Fix Your Domain Registration

Remember to edit your domain registration for my-site.com, or whatever it is, so that at least one of the name servers is your new name server (97.158.253.26 in this case). Domain registrars, such as VeriSign and RegisterFree, usually provide a Web interface to help you manage your domain.

Once you've logged in with the registrar's username and password, you'll have take two steps:

1) Create a new name server record entry for the IP address 97.158.253.26 to map to ns.my-site.com or www.my-site.com or whatever your name server is called. (This screen prompts you for both the server's IP address and name.)

2) Assign ns.my-site.com to handle your domain. This screen will prompt you for the server name only.

Sometimes, the registrar requires at least two registered name servers per domain. If you only have one, then you could either create a second name server record entry with the same IP address, but different name, or you could give your Web server a second IP address using an IP alias, create a second NAT entry on your firewall and then create the second name server record entry with the new IP address, and different name.

It normally takes about three to four days for your updated DNS information to be propagated to all 13 of the world's root name servers. You'll therefore have to wait about this amount of time before starting to notice people hitting your new Web site.

You can use the chapter's troubleshooting section to test specific DNS servers for the information they have on your site. You'll most likely want to test your new DNS server, which should be up to date, plus a few well known ones, which should have delayed values.