Transfering domain authority

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Smith
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John Smith

Hello everyone,

Currently our DNS is being outsourced by the same company that is handling
our mail. We are going to bring mail server (Exchange) in house. I have
already setup the mail server as well as the DNS (w2k3 AD).

I have a couple of questions:

1. What is involved in transferring the DNS? Should I just go to
NetworkSolutions.com and change the handle and our own DNS becomes the
Authority?

2. Once our DNS becomes the authority, can I point the MX record to the
other company that handles our email? We want them to handle the mail for
the next week or so, and then change back to point to our own mail server?

Thanks in advance for clarifying this.
 
John Smith said:
Hello everyone,

Currently our DNS is being outsourced by the same company that is
handling our mail. We are going to bring mail server (Exchange) in
house. I have already setup the mail server as well as the DNS (w2k3
AD).

I have a couple of questions:

1. What is involved in transferring the DNS? Should I just go to
NetworkSolutions.com and change the handle and our own DNS becomes the
Authority?
Click to expand...

Whoa! Leave your DNS with NetSol, you may get unexpected results or no
resolution at all by moving the public zone to your local DNS.

All you need is to add the MX record and mail server "A" host record to the
zone hosted at NetSol.
You may also need to get your ISP to create a PTR for you.
2. Once our DNS becomes the authority, can I point the MX record to
the other company that handles our email? We want them to handle the
mail for the next week or so, and then change back to point to our
own mail server?
Click to expand...

As I said, I'd leave the DNS at NetSol, you can easily change the MX record,
but I'd make sure the TTL on the records are 1 hour or less. (3600 seconds)
 
I don't understand!! Why would I get unexpected results by moving public
IP's to our own DNS? I have already configured a similar setup in another
environment and have not experienced issues. Just curious to know what kind
of problems you have experienced.

We have not purchased DNS services from the ISP, just T1 line. We need to
host our own DNS because we will be hosting subdomains as well.
 
John Smith said:
I don't understand!! Why would I get unexpected results by moving
public IP's to our own DNS? I have already configured a similar
setup in another environment and have not experienced issues. Just
curious to know what kind of problems you have experienced.
Click to expand...

For one, you said you are bringing in Exchange, that means to access
Exchange you're going to need to access it by the local address (assuming
you have a router and you're using NAT) To host the public zone, ALL RECORDS
must resolve only to the public IP address, if you host the public zone
locally, especially if you have AD, and the AD domain is the same name as
the public domain, the DNS that hosts the AD domain cannot also host the
public domain.
Besides, NetSol's DNS servers are likely going to be much faster on a higher
bandwidth link.
We have not purchased DNS services from the ISP, just T1 line. We
need to host our own DNS because we will be hosting subdomains as
well.
Click to expand...

NetSol's DNS will host subdomains just fine.

If you really must host your own DNS, it should be on totally separate DNS
servers from the one you use for your local domain.
 
John Smith said:
What if I am using the DNS for public IP addresses only?
Click to expand...

In the general case, for most any but the largest (in terms of
Internet presence) companies, the DNS belongs at the REGISTRAR.

They have 24/7 support, near-backbone presence, fault tolerant
hardware, and generally provide a web page (GUI) you can use
to manage your own records.

And it is free. (Well, actually you already paid for it when you
bought the name.)
 
John Smith said:
What if I am using the DNS for public IP addresses only?
Click to expand...

Public IP addresses only is required.
I'm not saying you can't host your own, I do that, but I have three DNS
servers, two of which answer only to the public requests. I cannot use them
locally, they won't resolve my local network.
 
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