Newbie Nameserver questions

**Valechumbar** · 05-04-2006, 10:30 PM

I have my brand new Freedom VPS with Plesk control panel, but a few doubts about DNS

I have my domain example.com registered at Namecheap, and the DNS set to ns1.dreamhost.com, ns2.dreamhost.com and ns3.dreamhost.com

I go to my control panel and set up my domain: example.com. Everything ok

Now the questions:
1) If I go to namcheap and change the DNS to ns3.nocdirect.com and ns4.nocdirect.com will my site be available in 48/72 hs.?
2) Or do I have to advise JPC that I'll use their DNS? In this case, do I have to tell them every time I create a new domain/sub domain?

If I want to set up my own nameservers:
3) Wich advantages do I have?
4) Can I have 'very detailed' instructions of how to achieve this with Plesk?

Thanks in advance to the person with enough patience to answer this

(and sorry for my english)

**rainboy** · 05-05-2006, 12:31 AM

Originally Posted by Valechumbar

I have my brand new Freedom VPS with Plesk control panel, but a few doubts about DNS

I have my domain example.com registered at Namecheap, and the DNS set to ns1.dreamhost.com, ns2.dreamhost.com and ns3.dreamhost.com

I go to my control panel and set up my domain: example.com. Everything ok

Now the questions:
1) If I go to namcheap and change the DNS to ns3.nocdirect.com and ns4.nocdirect.com will my site be available in 48/72 hs.?
2) Or do I have to advise JPC that I'll use their DNS? In this case, do I have to tell them every time I create a new domain/sub domain?

1) yes.
2) yes, if you use their DNS you have to let them know every single time.

Originally Posted by Valechumbar

If I want to set up my own nameservers:
3) Wich advantages do I have?
4) Can I have 'very detailed' instructions of how to achieve this with Plesk?

Thanks in advance to the person with enough patience to answer this

(and sorry for my english)

3) you have your DNS under your own control, but if you don't have a DNS server away from your server domains may get temporarily unavailable if your server is down (or unreachable for any reason).

4) Sorry can't help you with Plesk, but i am sure there are others who can.

Kindest regards,

Patrick

**Valechumbar** · 05-05-2006, 12:39 AM

I saw the flash tutorials under Support and I think I got it

I'll let you know in 48/72 hs if I can access my site

**rainboy** · 05-05-2006, 12:47 AM

Valechumbar,

If you are a bit experienced with DNS, you can use http://www.dnsreport.com to check your settings if you have any problems.

In most cases it will be a lot faster as 48/72 hours depending on the domain TLD and the propagation of DNS servers you or your ISP uses. I got most .com domains up and running within 30 minutes. But this is not a sure bet

Good luck with your setup,

Kindest regards,
Patrick

**AlexKall** · 05-05-2006, 05:40 AM

Yep same here, .com are the fastest TLD if im not misstaken. I know that co.uk usually take 2 to 4 hours

I'll also try to write a bit of a plesk quick step guide to get your domain working, recently aquired Plesk so I can do it there, even though im used to the named zone configuration, did get my domain myfedoraserver.com up and running quickly though.

I'll start writing it now

Will try to add purty images aswell

**rainboy** · 05-05-2006, 05:45 AM

AlexKall,

.nl is really terrible, take till the next morning when the reload the zone-database. Sadly that is the most popular TLD for me and my customers.

Kind regards,
Patrick

**AlexKall** · 05-05-2006, 05:50 AM

Originally Posted by rainboy

AlexKall,

.nl is really terrible, take till the next morning when the reload the zone-database. Sadly that is the most popular TLD for me and my customers.

Kind regards,
Patrick

Oh thats is really slow!

I presume most country specific TLD are slow which is a shame as those are usually the most poular by customer outside the USA.

**rainboy** · 05-05-2006, 06:12 AM

Don't get me started on the .eu domain, registering goes fast, but if you need to move it for a customer it (was) terrible. It seems they fixed it now, but geez, what a hassle.

Kind regards,
Patrick

**AlexKall** · 05-05-2006, 06:18 AM

Originally Posted by rainboy

Don't get me started on the .eu domain, registering goes fast, but if you need to move it for a customer it (was) terrible. It seems they fixed it now, but geez, what a hassle.

Kind regards,
Patrick

Yeah the .eu is rather new on the block so I bet they are experiencing an overload as many want it considering what it stands for, and that they might have "child" like problems as its rather new and not been avalible for a long time, which is a shame but I hope they fix it and get better with time!

