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I bought a domain today from a brazillian company. I have a hosting account in DiscoutASP that, obviously, gives me the DNS servers:

  • ns1.discountasp.net
  • ns2.discountasp.net
  • ns3.discountasp.net

I just needed to configure my domain to point to these DNS servers. But when come to the configuration panel I see this:

enter image description here

Wait... Where do I put DNS information? I'm used to symply inserting the DNSs provided by the host and it's done. What's this? Is it an alternative standard?

My domain name provider also provides a tutorial to understand this but I can't understand where do I put the DNSs provided by the host.

2 Answers 2

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I think you're confusing two different things.

In order for your Domain to be pointing at a host (or at least be under it's "authority" so you affect its DNS settings) you need to point the Domain's Name Servers at that host (IN NS in DNS terms).

This can only be done at the ICANN registrar (via the company you bought the Domain from usually) for popular Domains like .com, .net and .org etc. If you type your Domain in here WHOIS Lookup then you should be able to see who controls the DNS by looking for the Name Server entries) look under "Domain servers in listed order: " on that site). Then you can change the NSs to your Host's NSs. It can take a day or so for the updates to show up on the WHOIS once made and then you can set IN MX and IN A records as you wish and they'll be seen within a couple of hours usually.

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  • thanks. Actually I did'nt understand this part: "Then you can change the NSs to your Host's NSs". This doesn't seem to be an option for me as my domain name provider company does not allow me to do that at their control panel
    – andrerpena
    Apr 16, 2011 at 13:56
  • No problem. It can be tricky ! Your Domain registration company must offer this Name Servers settings change. If it's not possible to do online you should ask them by phone/email. Apr 16, 2011 at 15:10
  • Thank you. Just a curiosity. If hipotetically my domain name provider does not allow me to change de DNSs, it would be impossible to me to work with shared hosting isnt't it? As I don't have a fixed IP for my domain.
    – andrerpena
    Apr 16, 2011 at 21:59
  • Yes, but the "IN NS" reference on a WHOIS record show the 'authority' for the Domain. In other words which Servers can affect DNS changes to the Domain and it's a requirement of Domain registrars to either transfer the Domain away to another Domain registrar or change the Name Servers so this scenario is unlikely. Apr 17, 2011 at 5:10
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You bought the domain name from (A). You want to host it at (B). You need to decide who you want to perform DNS service. It can be (A), (B), or (C), where (C) is another 3rd party. (B) provides this for you free of charge if you host (usually). (A) may or may not offer it. (C) is anywhere else. I mention (C) because of places like www.no-ip.com that perform DNS for you at a minimal charge, and have the ability to dynamically update the IP address for any/all of the hosts.

After you decide who will have the DNS, get the name servers from them. Go to (A) and configure it with these name servers. Do this yourself if you don't want to risk losing control of the domain name in the future. After you do this, go back to the place you chose to handle DNS and configure all your hosts with the IP address of (B). Make sense?

One example

(A) gets configured with the name servers of (B). (B) gets configured with host addresses that point to itself (or possibly some of them point to your home).

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