Can anyone point me to a guide for someone who's NEVER messed with the actual domain registration and name server setups and stuff?

There's a concept I'm missing somewhere-- about subdomains vs CNAMES and all, and I just need to read about it.



Or, if you'd rather attempt to answer my questions for me, keep reading.
-------------------------------------------
My concept:

I have a domain, hosted from company A (which I'd already purchased-- and their rates are great)
I have hosting, hosted through company B

Company B (1and1) claims to provide 1 free domain with their cheapest hosting package, yet when I was registering, it was going to charge more for a custom-defined domain name (say pickles.net) so I did not register for anything else. When I finalized everything, my domain is
s[numbers].onlinehome.us (which now I see they provide infinite 1and1 domains, for free-- I assume this is one of those)

Since I already host pickles.net (just an example-- not really real!) through company A domain hoster, I have to set company A's NAME SERVERS to the 2 servers that company B (1and1) tells me to. I'm under the impression I then figure out how to activate "stealth mode" so that s[numbers] comes up when you type in pickles.net and the URL stays looking like 'pickles.net' instead of a re-direct.

(Question 1 - am I correct up to here?)

Where I lose understanding of the concept is when I think I'm blurring the lines between subdomains and CNAMES. I set CNAME to the following:

www [.pickles.net] to pickles.net

Now I want to make an alternate site that will be accessed through the URL: huge.pickles.net but it's going to be pretty much a different site than pickles.net

(Question 2) So do I now set up a SECOND free domain through company B (1and1)?? so then I would set companyA's CNAME:

huge [.pickles.net] to s[NEWfreedomainNUMBERS].onlinehome.us

with that whole domain listed as the CNAME?

(Question 3) How, then, is this all set up in FTP? Where do you determine the path for each site's file structure?

If you read all that and know the answer-- THANKS!!! I'm not an idiot, but I've never even been exposed to back-end website setup, and am learning. Thx for patience.

[Edited on July 14, 2007 at 6:23 PM. Reason : d]

7/14/2007 5:59:47 PM

http://freedns.afraid.org/ ... is your friend.

7/14/2007 6:33:14 PM

nononono. you're doing this all wrong.

you need to get the IP of the server your site is hosted on
then make an A record for each hostname that points to that ip

e.g.

e00.us. A IN 7200 75.126.196.64
http://www.e00.us. A IN 7200 75.126.196.64 (stupid tww making this one into a link, its only supposed to have www in front of it, not http://)
other_subdomain.e00.us. A IN 7200 75.126.196.64

etc.

(these are from one of my zone files)

don't make cnames, they slow shit down. not even for the www record.

make sure you set up mx records and stuff too

7/14/2007 6:54:10 PM

^ THANK YOU-- a lot

I'm not even going to bother with MX for now, just want to get the site/dns working

I've now got the following with company A, the domainname host:

       domain.net                 A     serverip
http://www.domain.net             A     serverip
       newsubdomain.domain.net     A    serverip 
http://www.domain.net           NS     hostingsiteNS1
http://www.domain.net           NS     hostingsiteNS2

7/14/2007 7:15:59 PM

do I put the same name servers (hosting site specified) in for the subdomain?

So, in addition to above----

newsubdomain.domain.net     NS     hostingsiteNS1 
newsubdomain.domain.net     NS     hostingsiteNS2

7/14/2007 7:21:37 PM

the NS records should just be for the root domain (e.g. domain.net, not http://www.domain.net)
you only need (and are allowed to have) one set of NS records

as far as getting the domain to point to that onlinehome.us thing
you need to talk to your host about that one
they need to change their apache config files to include your new domain in their name-based hosting stuff

even if you were to cname it to the other domain, it wouldn't work - apache (the web server software) is looking for a specific domain name (e.g. s902385092345.onlinehome.us) and will serve up that site when it sees that domain name (a bunch of sites are hosted on that same IP address, this is how it distinguishes between them all)

if it sees domain.net instead of the s934285093450.onlinehome.us, it'll go "wtf?" and give a 404 error.

7/14/2007 7:43:29 PM

^ (word on the NS part-- I'll post back in a day or two and let you know if it worked okay)

on the second part-- I GOT IT. There was a column under my listed domains (in the 1and1 interface) that lists "DESTINATIONS" and you simply specify a directory within your 1and1 webspace

I HOPE THATS IT, omg. Awesome. I will keep playing with it and let you know. Thanks again for your help.

7/14/2007 8:05:44 PM

rofl np duder.

just remember, dns changes usually take a day or two to propiagate

7/14/2007 8:28:36 PM

dude

it is DONE

my domain points to my host; my test subdomain points to a different site

FTW

thanks SO MUCH for your help!!!

/thread

[Edited on July 14, 2007 at 8:46 PM. Reason : it took like an hour!!]

7/14/2007 8:46:23 PM