Manual DNS Configuration

[Robin Patenall]

Can somebody make sure that I'm not being an idiot please ?

Basically, I currently have two registered domains, one (example.org.uk) with a company that just forwards all e-mail to my ISPs mailbox which I then process once it is downloaded, and one (example.org) with EUKHost which has a proper e-mail system . My plan was to get the new domain set up with real users (not a multidrop anymore, yeah!), then get example.org.uk to map to example.org so user@example.org.uk is the same as user@example.org and end up in the same mailbox. (Ideally, http://example.org.uk and http://example.org will be the same as will http://subdomain.example.org.uk and http://subdomain.example.org)

Now, to try and make the transition as smooth as possible I want to do it piece at a time. I've set up the new domain and the e-mail addresses and they work fine, new I need to get the two domains together. I don't currently want to change the tags on my old domain yet, mostly because I've heard about issues with some providers dropping service before the domain change is complete, so I want to reset the DNS entries with my old provider so it all works before working on the tag change. Now, I've set up example.org.uk as a parked domain and set up a 'Email Domain Forwarder' from example.org.uk to example.org.

I have this when I query UKHost4U nameservers:

www.example.org.uk.    14400   IN      CNAME   example.org.uk.
example.org.uk.        14400   IN      A       91.186.0.4
example.org.uk.        14400   IN      MX      0 example.org.uk.
example.org.uk.        86400   IN      NS      ns31.eukdns.com.
example.org.uk.        86400   IN      NS      ns32.eukdns.com.

and this when I query the real nameservers:

www.example.org.uk.    86307   IN      CNAME   fwd3.hosts.co.uk.
example.org.uk.        86311   IN      A       85.233.160.22 ;; (fwd3.hosts.co.uk.)
example.org.uk.        86260   IN      MX      30 fwd1.hosts.co.uk.
example.org.uk.        86260   IN      MX      30 fwd2.hosts.co.uk.
example.org.uk.        86260   IN      MX      30 fwd0.hosts.co.uk.
example.org.uk.        86245   IN      NS      ns0.phase8.net.
example.org.uk.        86245   IN      NS      ns1.phase8.net.
example.org.uk.        86245   IN      NS      ns2.phase8.net.

Now, as far as I can see, I need to turn on the scary "I Know What I'm Doing" advanced configuration option of my current provider, remove all the records (A,MX,NS and CNAME) an replace them with the A, MX and NS records from the EUKHost.

Does this sound right?

As far as I understand the A record tells everyone the IP address of example.org.uk, the MX record tells everyone how to e-mail somebody at example.org.uk and the NS records tell everybody how to resolve subdomain.example.org.uk, so as long as the NS records are set correctly the CNAME record doesn't need to be transferred as when trying to resolve www.example.org.uk we will get to my current host looking for example.org.uk and then get directed to either ns31.eukdns.com or ns32.eukdns.com which will contain the CNAME for www.example.org.uk.

Can anybody confirm this?

I will eventually sort out the domain properly, changing it's tag so EUKHost manages it but I want to get it working first.

Thanks.

[flesso]

Originally Posted by Robin Patenall

Can somebody make sure that I'm not being an idiot please ?

Basically, I currently have two registered domains, one (example.org.uk) with a company that just forwards all e-mail to my ISPs mailbox which I then process once it is downloaded, and one (example.org) with EUKHost which has a proper e-mail system . My plan was to get the new domain set up with real users (not a multidrop anymore, yeah!), then get example.org.uk to map to example.org so user@example.org.uk is the same as user@example.org and end up in the same mailbox. (Ideally, http://example.org.uk and http://example.org will be the same as will http://subdomain.example.org.uk and http://subdomain.example.org)

Now, to try and make the transition as smooth as possible I want to do it piece at a time. I've set up the new domain and the e-mail addresses and they work fine, new I need to get the two domains together. I don't currently want to change the tags on my old domain yet, mostly because I've heard about issues with some providers dropping service before the domain change is complete, so I want to reset the DNS entries with my old provider so it all works before working on the tag change. Now, I've set up example.org.uk as a parked domain and set up a 'Email Domain Forwarder' from example.org.uk to example.org.

