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First VPS account - DNS woes

Posted by millions, 06-24-2009, 05:26 PM
Hello, I am trying to set up my first VPS account and it has gone reasonably well until I was actually going to point my domain to the IP I have received. I am absolutely confused as how to set up my own DNS and the instructions I have found have not made me significantly smarter.. I am on Debian using DirectAdmin control panel. Domains are registered through NameCheap. What I first tried doing was just using the two DNS adresses that were in the DirectAdmin administrator settings panel as it was installed but this didn't seem to work and when pinging these hosts I didn't get an answer at all. I reckon this is not the way to do it.. Could someone show a little pity and give me some advice? Thank you.
Posted by Johnny Cache, 06-24-2009, 06:06 PM
You'll need to find the proper DNS servers from your network provider, and also make sure that the IP exists as a nameserver at NameCheap. After that, we can talk about DNS zones, if you haven't written one up yet.
Posted by millions, 06-24-2009, 06:19 PM
Thanks for your answer! So I registered two name servers at NameCheap - ns1.[mydomain].com and ns2.[mydomain].com to point to the IP number for my VPS. Is that correct? It feels a little weird pointing both to the same IP but I have only received one. Do you mean that the DNS servers in the DirectAdmin administrator settings ought to be the ones that were there when it was installed? Or what DNS servers should I put there?
Posted by Johnny Cache, 06-24-2009, 06:26 PM
The steps you followed at NameCheap were absolutely correct. I don't know that DirectAdmin would put in false DNS servers, but it wouldn't hurt to verify. Well done so far.
Posted by Gary4gar, 06-24-2009, 06:44 PM
Why you need to run your own DNS servers? there is no need to run own dns unless you are a hosting provider. Use your registrar's DNS service. just create A records for your domain pointing to your server IP
Posted by millions, 06-24-2009, 06:54 PM
Well I'm definitively no hosting provider... So what do I need to do? There are basically four areas here that I dont know how to provide the correct information for. 1. The two DNS server entries on the DirectAdmin administrator settings panel 2. The DNS record entries for my domain that I added on DirectAdmin. 3. The DNS server entries on NameCheap that I pointed to the host's DNS servers when I used shared hosting. 4. Also - now that I just registered nameservers for my domain at NameCheap (see my previous post) - should I keep them? I'm not usually this slow... Edit: Thanks so much for your quick replies, you guys are amazing
Posted by brain_damage, 06-24-2009, 07:12 PM
The dns servers which you registered at NameCheap. - ns1.[mydomain].com and ns2.[mydomain].com I'm not familiar with DirectAdmin. Anyway the NS record should be the same as the nameservers which you had registered at NameCheap I don't understand why you still need host's DNS server if you'd already registered your custom DNS servers pointing to your IP I'm not sure what you mean by keeping them? Since you registered those nameservers you should keep them. Do you have your host's DNS server already registered at NameCheap?
Posted by millions, 06-24-2009, 07:24 PM
1.CHECK 2. CHECK - I think I know what to do here. 3. So do I just point them to the ns1.[mydomain].com and ns2.[mydomain].com? The confusion added here is that the "register DNS" and "set DNS entries" are two different panels. 4. CHECK - I keep them Confusion again. What do you mean by my host''s DNS server? Is that a dns server different from ns1/2.[mydomain].com and where would I register this with NameCheap. Did I say you guys are amazing?
Posted by brain_damage, 06-24-2009, 07:38 PM
Well, host will provide DNS servers when you buy a VPS, like for example nsxxxx.yourhost.com. What you did here is create a custom nameserver which points your IP. You can either use your host's nameserver or your custom nameserver. You don't need it both at a time. I was also confused when you asked if you should keep your nameservers which you'd already registered EDIT: I meant host's nameserver not DNS server, lol my bad. Last edited by brain_damage; 06-24-2009 at 07:47 PM.
Posted by millions, 06-24-2009, 07:48 PM
Ok, so I'll use ns1.[mydomain].com and ns2.[mydomain].com. Just a final question - if I could'nt ping the nameservers that were put in the DirectAdmin administrator settings - which look like the host nameservers - from the start they are obviously no good - am I right? Thanks a million again. Last edited by millions; 06-24-2009 at 07:51 PM.
Posted by brain_damage, 06-24-2009, 07:55 PM
Absolutely