06 Feb, 2009, Igabod wrote in the 21st comment:
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Ok so now I've got more things to think about. I'll probably end up registering the domain seperately from the host. Question is, what would I need to do if I were to do it that way? If I were to do that I'd want to use one of the options for free hosting within the mudding community since I'm mostly going to be putting mud related things on this site. If I were to do that what would the steps needed be? Lets say I've already got www.igabod.com registered and I went with kline's offer of free web hosting. What would be the next step to make www.igabod.com direct you to the files hosted on kline's server? Sorry for all the questions, I'm just finding out I know a lot less than I thought I did.
06 Feb, 2009, Kline wrote in the 22nd comment:
Votes: 0
If you wanted me to host your domain you would have to unlock it from your registrar and let me transfer the DNS over to my hosting provider. After that, I can set you up with the same web management access I have for my own domains, just restricted to yours for you. Then you would just setup MySQL databases (if you need any), upload your files, and off you go!
06 Feb, 2009, Igabod wrote in the 23rd comment:
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hmm interesting. I have web space provided by the host of my mud, I assume they would be able to do the same thing if I were to go that route (I probably won't for various reasons but just hypothetically). I'm gonna have to think about this for a couple more days before I make a decision. Any further advice any of you can give me would be appreciated.
06 Feb, 2009, Rojan QDel wrote in the 24th comment:
Votes: 0
Not to make any implications, but you don't actually need the domain unlocked or need control of it in order to host it. He just needs to set his nameservers as the ones used on your server. In general, a host should not need control of your domain at all, unless you have registered it with them as well.

It will be difficult to find a free host that also hosts domains, unless someone is offering you a portion of their shared hosting. (IE a friend's VPS, or Kline's hosting, etc.)

In general, for YourMUD/MOO-Cow Penguin, we only allow subdomains on our free hosting, and only offer domain hosting to paying customers, though anyone can register a domain through us. This is partially an advertising gimmick (yeah, I can admit it), and partially a convenience issue, so that many domains for many, many users do not need to be manually configured on our free server, which is essentially bare-bones Ubuntu, where-as our pay server uses cPanel, which automatically configures domain names.
06 Feb, 2009, Rojan QDel wrote in the 25th comment:
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Whoever hosts your MUD, if they are running Apache (web server) and BIND (DNS server), should easily be able to configure your account to use a domain instead of whatever address you have now.
06 Feb, 2009, Rojan QDel wrote in the 26th comment:
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I'll add one more thing. I used zoneedit.com for quite some time as a free DNS provider. They were very good, easy to configure, and very rarely had any downtime. I think there are some limits to how many DNS entries of various types you can have, but it satisfied my needs and should satisfy most others as well.
06 Feb, 2009, Igabod wrote in the 27th comment:
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So if my mud host uses apache and BIND I can just use the web space provided to me and set it up so that www.igabod.com points to it without registering igabod.com?
06 Feb, 2009, Rojan QDel wrote in the 28th comment:
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I'm sure that other web and DNS servers can use domains as well, I just know from personal experience that most linux servers use Apache/BIND and that domain configuration is very easy.

But no, I apologize if my post was confusing, in order to use igabod.com on ANY server, you need to register the domain name. Once the domain name is registered, you will need to log in to your registrar's domain control panel, and set your nameservers to the ones provided to you by your host. This is all you need to do. Your host will do the rest of the configuration (apache,bind, etc.)! Once they have configured their server properly, and your nameservers have been properly set, your website should be good to go. There is often a brief waiting period while your local computer updates with your domain's new server location (nameservers) before you can access the domain, but it is generally not too long.
06 Feb, 2009, Igabod wrote in the 29th comment:
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Ah ok, thanks for clarifying. I'll check with my mud host and see if they use those. I probably still won't use them for this purpose, but it'll be good to have a backup if I need it.
06 Feb, 2009, Rojan QDel wrote in the 30th comment:
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As I said, they do not NEED to use those. They are just the programs I am most familiar with, so I can confirm for you that the setup is very easy for domain names.
06 Feb, 2009, David Haley wrote in the 31st comment:
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Keep in mind that a domain registration basically, in the end of the day, associates, domain X with IP address Y. So you can do more or less whatever you want as long as you stay within that constraint. You can also of course do things with subdomains etc. in which case you need to set up subdomain DNS servers etc. But the point is, a domain is really just a pointer from a name to an IP address in the simple scheme of things. You always need to make that registration one way or the other so that DNS servers are updated with the appropriate IP address for your domain.
06 Feb, 2009, The_Fury wrote in the 32nd comment:
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@Igabod, if you buy a domain i will host your game and website for nothing if you like, and show you how to configure the dns as well. I have acres of disk, processor and data transfer just sitting idle, i know others have offered you the same, so if your interested let me know.
06 Feb, 2009, Igabod wrote in the 33rd comment:
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I might just take you up on that The_Fury. Still going to put a couple days of thought into this before I jump in though, plus I gotta wait for pay day to be able to do it.
06 Feb, 2009, Pedlar wrote in the 34th comment:
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There was alot of good suggestions, but personally, I would go check out 1and1.com I've been using them with no problem, for just domain registration, for a .com is is 6.74 a year right now with a 25% off offer.
06 Feb, 2009, ShadowsDawn wrote in the 35th comment:
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My major gripe with 1and1 managing a domain is, while it does give you full control of the dns.. for the most part, there are still some limitations… and their dns control panel is a real pain. I spent forever trying to find where to set the CNAME and ANAME's, which with other registrars I have used (GoDaddy, and eNom.. both via signing up with Google Apps) those thigns are easy to find and set, and can be done in minutes.
06 Feb, 2009, Kline wrote in the 36th comment:
Votes: 0
Rojan QDel said:
Not to make any implications, but you don't actually need the domain unlocked or need control of it in order to host it. He just needs to set his nameservers as the ones used on your server. In general, a host should not need control of your domain at all, unless you have registered it with them as well.


Correct. I mis-spoke, thanks for catching that :). I was probably thinking about when I moved all my domains from GoDaddy to DH – having to unlock, transfer, and relock them all.
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