DNS Problem

#1

Hi There,

I’m putting together a website for a friend, but I’m having a problem. They have registered domain names already, which have been setup with GMail and Google Apps (presumably through their domain registrar). A whois lookup on the domains says their DNS is pointed at:

Name Server: NS1.NOVARA.IE
Name Server: NS2.NOVARA.IE
Name Server: NS3.NOVARA.IE

I have asked them to change the nameservers to those of Dreamhost so I can setup his hosting account, but he maintains that this will “break” google apps, and requests that I forward him on a CName instead.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do - I can’t find any relevant information on CNames on the Dreamhost wiki. My guess is that using the “Fully Host This Domain” feature and selecting Gmail + Google Apps might work, but any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

#2

You can do either or, if you bring the Nameservers to Dreamhost, you’ll also need to configure MX and Cnames for google apps. The other way is for his current DNS host to point the A record (www) to dreamhost, and leave the mx/apps untouched. So long as the records are in place in one of the locations and the location is being trusted then nothing should “break.” You might have a brief period of downtime during the change but it won’t be broken per se.

Hope that helps.

#3

To avoid downtime while changing DNS server, you will have to set up the same DNS records on the new server first.

To do that in DH, add the domain to your hosting plan first and set up DNS records accordingly via DH panel --> Domains --> Manage Domains

For your case, you will have to point MX records to gmail. Once you have the DNS records ready in DH, it is safe to change the DNS server. Whether the request reaches the old or new DNS server, both will forward it to google correctly.

If you are not sure, I’ll suggest you to test the above process with a subdomain first.

#4

Thanks for the replies. Which route would you guys recommend? Pointing the A record at dreamhost sounds like the most simple solution.

#5

The best solution is to use a cname record to point to a dreamhost hosted domain or sub-domain. An A record will work, but can break if the IP address dreamhost has assigned changes.

If you choose to use a CNAME record you could even use a free dreamhosters.com sub-domain for the CNAME record. In that case you would want to make sure to set the application up correctly so that the URL is rewritten to as a sub-domain (replacing the dreamhoster.com portion of the url) in the users browser window to that it appears the site is part of the other domain. Admittedly, I’m not an expert in how to accomplish this second part, but there are others here who can help.

#6

Thanks for your reply LakeRat. In essence, if I supply them with the URL of another domain I have hosted on Dreamhost (by hosted I mean it uses Dreamhost’s DNS) it should work? Sorry about all this - I could never quite get my head around all this DNS stuff.

Cheers!

#7

removed… i got threads mixed up[hr]
yes thats correct…