Question

What Name Server do I Use if I am setting up my own DNS?

Asked by: hzuker

Our real problem is that we are experiencing bounced email because we don't have a reverse DNS for our domain.  Our ISP and registrar won't create a reverse entry since we aren't hosting with them.  So we are putting up our own DNS on Windows 2003.

I have created a forward lookup zone: example.com.  It has an 'A' record for 'www' set to 123.0.0.1 (for example) and an MX record setting 'mail' to 'www.example.com'.  And the reverse lookup entry has a 'PTR' record setting 123.0.0.1 to www.example.com.

Do I now create 'ns1.example.com' as our Name Server set to 123.0.0.1 at our registrar's site?  If so, what Name Server do I set this to?  If not, what Name Server do I use?  


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Asked On
2004-09-15 at 15:50:41ID21132843
Topic

Windows 2003 Server

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
6

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Answers

 

by: sriwiPosted on 2004-09-15 at 16:39:48ID: 12070644

I would probably say, you have to get your isp mx record point to you which is 123.0.0.1

then on your dns record for mail.example.com , it should be your internet address of your mail server, which is in this case 123.0.0.1, so the mx record should be mail.example.com, point to 123.0.0.1, not  'mail' to 'www.example.com,

when you say mail bounce back, what is the error, it may not be related to what you are asking now.

cheers

 

by: hattmardyPosted on 2004-09-15 at 18:21:52ID: 12071252

Hzuker: what registrar do you use? I use namecheap.com and they give you an option to register your own nameservers with the rootservers. I registered ns1 and ns2 .mydomain... and point them to my DNS servers. That way You don't have to do anything with your ISP. For each domain name you are hosting in your DNS Server you need to make an MX record for example.com and point it to your ip address.

For testing out your domain name, check out this site http://www.dnsreport.com/. It's excellent for troubleshooting problems. It also has a mail server section. Let me know if this helps.

 

by: sloopethPosted on 2004-09-16 at 10:15:11ID: 12076963

does this really solve the problem you are having?  if your isp are causing the problem why not give them some extra traffic and use their smtp server as a smart host.

if it does solve it please let me know as i have this issue a lot with small business hosting their own mail servers but a 3rd pary isp hosting their domain. i presume when you have finished configuring your dns you have to ask the ISP to forward mx name server requests to your dns server?

 

by: hzukerPosted on 2004-09-16 at 11:56:17ID: 12078009

Actually we don't get bounced emails.  Our emails to AOL do not get delivered.  AOL will not deliver email if you don't have reverse DNS.  Once we have reverse DNS, we might have other issues too.  But one step aat a time.

I looked at our Registrar, GoDaddy.com, to see if there was something I missed that might allow us to set up a Name Server there.  I found the following that says that they allow us to set up a domain host.  Here is their desctipion:

"Domain hosts are not required unless, for example, you intend to set up your own DNS server. We recommend that you DO NOT use this tool unless you have a thorough understanding of this process.

Please DO NOT enter "www" as your host name. This is not a redirection service; it will not direct your domain to an IP address. If you are unsure about what a domain host is or you need help in registering a nameserver, please use the "Customer Support" link on this page."

It allows us to set a prefix and a domain.  Does this sound like it is the name server?

Thanks

 

by: hattmardyPosted on 2004-09-16 at 21:56:19ID: 12081464

The domain hosts you are talking about sounds like adding a name server to the root servers. However, once you do that and you use your own custom nameservers, you can't take advantage of any of godaddys dns features. But if your dns server is set up correctly everything should work fine.

 

by: hzukerPosted on 2004-09-23 at 11:05:01ID: 12135991

We were able to get the nameservers by going to our registrar and using the domain hosts feature.  However, when we went back to our ISP to delegate to our DNS servers so that we could handle our reverse DNS, they suddently had a different answer and said that they had to set the reverse DNS.  THey now have done this and things are working.  WIsh they would have figured out the right answer 3 weeks ago.

Thanks for all the feedback

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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