i have a windows 2008 R2 server. what i want to know is that how can i make it if one should access my server using a domain name i purchased instead of my static IP provided by my ISP?
for example i want users to access my server by typing www.mydomain.com instead of my ip.
how do i set this? is this done at the server or at the router?
could someone give me detail explanation as i am not familiar with networking and server field?
There are two fundamental things you need to do:
NB: Do these in order, and test the first section by using your static IP from outside of your home.
Router
If your server connects to the internet through a router, then you need to either add your server to the DMZ (This will direct all traffic to your IP address to the server. This is dangerous!) or forward the specific ports that you need to it. To do this, you'll need to log onto the router itself and find "Port Forwarding"
DNS
You need to configure www.mydomain.com to point to your static IP. Do this by going to your registra (The place you purchased it from), and figure out how to add an "A Name Record". This record will contain your static IP.
This may take a few hours to take affect, so be patient. Test it first by going to the command prompt and pinging wwww.mydomain.com and looking to see if it's returning your static IP.
It should be done through configuration at the site where you've purchased the domain name, there they would have DNS configuration and you should change the record to point to your IP of your server. After you do that and it works you should change the MX and all the rest records that you want. I can't give you exact details since each domain seller has a different Web interface for the configuration page.
