Domain setup confusion

[weave]

Hi All,


Just when I thought I was starting to grasp Web Server concepts and complete my first work related project I attempted to register a domain for the server at work. From this point things didn't go so well and to tell you the truth I'm totally lost with zones.... A records, name servers and the like.

I have a server (fedora 7) with php, mysql, apache configured with ssl and I have a static IP from my local ISP. I was going to register the domain with my ISP but Godaddy's pricing is far better..... from here things kinda went down hill. All I want to do is have a registered domain that points to the static IP I currently have. Godaddy has the ability to forward requests to my static but I don't want my IP shown in the address bar. I've goggled and asked support 3 times about this and have got no where with them..... seems like they only want to host your app on their servers nothing else. Then I heard about other configurations (A record, nameserver etc.) you can use to as well. Can someone please help me with this.... I'm not sure exactly what I need to complete the task. One thing about my server. The opening page has a login button that reposts the to a login page via https://. This is where I started having trouble with Godaddy's forwarding. Their forward would only handle 1 url so if a script changes the url as mine does the app fails. If there's articles on this out there I'd sure appreciate links to them

Thanks in advance,

Don

[Zotter]

To make a web server available by name, you need two different services. Beyond the web server itself and a publicly routable I-net connection of course.

1 - Domain Registration
This gives you the name.

2 - Domain Name Server
This provides public resolution so users can find your web server by it's domain name. DNS matches up your registered name to whatever IP you have.

Your ISP is the natural place to have DNS services. Yea - it costs a bit more, but that's because they're doing more than just registering a name.

You can also take a look at a 3rd party DNS provider - like dyndns.org

It's often 'easier' to have your registrar and your DNS provider the same outfit - avoids complications and confusions.

If you're setting up a publicly available server - you may want to brush up on apache configs, security, exploit mediation and the like. Maybe even mod_security. Seriously reconsider exposing Fedora 7 as it's not been supported or patched in quite some time. I'd suggest taking a look at CentOS.

[weave]

Thanks Zotter,

Appreciate the suggestions. Still striving to learn how all these pieces fit together and yes breaking things and fixing them is a good way to learn. (love your sign off line). As it turns out Godaddy had ill advised me about the DNS setup....... forwarding definitely was not the way to go. I was directed to update the 'A' record with my static IP and all is well now.... at one point it looked like a total rewrite of my web site to use the forwarding option and I just knew that was wrong because simply setting my IP in host files on my stations allowed me to test the web site locally without any fussing around.

thanks again,

[Zotter]

Glad ya got it going!

almost as glad as I am that my bumbling answer shed some light on your situation. Nicely done.