Setting up DNS for a domain... (More confusing then I thought!)

[flipjargendy]

I recently purchased a domain from Netfirms.com with free hosting (banners and all!). I plan on using my own server, which is in my own home, to run the website. I don't plan on a lot of traffic, nearly none. I am doing this for 60% education and 40% fun. I have directed the domain to my server to see if my ISP would allow it. It worked!!!

The only problem is that when I typed in my domain name it would bring up my IP address in the address bar after the page loaded.

I'm using This Guide but it's a little over my head. Does anyone have any other guides or info they could suggest? I'm running Ubuntu Server with no GUI, if that makes much of a difference.

Thanks

[oz]

It's been a few years since I last messed with domain servers, but you have to have a couple of nameservers to point your new domain to. You'll only see your IP numerical address until the nameservers are updated to reflect your new domain name.

Did your provider give you nameservers to use? There are some free services out there that you can use if not. I think Free DNS service - Easy, web-based domain manager - ZoneEdit.com still offers them.

Do a Google search for setting up nameservers to get the details on how it's all setup.

[flipjargendy]

Did your provider give you nameservers to use?

When I look at my DNS Admin page it lists a name a couple of name servers

Nameserver 1:
NS1.NETFIRMS.COM

Nameserver 2:
NS2.NETFIRMS.COM

Would these helpful to me?

[oz]

I found their nameservers on their webpage:

What are the Netfirms nameservers? .: Netfirms 24/7 Support

Regarding your new post... yep, that's them. Once you have them setup properly for your domain, it takes up to a few days for them to be updated to show your new domain name when loaded in a browser.

[mltv]

The only problem is that when I typed in my domain name it would bring up my IP address in the address bar after the page loaded.

Im going to assume you are using apache, and a basic config at that(i.e. no rewrites or redirects, etc.). Send the snippet of your VirtualHost section and we'll work from there.

Possible probs with apache config can be:

In the virtualhost section you are using an IP-based and not name-based. You are missing serveraliases. You are port-forwarding from your router to your webserver(meaning the actual external IP isnt configured on your webserver) and you need to setup your environment so locally(on the webserver) the fqdn points to the local IP(i.e. /etc/hosts or bind views if you run a dns server at home).

[flipjargendy]

I'm running Apache2 and have installed BIND9 and Sendmail... that's pretty much the only configuration I've done to the server.

I've configured my Linksys router so that the server always has the same IP on the network and it's also set up as a virtual host... I can view webpages from the internet just fine.

Just curious, does the auth-nxdomain option in /etc/bind/named.conf.options need to be set to yes?

You asked for the VirtualHost section...

My http.conf is empty...
/etc/apache2/sites-available/default and it looks like /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default has the same code:

NameVirtualHost *
<VirtualHost *>
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost

DocumentRoot /var/www/
<Directory />
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
</Directory>
<Directory /var/www/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
allow from all
# This directive allows us to have apache2's default start page
# in /apache2-default/, but still have / go to the right place
RedirectMatch ^/$ /apache2-default/
</Directory>

ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
<Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin">
AllowOverride None
Options ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>

ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log

# Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
# alert, emerg.
LogLevel warn

CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined
ServerSignature On

Alias /doc/ "/usr/share/doc/"
<Directory "/usr/share/doc/">
Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from 127.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 ::1/128
</Directory>

</VirtualHost>