[techtalk] Registering DNS servers

[Kathryn Hogg]

Eric R. Turner said:
> You should have to supply the address of the DNS servers when you register
> the domain name for which those servers are authoritative. If you have an
> existing domain, and want to change the addresses of the DNS servers for
> that domain (e.g. you will now run the DNS servers yourself instead of
> using your ISP's DNS servers), then you need to alter your domain
> registration information so that they have the new DNS server addresses.

When you register your name servers, I recommend using an alias that users
will never, ever need to know.  I had a static IP address and registered my
nameserver as www.flyballdogs.com with the appropriate address.  Unfortunately,
my DSL provider (Northpoint) went belly up the other week.  I moved my server
to my company's network, updated my DNS and the slave servers, and was back 
in business about an hour after Northpoint shut down.  Even though I had set
my DNS ttl rather low a couple of weeks before the shutdown, people were not
able to access my web site.  Why?  Because queries for "www.flyballdogs.com"
were being resolved by the root servers.  And at a minimum, it takes about 3
days to make changes at Network Solutions - and just my luck, my DSL went down
on a Friday.  So, I created an alias and changed my nameserver registration
to dns.flyballdogs.com and removed www.flyballdogs.com from NSI's database.

--
Kathryn Hogg