Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Reseller Hosting : What's the difference between Domain Paking and Domain Pointers?

[raylin]

Hi,

I am planning to provide "free domain parking" services
to my clients. Let domain1.com, domain2.com, ...
come to my website (mydomain.com), and then display
different parking informations (according $HTTP_HOST), respectively.
How can I do this?

If I buy a Virtual Name Server with my main account,
can I park domains by myself ?

Many hosting company charge for domain pointers to
main account.

What's the differece between domain parking and
domain pointers?

Can anybody give me suggestions about my plan?

Thanks in advance.

Ray

[BC]

Alrighty,

Domain parking refers to the situation where if you type in domain1.com, you are sent to a site on some server with a page saying 'Under Construction' or 'This domain has been parked for future use' etc. It's much like putting your domain name in a deep-freeze incubator for future use.

Domain pointers however, refer to the situation where multiple domains like domain2.com, domain687.com, domainx.com etc. all point to an existing site (like existingdomainwht.com) on a server. Most hosts charge something for domain pointing as it requires additional configuration of domain tables, records and what not on the server.

Some domain registrars like directnic.com, register.com etc. allow you to park domains free on their servers, and they have a pre-made 'parking' page already set up for you.

As to setting up domain parking on a server, I'm not entirely sure of the process, but I do believe it would involve something like setting up VNS's, then configuring your domain tables/records etc. to point to a certain parking page.

Hope this helps.

[raylin]

Thanks a lot, BC.

I need domain parking features because I will park
'foreign domains' which is registered not from
registrars like directnic, netsol, etc. and these
registrars don't provide domain parking solution
or charge for this solution.
I think it will be helpful to my client, if I can
registered domains for my clients and park their
domains in my main account.

Can VNS meet my requirement?
I prefer to be a reseller of hosting companies,
and park domains by myself.


Ray

[BC]

I believe VNS will meet your requirements, but it might be also dependent on who you host with. Other more dedicated hosters and hosts like Annette, Charles, David I. etc. will be able to tell you of the best procedure.

[GordonH]

The Alabanza VNS supplied to resellers will let you provide DNS so they point to your main site (or any IP address).

If you want to provide some functionality like web and mail forwarding you can buy this wholsale from http://www.zoneedit.com/ and integrate their system with your site. I think it works out at about three dollars per domain per year.

Gordon

[tfc]

Hi Raylin

If you haven't already done so, you'll probably want to read your national registrar's policies carefully, in addition to getting all pertinent information from your host company, before considering "domain parking." Here in México, for example, all registrations must be approved by NIC-México who requires that domain names be already resolving to the prospective nameservers before they can be registered or transferred. Moreover, while this NIC's RA acknowledges that the domain name holder is the person or organization in possession of the registration payment invoice, it also stipulates that the administrative and technical contacts are jointly and completely responsible for the domain (and that either can modify domain records in absence of a written objection from the other). How might this affect domain name parking (based on my understanding of the service you want to provide)?

Scenario: ABC, a reseller of XYZ, has their own nameservers and the ability (if I understand Gordon correctly) to assign more than one domain name per IP. No problem with the first, domain1.com.mx: It's registered with the national NIC because ABC's nameservers "answer" for the domain. The potential problem is with domain2.com.mx, going to the same IP: Unless XYZ has given ABC generous DNS latitude, the reseller will likely discover that the so-called "parked" domain does not resolve to ABC's nameservers but rather to those of XYZ, who unwittingly, as the official Technical Contact of domain2.com.mx, now has the responsibility of maintaining accurate domain records for domain2.com.mx and otherwise directly answering for that domain (i.e., for ABC's client).

Again, I'm using México as an example and, of course, your NIC's policies may be very different. --Just something that occurred to me while I was reading this thread.

[raylin]

Thanks, BC, GordonH and tfc.

I think that Alabanza-based VNS meets my need (if I am a
reseller, I am not currently). And TWNIC does require
the same as NIC-Mexico. We register domains from TWNIC
without DNS information. We can change DNS information
after registration.

Zoneedit.com also seems good to me. I will try it.

Thanks again, everyone.

Ray