change with AletiaNic, the change is made within a half-hour. Anyone at an ISP that has not previously accessed your domain will be sent to the new site right way, but anyone at an ISP that has your domain's record cached will have to wait until the cache expires (because the server has no way of knowing that new info is available unless it asks for everything again) before they can see the change.

So, as long as you list ns and ns2, you should be fine. You can list more if you are concerned about uptime, but you are more likely to experience you web server going down than you are to experience both ns and ns2 going down at the same time.

Hope this clears things up a little better.

--Jason

[Sterling]

CRYSTAL!

Thank you, Jason. I look forward to reading through the old threads here to learn more.

This forum makes a daunting task into an exciting experience.

[jason]

You're welcome. This forum is a great place to get your questioned answered. There are lots of people here willing to help you out.

So, where in Upstate NY are you? I'm up in Rochester.

--Jason

[Sterling]

Not that far...I'm in Dutchess county, 30 miles N of Poughkeepsie, & 20 miles (across the Hudson) is Kingston. I say "up-state" because non-NYers tend to associate the whole state with NYC. (They don't realize how big the state is, I guess.)

My brother lives in Binghamton and this 'puter stuff is his kind of gig. He worked for a small company called Rainbow" before it went down the toilet. He wrote programs for linking together LCD panes for huge billboard sized graphic something or other thingy...I dunno! He talks about his job, and I mentally drown in the drone of his complaints of office politics!

I'm a struggling, starving artist working in the precious metals medium. With the current economy not fully understood, folks have zipped up their wallets when it comes to luxery items, so I have a carburetor rebuilding and modification service for Mazda Rx-7 owners.

...belatedly entering the 21st century of advertising.

[lookout]

Welcome Sterling, glad to see Jason could help you out.

Just wanted to say, your tagline made me crack up. Brings back memories of using my dad's TRS-80 and diablo printer to crank out resumes way back when.

Do you create muffler art? I've been seeing some pretty funny sculptures at various places around here in the last year or so. One place was at the newish Copia Museum in Napa (a food and wine museum). They had a fine display of coffee urn/small appliance/scrap metal art last time I visited.

[Sterling]

No-no. Custom jewelry in 18K gold, sterling silver holloware & flatware, custom made knives. The carb thing is a side gig originally for generating income to fund my Mazda Rx-7 hobby habit, but my other income is creeping along as such a snails pace that the two are about the same!

Maybe 20 years from now when none of the then-will-be yuppies have ever seen a carburetor, I'll start doing table-top sculptures out of them!

-And you're frequenting such places why? (My wife's a chef- is why I'm asking.)

[gerilya]

A little note about using JaguarPC's nameservers:
As much as I agree that it's the simplest way to start things going, I wouldn't recommend it to e-commerce sites. If you search this forum, you will find complaints about JaguarPC's nameservers not responding for hours. This happend on more than 1 occasion.
I also don't find any mention of nameserver uptime guarantee in Service Level Agreement.

On the other hand, AletiaNIC is enom.com's reseller. Enom is a company that its only business is domains. It has an array of nameservers and its nameservers are at geographically dispersed locations and in terms of reliability I would rank it much higher. Of course, that increased reliability comes at the price of managing your own DNS, which is somewhat of a hassle for those who don't do it on a regular basis, but I think it worth it.
You don't have to agree, but I thought you could use that info

[lookout]

No reason. Just an insatiable appetite for knowledge and culture. And the Napa Valley is a nice place to visit, almost any time of the year. Gorgeous scenery. Great food. Great wine. Interesting history. Unusual geological features. Some fine, though small, art museums. The food museum is fun and engaging, more interesting than one might expect even for culinarily challenged. And it's close (at least for me).

[jason]

Well, technically speaking, I'm in Western NY, not "Upstate." People pretty much refer to anything that's not the city to be Upstate, so as far as I'm concerned, I'm Upstate, too. I'm not originally from here, I grew up in Western Mass, so my mom now tells everyone I live in Upstate NY. Whatever.

--Jason