Setting up domain name

[joecooper]

Hi,

 

I am currently running WAMP on a virtual machine. And i have just purchased a domain name.

 

I have used "DNSEver.com" for the DNS server and as far as i can tell, setup the service with them, and pointed the name servers to the right place.

 

then installed their application on the VM which sets the IP address. All seems to be working properly, but the domain isnt linking to my VM webserver.

 

www.interbitlotto.com is the domain name. is there some other software or something i need to setup with apache, i have never pointed a domain name to my home PC before.

[trq]

If your only hosting the single site there is nothing special you need to do. Multiple sites (domains) would required there own virtual hosts in Apache.

[Pikachu2000]

When I ping your domain name, it doesn't resolve to an IP address, so something must be hosed in your DNS setup.

[joecooper]

yeah i cant get a ping from it either. Not too sure whats wrong though.

[j.smith1981]

Sounds almost exactly the same problem I was having a good few years ago.

 

With that said, if you're trying to setup on your own LAN do you have a DNS server (such as Bind9 is a good one to go for, the most popular or even tinyDNS which doesnt require a reboot when you add your own zones) on your network? If not then this will not be possible externally!

 

Your IP address could be such like 80.6.15.205 (just as a random example of a public IP address), your network will only allow for 192.168.xxx.xxx right?

 

You need to either look at a few tutorials on the web regarding caching in a service like Bind9 or keep records updated of your changes in your domains and zones file.

 

A valid domain would be something like (without the www or pop3 smpt etc), mydomain.com, but you have prefixes ontop of this like for example www then using a Conical (I think that's what it's called) name or CNAME record pointing to your nameserver maybe, it entirely depends upon what you want to set your DNS up like.

 

But you will then need to set your computers up for resolving to that, or it won't work, when you go on the Internet, you ask for say www.mydomain.com, what it will do is send off a query to your ISP's DNS server, if they can't find it, it will consult a number of databases that have hopefully been kept up to date (called propogating), if your ISP's doesnt have that record you want, then it will come up as a non authorative answer, so it with any luck (rarely happens with ISPs since they usually turn this feature off on their servers) will cache the request.

 

It then sends the IP address back to the DNS server notifying you (I think this is the sequence of events the requesting of resources off the web runs by) but then you're computer then will go off and send off a request to the IP address of the node that has that document file or whatever it may be, a video stream for the most complex one.

 

It's not the best system in the world, by that I mean it's very slow but it works and there's no way of making any better solution, DNS's have always been slow, that's just fact!

 

Now what you're likely to be having problems understanding (I was the same), your DNS server will go off to that DNS service you signed up to and it will say something like your domain is at IP 80.6.15.205 but your computer will say hang on, we don't have any nodes (computers on your network) with that IP, ok this won't work and won't show you the results of what you want, is this understandable?

 

So to get around this what do we do?

 

We ideally would need to setup a working DNS server for your own Local Area Network, that caches what your paid for or free dns service on the net works to, the dns server on your lan will then allow you to convert that IP (above) the ISP's one you have to 192.168.xxx.xxx so you can do what you want.

 

In virtual hosts within Apache though there's a hash just before the virtual hosts to use name based virtual hosts.

 

If you only have 1 IP address coming into your own router, then you will have to (there's no other option) use namebased virtual hosts, so you can have (like myself) 5 websites say (I only have 3) that work off the same one IP address.

 

Hope this makes sense?

 

The biggest part for your own computer you are working on is to get the web server (well doesn't have to do this, but I do this anyways) to resolve to the LANs DNS server.

 

It's allot of fun to get one created because you understand how DNS's work, I spent over a year trying to get one working, then it suddenly clicked I needed to get my node I was working from to resolve (going into your network configs and changing the dns settings for the first one to use 192.168.0.1 for example of mine which works).

 

To get it working externally get a friend maybe once you've opened port 80 and if you want SSL port 443 by default to allow people into your own local area network by those ports only, you will then need to if you have a firewall enabled on your vm application then you will need to open those ports on there too, or you won't be able to connect to those services, adding more if you want say port 81 for a website your working on other than port 80.

 

Not forgetting to open those ports if you want to use them on your router.

 

I really hope this makes sense? This might be the reason why no one can ping your node, I would be careful in making sure no ones trying to maliciously create a DOS attack against you (something snort I use as an IPS/IDS to prevent network attacks), DOS stands for Denial Of Service attack, it's to hog your bandwidth so you can't do anything with your resources, sometimes even crashing your node, it's quite a worry really!

 

All the very best to you and good luck with it!

Jeremy.