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cwalshe

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Naming a network

I would like to name my network with the domain I purchased and have different subdomains point to different computers on my network, can anybody suggest a good resource for walking through the steps in setting up a named network?
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magarity

You just need to come up with names to tack on the front.  So if you've purchased "mydomain.com" then your two subdomains are "headquarters.mydomain.com" and "warehouse.mydomain.com" or whatever you want.

If you want to know what to click where, it would be helpful to know if you are using any particular version of operating system on your server(s).  Also, what have you done so far to set up the two subdomains.
I'm a bit confused about why you'd want to do this.  I think what you want is similar to what magarity discusses, but that's not subdomains.

Let's say I own "mydomain.com" and have five computers.  Each computer has its own name: "bill," "bob," "fred," "mary," and "server."

On the DNS server for "mydomain.com" I create an "A record",  a.k.a a "host record" for each computer, i.e.,

  > server  in  a  192.168.1.11
  > bill    in  a  192.168.1.21
  > bob     in  a  192.168.1.22
  > fred    in  a  192.168.1.23
  > mary    in  a  192.168.1.24

Now your DNS server can lookup "server" in the DNS zone "mydomain.com" and return its IP address of 192.168.1.11.  The fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) is "server.mydomain.com".  Of course, you would have to configure all the computers with static IP addresses if you use this scheme.  An alternative is to use dynamic DNS, so that your DNS "zone file" is updated automatically when a computer gets its IP configuration via DHCP.

This is pretty much a standard DNS configuration.

But with subdomains, you add another level to the FQDN.  I.e., instead of "server.mydomain.com" you might have "server.accounting.mydomain.com," with the implication being you could also have "server.engineering.mydomain.com" and so forth.

Each subdomain is an additional "zone" on your DNS server.   In each zone file you'd put in as many host records (A records) as you like, identifying the PC's in that zone.  You could have duplicate names in the zone files that point to different PC's, or that point to the same PC.  For example:

  > accounting.mydomain.com.zone:
  >> server  in  a  192.168.1.11
  >> fred    in  a  192.168.1.23
  >> mary    in  a  192.168.1.24

  > engineering.mydomain.com.zone:
  >> server  in  a  192.168.1.11
  >> fred    in  a  192.168.1.21
  >> bob     in  a  192.168.1.22

So server.accounting.mydomain.com AND server.engineering.mydomain.com both point to the same system: 192.168.1.11.  However, fred.accounting.mydomain.com (192.168.1.23) and fred.engineering.mydomain.com (192.168.1.21) point to two different systems.

Get the idea?

Now how do you implement?  It depends on what you're using for DNS, and whether you really need subdomains after all.
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ASKER

This isn't a real pressing issue and I appreciate the time you both took. But I'm still not sure what I need to do.
Right now I use a D-link router to split my internet connection and route different requests to different computers, so I don't really have static IP addresses for each computer, they expire every week.

I do own a domain and a single static IP address. Am I allowed to derive my own IP addresses for the other computers on my network (starting at the default: 127.0.0.1)?

Or should I be moving a computer infront of the router (starting my own DNS)?

Or just scrap the router altogether (using 3rd party DNS)? But if I understand what you've said, I will be updating DNS information once a week (as my IP addresses expire).

Really all I want to do for now is have a server.domain.com--(http) and a database.domain.com so that I can practice over the summer. Thanks again for any responses
OK, first of all, 127.0.0.1 is not a default IP address.  It is the local loopback address and every machine uses it.  Umm, no offense but it is clear you are not a network professional so please describe in detail what you're setting up.  I assume this is a home network and you want to play with subdomains as a learning exercise.  How many machines are involved and, again, are you using any particular operating system?
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ASKER

No I'm not a professional at all, I'm a student.  All I want to do is run an Linux HTTP server on one computer that uses another Linux machine that stores only certain files (not used regularily). I just was wondering about the best way to set this up.

Right now I have and XP machine that I do all my work on, then I have a Linux HTTP server.  Both of these share an internet connection through a D-Link router. My router can send FTP/HTTP requests through to the Linux computer, but if I were to set up another server to also serve HTTP requests it wouldn't be able distinguish between propper computer to send the request to.

I own a domain that I use to test and distribute scripts. But what I would like to do is have a named network so that another machine can become machine2.mydomain.com. That way I can just connect straight to it from anywhere right?

I was wondering how I might go about setting up a network that had server1.mydomain.com and server2.mydomain.com?
Avatar of cwalshe

ASKER

No I'm not a professional at all, I'm a student.  All I want to do is run an Linux HTTP server on one computer that uses another Linux machine that stores only certain files (not used regularily). I just was wondering about the best way to set this up.

Right now I have and XP machine that I do all my work on, then I have a Linux HTTP server.  Both of these share an internet connection through a D-Link router. My router can send FTP/HTTP requests through to the Linux computer, but if I were to set up another server to also serve HTTP requests it wouldn't be able distinguish between propper computer to send the request to.

I own a domain that I use to test and distribute scripts. But what I would like to do is have a named network so that another machine can become machine2.mydomain.com. That way I can just connect straight to it from anywhere right?

I was wondering how I might go about setting up a network that had server1.mydomain.com and server2.mydomain.com?
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markmedici

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Thank you both for your help
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