I have a server running an e-commerce platform. Every customer of the platform run on the same of app but on its own domain. I've instructed them to configure DNS like so:
Create a CNAME "www" pointing to my-domain-name.com
Change the naked domain pointing to ip-of-mydomain-name
But now, I need to migrate to a new server and the IP will change. I wouldn't like to ask my customers to make the DNS change because it need to be done at the same time (I can't keep both servers (old and new) running at the same time).
I saw Shopify (and other e-commerce platforms) do the same thing I do about DNS, but I have no idea how they handle situations like mine (migrate to different servers).
I think the idea is to have customers add a CNAME instead of an A record in their domain settings.
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I'll get straight to the point.
I have bought a domain. I want to host it on my computer, maybe on a raspberry pi since only 50 persons/month will visit it.
Anywhere I've looked I see two hosting methods, using IIS/WAMP/XAMPP to only create a localhost website or adding the domain to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts.txt that is also... localhost.
What is the magic answer here? How can I host LIVE a website with the domain that I have bought? Am I stuck to using a hosting service? Am I missing something really important?
using IIS/WAMP/XAMPP to only create a localhost website
You need an HTTP server if you want to host a website. It needs to run on the computer you want to host the website from.
adding the domain to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts.txt
That's what you do as a poor man's solution instead of buying a domain name.
The Domain Name needs to be associated with a DNS server (and secondary DNS server) by your registrar.
Usually, a registrar will provide DNS hosting services as part of the deal.
The DNS server needs an A record pointing at the IP address of the computer running the web server. This IP address needs to be available to whomever is going to visit it (which almost certainly needs to be public facing) and should be static (unless you want to play games with very short TTL values and frequent reconfiguration of the DNS servers).
If you plan to host multiple different websites on the same server, you'll probably want to configure the HTTP server software to handle Virtual Name Hosting (whereby it pays attention to the Host header in the request and dynamically serves different content based on it)
I'm not exactly sure if this is more of a DNS question or the nature of most PaaS's.
I purchased a domain from namecheap.com. I wanted to get a WordPress site up and running so I could start development so I went over to openshift, created an account and installed WordPress, which was very easy! Only one problem... I'm having issues trying to sync my domain name from namecheap with the application on openshift. I must admit I've always purchased the domain name and hosting together so I've never had to go this route so I'm not entirely sure this has anything to do with the fact openshift is a PaaS.
In openshift, I have the URL for my application applicationname-account.rhcloud.com and I've added an alias on my namecheap.com account which works for a redirect... If I go to my purchased domain, www.example.com, it will simply redirect me to example-account.rhcloud.com. But I do not want a redirect...
I guess I'm confused as to how you get a domain name that you've purchased from one company to a hosting company. Do I need to modify something on my namecheap account?
This document states that you need to add a bare CNAME record to your DNS setup (may be what you refer to as an alias)
https://www.openshift.com/blogs/custom-url-names-for-your-paas-applications-host-forwarding-and-cnames-the-openshift-way
then add an alias to your Openshift application using the rhc command line tool, eg:
rhc alias add example-account www.example.com
i have bought a domain(adspace.lk) and hosting from the same service provider (lankahost.net). but now my domain has expired and my hosting account is still available with all my files.
now i have bought another domain (.com) at name.com .i want to connect my new domain name.com to the existing hosting account.
Is there any way to do it.
sort of, yes. Assuming that the machine you're hostin your files on has an ip address set aside for your exclusive use - that is, not "shared" hosting - you can simply create an A record with the new new, and that ip address. You must also change your webserver config - if you're using any web related stuff - such that the webserver can associate your web site files with the new name. Usually, a web host can have multiple names at the same time, so you could simply add a new name to the existing configuration.
It's hard to answer without knowing the details of your domain and hosting settings, but I'll try to give a generic but hopefully useful answer.
You should first get the ip(s) of your hosting. Then point the new domain to that ip(s) using the dns panel provided by the registrar. If you use your own dns (unlikely), set the ip there.
After this, you should configure some rules on your hosting. It's likely that you have to set some sort of virtualhost settings. In particular, you should associate the new domain name to the hosting: probably the hosting service provides you a control panel for this task.
It will be done easily from your domain control panel, just update your dns settings for your new domain name.com. Update your nameservers or A record to point the hosting account. So that it will be linked with your existing hosting account files.
I'm new at DNS world, did some readings in the Internet and wanted to know if I came to the right conclusions. I want to build a system where users are able to create new sub-domains of existing registered domains automatically:
My system provides services to different companies, these services are hosted in my system or some cloud provider. Lets call my system "services" and some company "company1". I want to offer "company1" my services and have its users access these services through "company1" new sub-domain, when "company1" has an already registered domain company1.com. I want "company1" admin user be able to control and choose the sub-domain via my system when he registers his company in my system, and have the whole thing automatic. If i understand correctly:
if the admin would want to use a sub-domain like services.company1.com this will be a problem since I would need to update the authoritative name-servers of company1.com which I don't know who they are, and even if I have a way to know them (and from reading a bit I see that I do have a way), I don't know if every such name server will allow such updates from some external source, connectivity issues etc
if the admin would like to use a sub-domain like company1.services.com then I can achieve this by having my own dns server which I will register the services.com domain for and actually manage all these company sub-domains in my own dns server. This means though that all companies will have to have a sub-domain under my domain services.com
Please correct me if I have a wrong view on how DNS works.
thanks!
services.company1.com
To provide this kind of domain name to your customer, you will need their collaboration. A lot of companies provides this kind of feature by asking you to point an alias (CNAME Record) to a specific server.
Examples of concrete usage
blog.company1.com. 3600 IN CNAME domains.tumblr.com.
shop.company1.com. 3600 IN CNAME myapp.herokuapp.com.
git.company1.com. 3600 IN CNAME bitbucket.org.
Here's some links to the documentation of companies offering this feature:
BitBucket
Heroku
Tumblr
Sample client zone file
So in your case your customer DNS zone will contain something like that:
services.company1.com. 3600 IN CNAME domains.services.com.
where domains.services.com. will be the server that handles the subdomain authentication
company1.services.com
To provide to your customers company1.services.com, you don't have to manage your own DNS server, you just have to be able to add a wildcard record to point all the subdomains to your application. It will be the role of your application to filter your service per subdomains.
Sample service zone file
For example (where 0.0.0.0 is your service IP address):
*.services.com. 3600 IN A 0.0.0.0
Ive bought some domains from a hosting service and i want to point them to my other server. I did so usually by adding a DNS zone of type CNAME to list of DNS es which is set in my domain administration panel. but unfortunately I do not have access to add a CNAME, I can only change my name servers. I have even tried to point the name servers to my own domain name server, but this did not work so. for example I have the name servers ns1.online4iran.com and ns2.online4iran.com. but the domain still does not point to my server. is there a way to handle this situation. shall I start a spicific service on my server to handle this thing?
or should I preform specific configurations on my own domain configuration page?
thanks,
I did notice that some domain sellers do this, not sure why the monopoly. Sometimes, the changes don't reflect immediately. Wait for sometime & if still they don't reflect then do this. Check in the DNS Settings of your domain control panel if you have an option of 'Child Nameservers'. If yes, then you can run DNS service on your server locally & then make the necessary DNS changes on the server itself. Is your server Linux or Windows? Does it have a control panel installed?