nOOB Question about server and DNS, address not found error and other Options

[develonet]

I am an absolute noob and know little to nothing about DNS and setting up servers. I recently signed up for a dedicated server with the Planet and have one of my domains running fine. I logged into my server, set up another client, and set up a domain name for that client account. I then went to Godaddy and changed the DNS settings for the domain to NS1.THEPLANET.COM and NS2.THEPLANET.COM and now I am getting an address not found error. I can FTP into the server fine using the IP address but not the actual URL. Can someone help me to figure out what I did wrong? Am I supposed to use another DNS? the site is www.rebel101.com
Thanks for any help!

[James Jhurani]

[root@core ~]# whois rebel101.com | grep NS
NS1.THEPLANET.COM
NS2.THEPLANET.COM
[root@core ~]# dig @ns1.theplanet.com rebel101.com +short
[root@core ~]#

The name servers changed, but there is no zone for rebel101.com on the ns1/ns2.theplanet.com. I went ahead and created the zone. It should start resolving in a bit.

The options to create/manage a zone are found in Orbit under "DNS Administration".

[develonet]

The name servers changed, but there is no zone for rebel101.com on the ns1/ns2.theplanet.com. I went ahead and created the zone. It should start resolving in a bit.

The options to create/manage a zone are found in Orbit under "DNS Administration".

WOW.... thanks a ton for your help on this. I have no idea what a zone is or what its for but thanks for your help on getting this working. Do I need to do this for each domain I transfer over to my server then?
Thanks again!

[James Jhurani]

WOW.... thanks a ton for your help on this. I have no idea what a zone is or what its for but thanks for your help on getting this working.

When you changed the name servers with godaddy, you simply told the registrar to send all resolution queries to ns1/ns2.theplanet.com. But if ns1/ns2.theplanet.com don't know about the domain, how can they answer those requests? By adding a zone( a list of hostname -> ip translations), ns1/ns2.theplanet.com now has the answers to properly respond to those queries.

Do I need to do this for each domain I transfer over to my server then?

In short, yes, you will need to create a zone for every domain that you point at ns1/ns2.theplanet.com.

Thanks again!

You're welcome!

[Tomy Durden]

Ah DNS... can't live with it, can't live without it.

You'll find that DNS will be one of those things you'll start disliking. It's often the cause of issues which seem to just happen out of the middle of nowhere.

I highly recommend putting some time into learning DNS. It'll save you from those sleepless nights trying to figure those elusive issues. I'd even go as far as saying learn it without any control panels or scripts, then you'll have a better understanding when those panels and scripts don't do what you want it to do.

Luckily, when I was first learning DNS, there were no control panels... Always keep in mind that missing/extra periods(.) and spaces( ) are often found to cause problems. If you have to edit a zone file manually, make sure to use something that does syntax highlighting, it'll help in the long run.

[ajz4221]

Ah DNS... can't live with it, can't live without it.

You'll find that DNS will be one of those things you'll start disliking. It's often the cause of issues which seem to just happen out of the middle of nowhere.

"Middle of nowhere." Thats a great to describe DNS. Works great one minute, the next something, somewhere has changed. Also, if you have staff, try to keep your DNS management team to a limited number of people. Too many fingers in the chip bowl and things tend to break.

I highly recommend putting some time into learning DNS. It'll save you from those sleepless nights trying to figure those elusive issues. I'd even go as far as saying learn it without any control panels or scripts, then you'll have a better understanding when those panels and scripts don't do what you want it to do.

Luckily, when I was first learning DNS, there were no control panels... Always keep in mind that missing/extra periods(.) and spaces( ) are often found to cause problems. If you have to edit a zone file manually, make sure to use something that does syntax highlighting, it'll help in the long run.

I find times where I have to force myself to use the control panel (like my customers would) instead of making changes on the server side. Most of the time I just make the manual changes unless I know the control panel will become out of sync. Good suggestion for those just starting with DNS.