DNS Host Handles/Registrations

Good afternoon!

  This may sound like a dumb question, but...

  The last time I registered a DNS host it was still being done by
NetSol/InterNIC (yeah, a *long* time ago).

  I need to add another DNS host, and cannot seem to find the
appropriate place to do this. InterNIC.net, ICANN, IANA all come up
blank. Anybody out there done one of these recently?

Thanks!

I should probably have been more specific. I am not trying to associate a
DNS server with a particular domain, that's obviously a no-brainer, using
any registrar. I am talking about registering the DNS server itself, so
that it may later be associated with a given domain or domains.

For example, if I was to just pick an IP at random, build a DNS server on
it, and try to plug that IP into register.com's screen, it
(register.com) would refuse to accept it, as it would not be a "known" DNS
server. I need the process which *used* to be known as registering a a
DNS server and obtaining a host "handle" for it.

Thanks!

DNS hosts are handled by the registrar for the domain.

--Adam

I should probably have been more specific. I am not trying to associate a
DNS server with a particular domain, that's obviously a no-brainer, using
any registrar. I am talking about registering the DNS server itself, so
that it may later be associated with a given domain or domains.

For example, if I was to just pick an IP at random, build a DNS server on
it, and try to plug that IP into register.com's screen, it
(register.com) would refuse to accept it, as it would not be a "known" DNS
server. I need the process which *used* to be known as registering a a
DNS server and obtaining a host "handle" for it.

ttry this:
http://www.netsol.com/cgi-bin/makechanges/itts/host

-b

DNS hosts are handled by the registrar for the domain.

and then there is the excitement of having a host which serves domains
registered with many registrars

I've never seen this happen except with NSOL. Every other registrar (as far
as I know) updates their host info from whois.internic.net.

--Adam

From NetSol's site:

http://www.netsol.com/cgi-bin/makechanges/itts/host;jsessionid=PMHYXIGLKP2HZ WFI3EFCFEQ

This link is what I was looking for. Thanks! I find it interesting that
NSOL is the only one who has responsibility for this??? Shouldn't *all*
registrars have this ability?

They do.

Don't change your info at NSOL if NSOL is not your registrar.

--Adam

To explain it a little better, I think:

If you want to create "NS1.SOMEDOMAIN.COM", go to the registrar handling SOMEDOMAIN.COM and use their procedure.

If you want to create "NS2.SOMEWHEREELSE.COM", and they're using some other registrar, you use THAT registrar instead.

If SOMEWHEREELSE.COM is registered at $REGISTRAR_ONE, and SOMEPLACE.COM is registered at $REGISTRAR_TWO, and you want to use NS{1,2}.SOMEWHEREELSE.COM as NS servers for SOMEPLACE.COM, then you need to create the hosts with $REGISTRAR_ONE, and then update the domain record at $REGISTRAR_TWO.

More complex examples exist, but not aren't often encountered. :slight_smile:

D

[snip]

More complex examples exist, but not aren't often encountered. :slight_smile:

Try registering nameservers that don't end in com/net/org. It's fun.

Greetz, Peter

> This link is what I was looking for. Thanks! I find it interesting that
> NSOL is the only one who has responsibility for this??? Shouldn't *all*
> registrars have this ability?

They do.

No, they do not. At least for the ones I use (register.com and SRS).

Don't change your info at NSOL if NSOL is not your registrar.

It appears that the person who "believed" that NSOL was the central
repository for this was correct. Changes are made at NSOL, and picked up
by other resgistrars via whois.

> > This link is what I was looking for. Thanks! I find it interesting that
> > NSOL is the only one who has responsibility for this??? Shouldn't *all*
> > registrars have this ability?
>
> They do.

No, they do not. At least for the ones I use (register.com and SRS).

When I used register.com they would register a nameserver for you
but it cost $15 or $25 dollars. I am currently using dotster and
they will let you register nameservers for free in domains that
you have registered with them.

You can get quirky situations, though, because the NSI registrar division does not update its database of registered name servers from the NSI registry.

eg: We have domains, eg something.org, registered with Dotster and then nsX.something.org. We used the Dotster procedures to register name servers, blah blah blah, NSI registry has things fine. When our first user went to NSI registrAR and put nsX.something.org in, then NSI registrar created them in NSI registrar database, and made the contact person whoever our user's domain's technical contact was. (Naturally, this user chose not to specify us as the technical contact, just to make this messier) When we started this, we had two name servers, and then when we added a third one, it found itself in the NSOL registrar database, with yet another different contact person.

Now, here is where this gets messy: we added more servers, and the one that was ns3 became ns5, and ns3 got a new IP somewhere else. We went to Dotster, told them to make the changes, changes went to NSI registrY just fine. NSI registAR, however, continues to have ns3.something.org with the original IP, so if someone specifies ns5.something.org in an NSI registrar form with that IP, they'll say "That IP is already registered in the database". If we try to use NSI registrAR form for changing DNS server IPs, then that won't work, because either a) NSI doesn't do something.org, which is true, or b) we're not the technical contact for it, which is also true. (BTW, if we try to create the DNS server first with NSI registrar to avoid it going to someone else, then naturally NSI registrar says they don't do something.org and thus to register the DNS server with the appropriate registrar)

Very very very messy situation, and calling NSI doesn't seem to help, or maybe it does, we never figured it out... Generally, these things fix themselves after perhaps a month or two, but it's very annoying when you have your users emailing you about stupid NSI form errors. Also, you have the cosmetic aspect of it: our documentation says that nsX.something.org is 2.3.4.5, which it is in reality/NSI registry, but when our users WHOIS their domains, they see nsX.something.org there as 1.2.3.4, the old IP, and then they email wondering if they did it right.

