I recognize this to not be a specific PHP question but with all the help I've received from here before and knowing that many of you have probably done what I'm tyring so hard to do, I was hoping someone might have an answer here.

I have setup PHP, Apache and mySQL on my Windows 2003 server. I cannot find instructions on how to make my server web-accessible. I have a domain name and need to register the a nameserver with that domain, but can't figure out what I need to do to get it online.

Does anyone know a list of simple, step-by-step instructions to do this? I went though the steps at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323380 successfully but am just lost as to what I must do now to register my DNS and have my domain forward to my server.

Any help would be so appreciated.

Thanks!

    ts10:

    I will leave everything outside of what you are asking out - but ensure that your server has been secured before you open it up to the world.

    You will have to check with the company that you registered your domain name with - for instance Network Solutions.

    With NS they have 'Custom DNS' solutions, as do most of the major domain registrar's, they will allow you to configure your domain name to point to your server's public IP address.

    Please note: You must have a static IP address for this to work, if you are planning on hosting this off of DSL or Cable Modem, please be sure to check with your provider that you are allowed to host websites, as well that you have a static IP address.

    Your computer CAN host DNS for your domain, although I don't recommend yet, it is usually recommended that you have 2 separate Name Server's to handle all requests, as you may want to have your e-mail or mailserver reside on another box/server.

    In short:

    Your first step would be to contact the company that sold you the domain name, as they will most likely provide DNS Services.

    Once you have found a viable DNS Service, be sure that you have a static IP address that you can dedicate to web server.

    A Home based router will allow you to share the IP address but isnt designed to handle any appreciable amount of traffic, and it is not recommended.

    And finally, once you know / have the IP address you wish to use, you can provide it to your DNS Company (or registrar) they usually have a control panel page to handle these requests.

    You can often wait UP TO 72 hours for the changes to take effect so be patient.

    If you do not have a static IP address, do a google search for
    Dynamic IP DNS Services" - there are many companies out there which will allow you to have a small client on your server to ensure that the DNS is always pointing to your server.

    I hope I was of some help - and if you have further questions, don't hesitate to ask.

      Thanks so much for your help. I registered at GoDaddy and have logged into my account and went to Nameservers. There I have "Custom nameservers" where I can enter any nameserver I want. I guess I need to establish my domain as DNS first. I'm trying to find out where on GoDaddy I do that.

      Also, I'm on an office server with a T1 and commercial routers so all should be well on the traffic side.

      My server has "Use the following IP address" checked but it's a local IP (192.168.0.2). If I do a "what's my IP" check I get a real IP but I'm sure that's the router's IP address. How would I be able to direct traffic coming in to this server specifically?

      Thanks for the help. I'm not a sys admin being asked to do a sys admin job!

      Thanks again.

        ts10:

        For router configuration you're best to goto a forum that that directly relates to your router - you can do a lot of damage to your network if you aren't sure what you are doing, or - even better, bring in a contractor that is capable fo configuring your routes.

        Your "what is my ip" would be your external IP address which is the one that you want. The T1 provider can help y ou with the NameServer configuration for your IP address, since they most likely own the lease on your public IP.

        I would recommend letting GoDaddy do the DNS for you, you are able to specify the @ (root), www and wildcard to point to your external IP (whatismyip IP address).

        You would want to set:

        yourname.com Root (@) - A Record - 12.12.12.12
        www - CNAME - yourname.com

        Please Note: 12.12.12.12 should be replaced with your public IP address

        Also, be sure to check your MX records to ensure that the proper mail exchanger (email provider) has been used.

        You can use google apps if you have less than 50 emails required - for free, available at http://www.google.com/apps/. They have help available for configuring your MX records on GoDaddy.

        The Reason I highly recommend using GoDaddy for DNS is - You've probably already paid for it, so why not, and they will have excellent reliability, and although DNS traffic is small - those incoming DNS requests would not count against your monthly bandwidth limits as they are going through GoDaddy. Not to mention that your server will be dedicated to serving WEB requests, verses WEB and DNS.

        Does that make sense?

          Again, thanks. Getting closer. So would using GoDaddy DNS replace the router work or be in addition to it?

          I am in goDaddy right now and am trying to figure out where set the DNS. All I see when searching for it are tutorials using Simple Control Panel.

          Do you know where I need to go to set those values?

            Also, I just figured out that 192.168.0.2 AND 0.3 both load my webserver directory. I'm assuming the previous admin already set this up (what I'm trying to do)...I just don't know how to find it. I'm not used to Windows Server 2003 and am struggling on where to look.

              8 days later
              4 days later

              If you have 2 or more static IPs, then in GoDaddy open your Domain Manager. Select your domain. Then scroll down to below the addresses (where it lists the contacts). In the left hand column you should see something like "Host Summary". You should be able to "Add Host". You'll need to add 2 hosts. One for each IP you will be using (I'm assuming of course that you have 2 IPs for your office). If not, the same IP for both hosts would work. The problem is if one goes down, your server is web accessible. So in the "Hostname" box put "ns1" and in the first IP box, put one of your IPs. Then save, and then add another but putting "ns2" as the hostname and the other IP (if you have 2).

              Once they are created, wait like 5 minutes. Then edit the domain again, and set the nameservers to be "Custom" and enter ns1.domain.com and ns2.domain.com. Now in a few hours (usually 3 but allow 24 - 48 for full propagation) domain.com will point to your office server. At this point it may be a good idea if your server is running a DNS server so you can manually make changes to the DNS and not have to go into GoDaddy everytime.

              That's the basics of it. We have a similar setup at work; however, we have a wildcard "subdomain" so that anything .domain.com points to our server. This may be something of what you're looking for.

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