Hi all,

I am looking to run a nameserver soon off of my Win 2008 server box with MS DNS. I have been using my buddies nameservers and it is a pain to email him any changes i may need, like adding subdomains.

So here is my question - I have my domain registered through Godaddy, say example.com. I have the nameservers pointed to my buddies currently. So for my domain, I would have to let him know to make an A record that is ns1.example.com and point it to my servers IP, then I can switch my other domains over to my nameserver? Is that what I would have to do?

Another thing, do I use my internal IP for the zones and records in MS DNS, or my external? Any help is appreciated.

To switch to your own DNS, you'll have to:

1) Register your name server at GoDaddy. I'm not familiar with GoDaddy, but they should have an interface to register a new name server which will require a name (ns1.example.com, etc) and your server's IP.

2) Set up your zone(s) on your server and test by querying your server directly (preferably from off-site).

3) 24 hours or so after completing step 1, change example.com at GoDaddy to point to ns1.example.com and whatever you're using as a secondary DNS server (you are using one, right?)

Another thing, do I use my internal IP for the zones and records in MS DNS, or my external?

External, assuming this is a server you want to be reachable by the outside world.

Another option, of course, is to use GoDaddy's DNS. It's free, isn't it? If you're not comfortable setting up DNS, this would be a safer way to go.

Thank you for your quick reply.

I will try doing as mentioned above, and yes I will be using a secondary and maybe even another server for backup for my domain. Thank you for your help.

No, you don't need to use GoDaddy's DNS to register your nameserver. All that does is add a glue record for your server name and IP at the root servers. After you've registered it (or within a few hours) you should be able to resolve ns1.example.com since GoDaddy would have added it to the .com root servers for you.

No, you don't need to use GoDaddy's DNS to register your nameserver. All that does is add a glue record for your server name and IP at the root servers. After you've registered it (or within a few hours) you should be able to resolve ns1.example.com since GoDaddy would have added it to the .com root servers for you.

Okay, thank you for clearing that up for me.