Zen Internet Support Forum

Hi,

ive recently baught a domain name from godaddy.com and i am hoping to run my own web/email server at home

i am currently on the zen 8000 active adsl package  (8meg downstream spead , 448Kbps upstream spead)

my server is windows server 2003  

as i havent done this before i was wondering if someone can help me out in setting this up

i have 8 unused static ip addresses

and i would like to set up some name servers

NS1.MYDOMAIN.INFO

NS2.MYDOMAIN.INFO

where abouts do i start ?

thanks

Harry

Hello Harry,

I think you may well find that you can install & setup & configure DNS servers from the Windows server 2003 disk. I think you will find that DNS servers are add-on components which can be installed after you have the windows server set up (post server setup). In the time honored tradition from NT server onwards DNS servers & running a DNS service have always been an additional feature that Microsoft offered with server products.

**I guess Microsoft recognised that most domains are run by businesses and that they would need a DNS, its just essetial so they normally offered it as part of the server CD or DVD disk.

Ivan

Hi,

Yes - Ivan is correct - you can use the built in DNS server in windows 2003 (see this handy link I found!)

However it would be better if you used the DNS servers provided by your domain name host (godaddy)
Most domain providers will also provide DNS servers, and they will be able to provide a primary and 2ndary one (in a proper data centre) - giving you much better resiliency

Assuming your domain host provides DNS servers (and lets you configure your own DNS records on them for your domain) you can then point an A + MX record to one of your Zen provided IP addresses which your local server will be using

A brief overview of DNS can be found in this article: http://www.zensupport.co.uk/knowledgebase/article.aspx?id=10394 

also, I suggest that you configure your router to route traffic using your external IP address to the internal server on a port-by-port basis. don't just leave the server wide open.

just my tuppeny-worth

L