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I did a great deal of reading here before posting this because I didn't want to post a duplicate - but I'm on a bit of a deadline and getting frustrated, so here goes...

I very, very, very sincerely apologize if this is long winded or hard to read. Please - please just ask for any information or clarification and I will give it as quickly as I possibly can. This has become very frustrating to me and this is the last place I know to turn.

I have no experience with setting up DNS, no experience with nameservers, and no peers to go to for help. So this is kind of my last ditch effort.

The task of setting up a private server has, through circumstances beyond my control, fallen into my lap.

I own a domain (hereafter referred to as yyy.com) and have always used shared hosting - I buy a package and just point it to the domain nameservers they give me. It's always been simple.

yyy.com is registered with network solutions

Now I have purchased a Virtual Private Hosting package from GoDaddy.com - and it comes with Plesk 11.

I have no earthly idea how to begin to get the right nameserver for yyy.com. I have gone through the instructions and have wound up exceedingly frustrated.

I have 2 IP addresses from GoDaddy for the server. This is what I have so far, and I cannot tell if it is working (Since propogation takes so long, it is extremely hard to test for me)

IP 1 : XX.XX.XX.XX 
IP 2 : YY.YY.YY.YY

(obviously hidden for privacy)

Now after going through the documentation setup and waiting a few days, this is the setup I have - and so far it does not appear to be working.

Host                    Record type     Value
XX.XX.XX.XX / 24    PTR             yyy.com.
yyy.com.            NS              ns1.yyy.com.
yyy.com.            A               XX.XX.XX.XX
yyy.com.            MX (10)             mail.yyy.com.
ftp.yyy.com.            CNAME               yyy.com.
ipv4.yyy.com.           A               XX.XX.XX.XX
mail.yyy.com.           A               XX.XX.XX.XX
mssql.yyy.com.          A               XX.XX.XX.XX
ns1.yyy.com.            A               XX.XX.XX.XX
ns2.yyy.com.            A               YY.YY.YY.YY
webmail.yyy.com.    A               XX.XX.XX.XX
www.yyy.com.            CNAME               yyy.com.

yyy.com is pointing to both ns1.yyy.com and ns2.yyy.com

Can anyone give me some assistance here? This is a learning experience for me and days of documentation have left me very confused.

Ciel
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2 Answers2

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I think the link you're missing is setting the authoritative name server in GoDaddy's DCC control panel. I'm assuming you registered the domain through GoDaddy. It seems like you're trying to host the DNS records on your VPS -- I'm assuming the DNS zone you pasted is entered in the VPS's Plesk control panel. In your situation, I recommend hosting your DNS elsewhere, for example Amazon's Route53. (There's a charge, but it's quite reasonable.) Whatever you choose, it's important to have at least 2 individual, separate name servers, one being the master and the other(s) being the slave(s). This is automatic with services like Route53.

In any event, you need to specify the domain's name servers in GoDaddy. (https://dcc.godaddy.com/ > click domain > click "set name servers") Doing so will update the root name servers. The zone file should also list the name servers, but without records at the root name servers, this does nothing.

An alternative approach would be to set the name servers to Godaddy's (Click "set nameservers" and choose "I have a hosting account with these domains."

xofer
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  • My domain is on Network Solutions. – Ciel Nov 24 '12 at 21:22
  • I went to that site and I used the "off site" option - and it gave me the nameservers `mns01.domaincontrol.com` and `mns02.domaincontrol.com` - so I can just plug these in and it should resolve to my virtual dedicated server? – Ciel Nov 24 '12 at 21:25
  • Man, this is all so confusing. e.e; I added it using the Off-Site option, but all of the records are empty. Is that normal? – Ciel Nov 24 '12 at 21:32
  • Also, is there any possible way to test that this is working without waiting 48 hours between changes? I'm more confused than ever before. – Ciel Nov 24 '12 at 21:40
  • I've updated the question to specify that the domain is registered with a different company. – Ciel Nov 24 '12 at 21:42
  • Alright, I've set up an account with Route53 as per your suggestion and I've pointed it to the Nameservers they gave me - what should I do from there? What values do I want in my PLESK control panel to make sure the site functions? – Ciel Nov 24 '12 at 21:55
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    When you create a "Hosted Zone" in Route53, it exists on several name servers that are run by Amazon. The [name servers for your domain are listed in Amazon's control panel](http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/GetInfoAboutHostedZone.html). You need to [enter these name servers in the Network Solutions control panel](http://www.networksolutions.com/support/move-dns-to-a-new-server/). – xofer Nov 25 '12 at 00:32
  • Thank you very much. I have managed to get it working using Route53. It was a convoluted process, but I will credit you for the answer and post my findings below. I have some other questions, but I will post them in a different thread. – Ciel Nov 25 '12 at 19:13
  • Posted my followup question here : http://serverfault.com/questions/451996/setting-up-dns-on-windows-when-using-amazon-route53 – Ciel Nov 25 '12 at 19:19
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Thank you again to xofer for the help. Amazon Route53 really did the trick. I have learned so much just by following his instructions. I have posted a followup question Here but I wanted to outline what I actually did to solve it for anyone else reading this and being confused.

I got it running using Amazon's Route53 service, doing the following.

Nameservers       NS       Route53
domain.com        A        IP Address of Server Box
www.domain.com    CNAME    domain.com

Then in my domain registrar (NetworkSolutions.com) I set the Nameservers to the ones given to me by Route53 And then in the Plesk server, I just did not have any kind of DNS setup (I told it to turn DNS resolution off)

Waiting a few hours to let all the propagation magic happen, it seemed to magically work! (Hurrah!)

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Ciel
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