Master your domain with Linux

David M Williams
Tuesday, 09 October 2007 21:15

Business IT - Open Source

For instance, you may have your domain managed by a hosting service. They’ll look after your web site – which you want – and they say they give you a couple of e-mail addresses. However, just because that’s the offer doesn’t mean you’re stuck with it.

The hosting service will tell you the names of their DNS servers, and instruct you to point to them back at your domain registrar. You don’t have to do this; instead, point to your own DNS server. There, redirect the www address to the web host’s IP address and your web site will work as it should. When it comes to mail, however, you have richer options. Set up an MX record to direct mail to your own mail server should you be running one. Or, use the special type of configuration item called MailForward for as many e-mail addresses as you want without restriction.

In this case, the e-mail won’t be stored on your web host’s servers but need to redirect to existing mailboxes – which is fine; you can then use one mailbox to receive all your e-mail for all your e-mail addresses instead of having to POP them from all over the place, or manually check many diverse locations.

Another clever thing you can do – and pretty much the reverse of the above – is take control of the situation where the hosting provider lets you set up e-mail addresses but not any other host name like a web server. In that case, again, edit your details back at the domain registrar to point to the DNS server you want to use.

This time, set the MX record to point back to the hosting provider. Then, all mail for your domain will go to them just as before, and your e-mail addresses will continue to work. The big difference is now you can also make a www record to point to the web host you’re using, as well as define any other service you wish to expose.

If you understand the purpose of DNS and what it can do, then you are able to free yourself from any constraints or charges which service providers might otherwise impose upon you. You are generally not under any obligation to use the name servers that your provider tells you to use.

With this under our proverbial belts, let’s see what Linux can do for us to help.