Reasons
to be cheerful….Part 2….
Nameservers! Aaaaaarrrrgggggghhh!
Let me try to summarise my understanding:
I have a Windows VPS package with eUKhost. This provides 2 IP addresses:
XXX.XXX.XXX.XX1
XXX.XXX.XXX.XX2
Also, per the welcome email:
PRIVATE NAMESERVER INFORMATION:
mybit1.eukhostbit.com
mybit2.eukhostbit.com
IP address allocation:
XXX.XXX.XXX.XX2
Question. I'm not a network geek, but I pinged the nameservers per Rock's suggestion above and sure enough, the first one found the first IP address and the second one found the second IP address. So why does the welcome email list only the second IP address in the nameserver section?
Setting Up Nameservers
Suppose I buy a new domain - newdomain.com - from 123-reg. Let me try to understand the options for name resolution.
1) Use Registrars Nameservers.
I provide 123-reg with details of my IP address for the domain and it's nameserver points all traffic to this IP address. Straightforward. But in setting up my domain, Plesk will have created nameserver stuff (for BIND in my VPS) based on the default template settings. Does it just sit isolated, waiting for work, but with nothing pointing to it? Is this a needless overhead/security risk? Do I need to select 'Switch Off The DNS Service'?
2) Use 'Private Nameservers' Provided In Welcome Email
Here I need to provide 123-reg with the nameservers provided in the welcome email. These seem to be of the form mybit.eukhostbit.com. I'm assuming that 123-reg nameserver would resolve down to the 'eukhostbit' and pass resolution on to that eukhost nameserver which then resolves down to mybit. It then passes the resolution task to the BIND nameserver in my VPS which points to my IP address?
3) Use Nameservers Which Include My Domain Name
This is where I really get confused. Firstly, the expression 'Private Nameserver' is not rigorously used on the web, or even by eUKhost. The welcome email lists mybit1.eukhostbit.com and mybit2.eukhostbit.com under the 'Private Nameserver Information' heading. However, this link:
[edit: can't post a link until I've made 5 posts!
]
states that: 'Private name servers are the name servers which includes your own domain name, Private name servers would be ns1.mydomain.com and ns2.mydomain.com'.
The welcome email says that 'If you want the DNS to be the same as your domain name … then you would have to register the DNS from the same registrar....'
I'm lost at this point. Do I really have to 'register' the nameservers like originally registering the domain? Or do I just provide the nameserver information as I might have entered mybit1.eukhostbit.com and mybit2.eukhostbit.com in the nameserver fields in the 123-reg configuration? If so, how do I make ns1.newdomain.com (and ns2..) my nameservers? Am I supposed to be able to configure this in Plesk? Or do I have to raise a support ticket to eUKhost to have this set up manually? Does eUKhost just redirect ns1.newdomain.com to mybit1.eukhostbit.com and ns2.newdomain.com to mybit2.eukhostbit.com so the process can proceed as in 2 above?
In various places on the web, people talk about setting up nameservers based on your 'main' domain. Is 'main' of any significance. Is there some configuration in Plesk that makes one domain the main one? Or can you just choose any one you like?
Apologies that this is a bit rambling and I know that some of it is probably rubbish, but I need to get it clear. Many thanks.