I have both my nameservers on the same dedicated server that my site resides on. I know this isn’t good, so was thinking of moving over to EasyDNS or the GoDaddy DNS hosting.
If I were to do this, what would I need to prepare for? Do I have to do all A Entry and cName info that’s on my server with the DNS service? Or is it as easy as just changing the nameservers and I’m good and done?
Cheers!
Ryan
You could just look at your existing DNS records and do the same thing elsewhere.
At the very least, you will have to ensure you have two A Records pointing to your IP address. One for www and one for the domain name without the www. You will have to make sure your MX records are the same as you have now. If your email server is on your web server, you can enter your domain name for the MX (I think that’s what I did). If you have any TXT records for SPF or DKIM, you will need to make sure your new DNS has those records as well. Same thing with any subdomains you may have.
Is there a reason you cannot use your domain registrar’s DNS? Most registrars provide free DNS these days (with terms that may exclude high traffic sites).
cb,
I use my “private name servers” (on my dedicated server) rather than a remote DNS. My host (WebHostingBuzz uses top grade hardware/software so there is rarely every a problem and I have no fallback [as I would if hosted “in the cloud”]). For me, the expense of such paranoia overwhelms my concern.
As far as using GoDaddy as a host, they have a terrible reputation (from years as the Hosting Team Leader here) albeit they have a good reputation as a registrar. Be wary, VERY wary!
The info above from cd about your A records is excellent - use both with and without the www. A better approach (IMHO) would be to ensure you’re using a cPanel control panel for your account as cPanel handles that for you automatically (I usually get into the WHM to access my DNS records).
Regards,
DK
Thanks guys. I used to use cpanel but dropped it in favor of NGINX/UNIX to deal with high traffic. I get about 300K visits per day, so that is one reason I want better DNS hosting. Also, i was actually going to to DNSMadeEasy. Another reason I am changing is because Google claims it gets thousands of “Website Not Found” errors and I think it’s hurting me.
The fun part about hosting your DNS with your host is if your host goes down with your DNS – you can’t repoint elsewhere. This is a no go if you want to have some sort of recovery ability.
I’d look at dnsimple as a DNS host – they are pretty well best in class and have some pretty nifty features.
I went with DNSMadeEasy. They had a super easy way to automatically transfer zone info. Transferred two domains to their nameservers and running on trial plan right now. Going to need business and then a bit to cover requests I think.
LYK
Cheers!
Ryan