Home DNS Server?
 

Is it possible to set up a home DNS server? I do not have a global IP address for it, only local. But I can forward ports in my router. My home network goes Cable modem>router>switch>computers If it is not possible to set up a real DNS server on the internet from my house (I would prefer to do this, but if I can't then...), can I set one up just for my home network? So when I type a domain, it will point to an http server on my home network?

Specifically, I am using MacDNS. I have read through the manual and read through howstuffworks and wikipedia about DNS but still only vaugley understand it.

What I need to know is how to set up my machine so that when I (or anyone in the globe if possible) type for example mymachine.net it will go to the IP that I set. I am not looking for URL forwarding, I want real DNS from my own DNS server.

Sorry if my question is a little unclear, but this stuff is confusing to me. Thanks.

Re: Home DNS Server?
 

Is it possible to set up a DNS server at your house so that one machine on your local network can hit another machine by typing www.blingbling.net? Yes. Is it practical to think that someone around the world could do the same? No! The time, effort, and expense make in impractical to do it if you want someone in another city/state/country to hit a box in your house.

Re: Home DNS Server?
 

I think what you are asking for is to type in a url and to access your server. The setup isn't really a DNS server but more a webserver. YOu will want to get something running apache or another simmilar program. Then you need to forward within your router to the server running apache, within apache it will read the url and decide what folders to send the user to. Basicly it sounds to me you want to make a webserver. If thats what you really want then just do a search here on CD and you'll find many resources that others including myself have learned.

Re: Home DNS Server?
 

No, I already have a couple webservers. www.classicserver.net

Right now I have the domain pointed with DNS to a CPanel (hosting) account that I pay for. Then in CPanel, I redirect it to my IP and port.

What I want is another machine of my own to be a DNS server. First, I will have to edit my domain registration info to use the name of my personal DNS server. Then when a browser types www.classicserver.net it will contact my DNS server and my DNS server will say "oh, I know the IP for that domain, here ya go" and then the browser will say "okay great, I'll go ahead and load that IP"

I have the software installed, I just don't know much about it. I don't know what name to give my DNS server and stuff like that.

Re: Home DNS Server?
 

You do not need to set up a dns server for what you are looking for.
You would just need to set up nameservers to your ip address on your domain through whoever you registered the domain you have with, then for the nameservers you would set it to ns1.classicserver.net and ns2.classicserver.net or whatever

EDIT:
You would need to contact powerpipe.com (the place your domain is registered by) and ask them to set up name servers from your domain name to your ip address, then alter your nameservers from cp1.globaldns.org and cp2... to whatever they had just set up.
also:
you would have to change your serving port from 81 to 80 on your ip address, that is if your internet service provider allows you to host form there (Mine doesn't :( ).

Re: Home DNS Server?
 

It's quite possible to do this - my own site is served by a home-brew DNS server. What you need to do first is through your registrar set your internet connection's IP address as your domain's nameserver. Then you need to tell your router to forward port 53 (the DNS lookup port) to your DNS server, which should be configured to deliver your internet connection's IP when it receives a lookup request for your domain. However, as far as I know, you can't specify a port in DNS for a given domain (and shouldn't have to).

Re: Home DNS Server?
 

What i think you are looking for is yourdomainname.net to point to an ip address at your home Ip address? Two questions is this website internal? meaning that it can be only accessed by computers on your local network or a public domain. A site that can be accessed by anyone from anywhere with internet. BAsically you first need a public IP address, for that you have to contact you ISP. They charge 5 bucks for a set per month i think. You can also do this with dynamic DNS if you dont have a static IP. BUt hten on the server it has to keep updating ur dynamic IP. Technically if its internal, the router already has a DNS server built in. Meaning that you are already running a DNS server on ur network, otherwise there wont be a network. Remember a DNS server basically manages a set of ip addresses. The set of ipaddresses can be public or private.
Not sure if i hit any part of your question.

Re: Home DNS Server?
 

I think for the most part you understand exactly what I am trying to do and I understand exactly what you are saying to do. So in the registrar info, I can just put an IP for the nameserver instead of something like ns1.classicserver.net?
Now I just have to figure out how to do this. I don't have the machine all set up right now but I'll edit this post later with alt he entry fields and options it wants me to fill out. Thanks for the help.

Re: Home DNS Server?
 

If you are really going to set the nameserver on your computer, and set up port 53 as pat fairbank said, then you can, that is what a dns server does.

But do not forget, you need two nameservers, you cannot just use one ip address, it is required that you have two.

If you just have the nameservers set as your ip address(es), then that is all you would need.
When anyone accessed your website, it would look for the nameserver (your ip address) go to your nameserver and ask your nameserver what ip address to go to. It would then contact your ip address again, on port 80 (by default), and reguest the page, your server would then respond with your current page.

Re: Home DNS Server?
 

Yes, this is exactly what I want.

In the registrar info for the domain, can i put my one IP for both nameservers? If not, what do I do?

Anyway, in MacDNS here is what I need to set up that I need help with. I need to fill in all these blanks.

I go File>New Zone File. Then it asks for:
Domain Name
Primary Server
Secondary Server
Refresh Interval
Retry Interval
Expire Interval
Minimum TTL

Then if I go Hosts>add permanent hosts it asks for:
Host name
IP
TTL
Aliases
Mail Exchangers

And there are also dropdowns for Hardware and Software

Also, I need to set parent servers. Can I use just anything?

Thanks so much for your help.

Re: Home DNS Server?
 

I was looking around, and I found a website that might be able to help you more than I can:
http://www.macbooks.net/Handbook/col...01_macdns.html

Re: Home DNS Server?
 

I guess I should have done this earlier but I checked and my ISP (Charter-Sucks Communications) blocks port 53 (as well as 110 and 80 btw). So, it looks like the idea will never work anyhow (because I don't think there is any way around ISP-blocked ports), at least not until I get a new ISP which will be a while.

Oh, well. :(

Re: Home DNS Server?
 

I've never had much luck in this venture, but I use http://freedns.afraid.org. They work well.

You could also try www.zoneedit.com

That should help, if I am understanding you correctly.

--Petey

Re: Home DNS Server?
 

A major reason why I pay a little more money for sdsl and get my guaranteed speed and full access to my router/modem's settings. The only thing I cant do is increase my speed. They dont block anything and my isp is designed for those of us looking to run a server :)

Depending on what you really want to do and have an actual purpose to it you may wish to get a new isp and get full control of your connection.

I guess my question at the end here is, why did you want to do this?

-Mike

mike-site.us

Re: Home DNS Server?
 

Okay, Ive been hosting site for a couple of years now. This my setup for my dns server'S:

Hardware Wise:
T1 internet line with 6 static Ip
Daul X. Cpu Server(not going to get into alot of detail)
12 port Cisco Router

Software Wise:
BIND8http://www.isc.org/index.pl?/sw/bind/
Windows Server 2003 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...333780-3228860
Freebsd http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...tware&n=229534
Red Hat http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...tware&n=229534

This is a buss. setup but what you can do is get a dsl line from earthlink and a static ip (5 dollars more) or get a no-ip.net account they both make your ip address stay the same. then get a good server with one of the o/s and then download bind8 and then youll be done with the setup. Then use zonedit and create a domain name and then when you get the dns ip's put them on your server and there you go. free dns server. hope that helped!


Also if you sell domain names and didnt contact http://www.internic.net/ then get ready to face some mad law suits. Have fun :ahh: