4 replies to this topic

[Kalint]

Doing research for Windows Small Business Server 2012 Essentials and I just have a few questions.

I have a website that hosts and holds the DNS registry. Is it possible to create a remote.mywebsite.com and have that as the domain name for the SBS server? Or do I have to buy a new static IP for my domain name?

I'd like the web server to keep doing it's job and then have the office server do its job.

And no I'm not in IT but I have intermediate understanding.

THANKS!

[+BudMan]

I think your over stating your intermediate understanding a bit.

An IP really has nothing to do with a domain name?

You mention a website, is this hosted on a VPS? Is it a shared host, dedicated host?

I find it unlikely your website holds the dns registry? You mean you point your domains nameservers to a webhosts dns? Or is your server actually the authoritative nameserver for your domain?

if I register domainX.com, this is done at registrar, be it godaddy, namecheap or any of the other hundreds out there. Or even your webhosting company could do it for you.

to resolve something.domainx.com - domainx.com needs nameservers, they might be housed by the registrar or your webhost. Or sure you could run your own that you point domainx.com too.

now something.domainx.com is just a "A" record that points to an IP, be it 1.2.3.4, etc.

If you want to point remote.domainx.com to your public IP of your SBS server - sure that would be done at where your domainx.com nameservers are managed. Now the question is, does this public IP ofyour sbs server change? How is the sbs server connected to the internet?

To hopefully answer your question - no you don't need another domain if you already have one. You can point "A" records to whaterver IP you want - they could be all over the planet does not matter. Where you run into issues if if that IP changes often, then you need a way to make sure remote.domainx.com is updated to point to 1.2.3.4, or 1.2.3.5 if it changes, etc.

So for starters - how is sbs server connected to the internet? Does this public IP change? And what is your domain name. And I can look up the nameservers for it and the registrar. Feel free to PM me the domain name if you don't want to make it public.

[Kalint]

BudMan, on 13 November 2012 - 18:47, said:

I think your over stating your intermediate understanding a bit.

An IP really has nothing to do with a domain name?

You mention a website, is this hosted on a VPS? Is it a shared host, dedicated host?

I find it unlikely your website holds the dns registry? You mean you point your domains nameservers to a webhosts dns? Or is your server actually the authoritative nameserver for your domain?

if I register domainX.com, this is done at registrar, be it godaddy, namecheap or any of the other hundreds out there. Or even your webhosting company could do it for you.

to resolve something.domainx.com - domainx.com needs nameservers, they might be housed by the registrar or your webhost. Or sure you could run your own that you point domainx.com too.

now something.domainx.com is just a "A" record that points to an IP, be it 1.2.3.4, etc.

If you want to point remote.domainx.com to your public IP of your SBS server - sure that would be done at where your domainx.com nameservers are managed. Now the question is, does this public IP ofyour sbs server change? How is the sbs server connected to the internet?

To hopefully answer your question - no you don't need another domain if you already have one. You can point "A" records to whaterver IP you want - they could be all over the planet does not matter. Where you run into issues if if that IP changes often, then you need a way to make sure remote.domainx.com is updated to point to 1.2.3.4, or 1.2.3.5 if it changes, etc.

So for starters - how is sbs server connected to the internet? Does this public IP change? And what is your domain name. And I can look up the nameservers for it and the registrar. Feel free to PM me the domain name if you don't want to make it public.

I have basic IT understanding

Our website is shared hosting, it points to a domain nameserver.

I have the SBS running on virtualbox so I could figure this out before I moved it to the live box. It will be connected to the internet with a static IP. Our router has UPNP capabilities.

That A record is helpful information.

[+BudMan]

So if you have control over the nameserver at your webhost other than just your www record for your domain. Then sure you can create whatever other A record you might need.

For example my webhost provides me full dns control, I can point whatever domains I want to this nameservers and then create whatever records I want. If that is what your webhost provides then sure you could create whatever A record you want.

your other option would be to just change your nameservers to a service that allows you full control over the dns, this may be your registrar itself or some other dns provider like zonedit, dnsmadeeasy, dyndns.org, etc. etc.. there are plenty of sites to host dns from be it free or paid services.

[Kalint]

Ok good stuff! And SBS has a lot of automation so this should be pretty easy to setup.

Thanks for the info!