This is why we don't particularly recommend NSI as a registrar...

Vivien

Yes, this is correct. However, it doesn't matter what info NSOL has. If the
"host record" they're using matches up with something that's registered in
Internic WHOIS, then the GTLD servers will use the correct info when updating
the glue records in the SOA. The only effective symptom of having the wrong
info in the NSOL WHOIS is annoyance and confused customers.

For a real-life example of this, try:

$ whois nanovention.com

then try

$ dig @a.gtld-servers.net nanovention.com soa

--Adam

Yes, this is correct. However, it doesn't matter what info NSOL has. If the
"host record" they're using matches up with something that's registered in
Internic WHOIS, then the GTLD servers will use the correct info when updating
the glue records in the SOA. The only effective symptom of having the wrong
info in the NSOL WHOIS is annoyance and confused customers.

Actually, no - it can prevent registrations (with NSI only) under a
specific set of circumstances, which we came across. Specifically, one IP
is originally ns3.mydyndns.org, and changes to ns5.mydyndns.org when
another box (in another location, entirely different IPs) comes online as
ns3. NSI registrar has decided to make their host record for ns3 pointing
to that IP; anyone attempting to register with ns3 and the old IP gets an
error, ditto for anyone trying to list ns5, which can't get auto-created
because another host exists with the IP.

Three phone calls to NSI later, I had three different answers for how they
were going to fix it, and no resolution, and no escalation to a supervisor
even after I'd requested it. It eventually either a) fixed itself or b)
got fixed by the person who was the tech contact for ns3; it isn't _truly_
fixed until those records are out of NSI registrar's database, but it's
fixed enough that NSI works. As Vivien mentioned, though, we've
recommended to all of our customers that they not use NSI; we've had far
better luck with Dotster.

Tim

> > This link is what I was looking for. Thanks! I find it interesting that
> > NSOL is the only one who has responsibility for this??? Shouldn't *all*
> > registrars have this ability?
>
> They do.

No, they do not. At least for the ones I use (register.com and SRS).

OpenSRS certainly does. I don't use register.com so I can't comment on them.

> Don't change your info at NSOL if NSOL is not your registrar.

It appears that the person who "believed" that NSOL was the central
repository for this was correct. Changes are made at NSOL, and picked up
by other resgistrars via whois.

No. This is incorrect. Feel free to go try to get this done at NSOL, but I
assure you that you will only succeed in frustrating yourself.

--Adam

> From: owner-nanog@merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog@merit.edu]On Behalf Of
> measl@mfn.org
> Sent: November 7, 2001 3:58 PM
> To: Adam McKenna
> Cc: nanog@merit.edu
> Subject: Re: DNS Host Handles/Registrations
>
> It appears that the person who "believed" that NSOL was the central
> repository for this was correct. Changes are made at NSOL, and picked up
> by other resgistrars via whois.

You can get quirky situations, though, because the NSI registrar division does not update its database of registered name servers from the NSI registry.

And where they're NOT the registrar for the domain a server is in, they should NOT be recording or showing any such data. But then NetSol's software has always had lots of bugs, and they seem uninterested or unable to fix them.

eg: We have domains, eg something.org, registered with Dotster and then nsX.something.org. We used the Dotster procedures to register name servers, blah blah blah, NSI registry has things fine. When our first user went to NSI registrAR and put nsX.something.org in, then NSI registrar created them in NSI registrar database, and made the contact person whoever our user's domain's technical contact was. (Naturally, this user chose not to specify us as the technical contact, just to make this messier) When we started this, we had two name servers, and then when we added a third one, it found itself in the NSOL registrar database, with yet another different contact person.

Now, here is where this gets messy: we added more servers, and the one that was ns3 became ns5, and ns3 got a new IP somewhere else. We went to Dotster, told them to make the changes, changes went to NSI registrY just fine. NSI registAR, however, continues to have ns3.something.org with the original IP, so if someone specifies ns5.something.org in an NSI registrar form with that IP, they'll say "That IP is already registered in the database". If we try to use NSI registrAR form for changing DNS server IPs, then that won't work, because either a) NSI doesn't do something.org, which is true, or b) we're not the technical contact for it, which is also true. (BTW, if we try to create the DNS server first with NSI registrar to avoid it going to someone else, then naturally NSI registrar says they don't do something.org and thus to register the DNS server with the appropriate registrar)

The good news, though, is the GTLD name servers actually pick up the correct data and run with it.

I also tried to get NetSol to pay attention to this, but in the end gave up. I now use this as an example to my clients of why we don't do business with Verisign/NetSol.

Hello,

I've got the opposite problem. I have a host record. I can't get
rid of it. Some wonderful person registered/parked a domain years
ago. He randomly picked a couple of DNS servers to put in the
domain registration template. One of those servers happened to
be ours. This was back before Network Solutions had authentication,
so we were never given a chance to deny the request.

I've been trying off and on for the last two years to get our DNS
server removed from domain record, but I've had no success. They
keep telling me that the domain owner is the only one that can make
that change. We no longer run a DNS server on this host, and we want
to delete the host record, so we can change the IP address of the
host without worrying about the glue record that is unnecessarily
stuck in the root servers. Network Solutions will not allow me to
delete the record while domain records reference it. I'm stuck.

Any thoughts?

Jeff

It's the domain of the host, not the hosted domains. If your host is to be ns1.foobar.com, you register it via the registrar for foobar.com.