**Valechumbar** · 05-05-2006, 03:04 PM

I succesfully setup my nameservers, and have my site up and going.
But I went to dnsreport.org, like someone recomended and get some 'Fail' messages, wich liked to fix

Here are in details
1) Categoy: NS
Test Name: Open DNS servers
Information:

Code:

ERROR: One or more of your nameservers reports that it is an open DNS server. This usually means that anyone in the world can query it for domains it is not authoritative for (it is possible that the DNS server advertises that it does recursive lookups when it does not, but that shouldn't happen). This can cause an excessive load on your DNS server. Also, it is strongly discouraged to have a DNS server be both authoritative for your domain and be recursive (even if it is not open), due to the potential for cache poisoning (with no recursion, there is no cache, and it is impossible to poison it). Also, the bad guys could use your DNS server as part of an attack, by forging their IP address. Problem record(s) are: 
Server 69.73.173.38 reports that it will do recursive lookups. [test]
Server 69.73.173.94 reports that it will do recursive lookups. [test]

See this page for info on closing open DNS servers.

2) Category: NS
Test Name: No NS A records at nameservers
Information:

Code:

WARNING: Your nameservers do not include any corresponding A records when asked for your NS records. They probably are not returning the A records when asked, which can prevent some other DNS servers from contacting your DNS servers. They should do this if they are authoritative for those A records. The problem record(s) are: 
Nameserver 69.73.173.38 did not provide any IPs
Nameserver 69.73.173.94 did not provide any IPs

3) Category: NS
Test Name: Missing nameservers 2
Information:

Code:

ERROR: One or more of the nameservers listed at the parent servers are not listed as NS records at your nameservers. The problem NS records are:
ns1.uinka.com.

4) Category: MX
Test Name: Reverse DNS entries for MX records
Information:

Code:

ERROR: The IP of one or more of your mail server(s) have no reverse DNS (PTR) entries (if you see "Timeout" below, it may mean that your DNS servers did not respond fast enough). RFC1912 2.1 says you should have a reverse DNS for all your mail servers. It is strongly urged that you have them, as many mailservers will not accept mail from mailservers with no reverse DNS entry. You can double-check using the 'Reverse DNS Lookup' tool at the DNSstuff site (it contacts your servers in real time; the reverse DNS lookups in the DNS report use our local caching DNS server). The problem MX records are:
37.173.73.69.in-addr.arpa [No reverse DNS entry (rcode: 3 ancount: 0) (check it)]

5) Category: Mail
Test Name: Acceptance of postmaster address
Information:

Code:

ERROR: One or more of your mailservers does not accept mail to postmaster@uinka.com. Mailservers are required (RFC822 6.3, RFC1123 5.2.7, and RFC2821 4.5.1) to accept mail to postmaster.
mail.uinka.com's postmaster response: >>> RCPT TO:<postmaster@uinka.com> <<< 550 sorry, no mailbox here by that name. (#5.7.17)

Domain name is uinka.com and nameservers (at namecheap) ns1.uinka.com and ns2.uinka.com

**rainboy** · 05-05-2006, 03:22 PM

Here it comes

for 1: (recursive lookups possible)

Add this to the option section of your named.conf:
recursion no;

and restart the dns server (named).

2) Strange, you have used IP addresses for your domain registration instead of FQDN ? anyways, you should have A records pointing to the IP address, and NS records pointing to A name you configured (if i am right, not used to do this very often

3) comes back to point 2 i guess, you didnt create NS records or A records which are correct.

4) request support to setup RDNS for your IP numbers.

5) not a biggy, just create a postmaster email address and forward it to your account, you have probably catch all disabled (good thing to do!), but according to RFC's you need a postmaster and abuse address.

I am sure someone can give you a bigger explanation, but this will set you on your way.

Kind regards,
Patrick

**AlexKall** · 05-05-2006, 03:23 PM

1) Add "recursion no;" to the named.conf (can use the file manager in VZZ)

2) add ns1.uinka.com A <IP> same for ns2.uinka.com (in your plesk configure anel on the domain and under "DNS"

3) add an NS record for ns1.uinka.com

Example ns1.uinka.com NS uinka.com

4) Make a support ticked to JAG to get this fixed (I dont bother too, its good but your mail will still work, might be complications when sending to the address like user@<ip>

5) An easy fix for this is to add postmaster@uinka.com in your plesk and abuse@uinka.com

You ware quicker rainboy! But i wasnt too far behind