Setting Your DNS Servers - Powered By Kayako eSupport

05 Sep 2010

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	Setting Your DNS Servers

Solution A DNS or [D]omain [N]ame [S]erver is an Internet service that is used to map names to numbers in much the same way as you can look up someone's phone number in the phone book by looking up their name. You have probably heard of IP numbers. What DNS does is assign a name to an IP number so that you and I don't have to try to remember that www.yahoo.com is actually at 209.191.93.52.

The only people who need to know exactly how it works are ISPs, web hosts, techs and IT support people, but there are some important points that you should know about DNS that will help when you are asked to change the DNS servers for your domain.

First off, getting it right is important. REALLY important. If the DNS entries are wrong for your domain then your web site will not be available on the Internet. There are two places that the DNS settings have to be right.

1. The registrar - there are many DNS registrars on the Internet. Basically, the registrar is the place where you bought your domain. When you purchase a domain it will usually be created with some default DNS settings. In our case, Rip2ItDomains.com is the DNS registrar service that we provide. By default we will set your DNS servers to ns1.globalmediadevelopment.com and ns2.globalmediadevelopment.com. These DNS servers match the hosting server that has most of your hosting accounts on it. However, we have just added a new hosting server which has different DNS settings (ns1.rip2ithosting.com and ns2.rip2ithosting.com). So, you need to log into the member area and go to the 'My Hosting Account' section to see which DNS servers you should be using.

2. The web host - this is our end of the DNS. Just as you have to make sure that you have the correct DNS settings in your domain registrar account, we have to make sure that we have the correct settings in your hosting (CPanel) account. There are no settings for you to change in CPanel, so you really only have to make sure you have the right settings in the registrar (i.e. rip2itdomains.com) account.

Here's the procedure for changing the DNS settings for your domains at rip2itdomains.com.

1. Log in to your account at Rip2Itdomains.com
2. Hover your mouse over the menu that is labelled 'Domain Names'.
3. Click on 'My Domain Names'. This should open the 'Domain Manager'.
4. Each domain in the domain list has a check box beside it. Click the check box next to the domain you need to change.
5. After clicking the check box, a number of greyed out options will become active just above the domain list. Click on the 'Nameservers' option.
6. A new section will open up with three options:

Parked nameservers
Hosting nameservers
Custom nameservers

Make sure the 'Custom nameservers' option is selected and then enter the two nameservers for your domain into the boxes labelled Nameserver 1 and Nameserver 2

IMPORTANT: Check which DNS servers your domain uses in by looking the 'My Hosting Account' section of the Rip2It member area first!

IMPORTANT: Yes, it's worth saying twice - check which DNS servers your domain uses by looking in the 'My Hosting Account' section of the Rip2It member area first!

In Nameserver 1 change it to this:

ns1.rip2ithosting.com OR ns1.globalmediadevelopment.com

In Nameserver 2 change it to this:

ns2.rip2ithosting.com OR ns2.globalmediadevelopment.com

7. Click on the red/orange 'OK' button and it should tell you that the changes will be made shortly.

Once you've made those changes, it may take up to 72 hours for those changes to be updated around the Internet. Typically it is only 24 hours, but sometimes it will take the full 72.

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Created On:

03 Aug 2008 09:49 PM