I have this when I query UKHost4U nameservers:

www.example.org.uk.    14400   IN      CNAME   example.org.uk.
example.org.uk.        14400   IN      A       91.186.0.4
example.org.uk.        14400   IN      MX      0 example.org.uk.
example.org.uk.        86400   IN      NS      ns31.eukdns.com.
example.org.uk.        86400   IN      NS      ns32.eukdns.com.

and this when I query the real nameservers:

www.example.org.uk.    86307   IN      CNAME   fwd3.hosts.co.uk.
example.org.uk.        86311   IN      A       85.233.160.22 ;; (fwd3.hosts.co.uk.)
example.org.uk.        86260   IN      MX      30 fwd1.hosts.co.uk.
example.org.uk.        86260   IN      MX      30 fwd2.hosts.co.uk.
example.org.uk.        86260   IN      MX      30 fwd0.hosts.co.uk.
example.org.uk.        86245   IN      NS      ns0.phase8.net.
example.org.uk.        86245   IN      NS      ns1.phase8.net.
example.org.uk.        86245   IN      NS      ns2.phase8.net.

Now, as far as I can see, I need to turn on the scary "I Know What I'm Doing" advanced configuration option of my current provider, remove all the records (A,MX,NS and CNAME) an replace them with the A, MX and NS records from the EUKHost.

Does this sound right?

As far as I understand the A record tells everyone the IP address of example.org.uk, the MX record tells everyone how to e-mail somebody at example.org.uk and the NS records tell everybody how to resolve subdomain.example.org.uk, so as long as the NS records are set correctly the CNAME record doesn't need to be transferred as when trying to resolve www.example.org.uk we will get to my current host looking for example.org.uk and then get directed to either ns31.eukdns.com or ns32.eukdns.com which will contain the CNAME for www.example.org.uk.

Can anybody confirm this?

I will eventually sort out the domain properly, changing it's tag so EUKHost manages it but I want to get it working first.

Thanks.

I see what you have done; you think that the NS records are the nameservers, these are not. You have gone and changed all the host records, and not the domains nameservers. You will need to contact the registrar and ask ask them to set the nameservers for your domain to 'ns31.eukhost.com' and 'ns32.eukhost.com'.

[Robin Patenall]

I see what you have done; you think that the NS records are the nameservers, these are not. You have gone and changed all the host records, and not the domains nameservers. You will need to contact the registrar and ask ask them to set the nameservers for your domain to 'ns31.eukhost.com' and 'ns32.eukhost.com'.

Actually, I haven't done anything to my existing DNS records for the example.org.uk which is why the global lookups still return the information for the forwarding service. I just wanted to check that all I needed to do was remove the existing A, CNAME, MX and NS records from there (I can adjust the DNS records with the forwarding services's advanced configuration tool) and subsitute the ones from EUKHost. I am (at the moment) happy with the forwarding service being in control of the DNS records for example.org.uk in the authoritive DNS server for .org.uk domain as I can match them to those in EUKHost's servers.

The only thing I'm really not sure about is whether I need to transfer the CNAME. As far as I understand adjusting the NS records will cause all lookups for subdomain.example.org.uk to be handled by the EUKHost name servers which, with example.org.uk as a parked domain, should contain the CNAME correctly. If I do have to transfer the CNAME I just have to remember that I need to update the records with new CNAMES if I add any new subdomains.

Sorry for any confusion.


Actually, on reflection I think I get it. Am I correct in thinking that if I change the name servers then the A, MX and CNAME records will be taken from the EUKHost name servers rather than the forwarding service ?

[flesso]

Originally Posted by Robin Patenall

Actually, on reflection I think I get it. Am I correct in thinking that if I change the name servers then the A, MX and CNAME records will be taken from the EUKHost name servers rather than the forwarding service ?

That's what I was trying to say. It looked like you were setting only the zones, and not the nameservers.

[Robin Patenall]

Brilliant, it all works

Thanks for the help. I changed the nameservers and it all seems to be working properly (e-mails and web access from proxies), I just need to wait a bit for my localish DNS caches to catch up with the changes.