Dynamic DNS

I'm sure this question has been asked a thousand times but I can't seem to find a direct answer to my situation.

I set up new websites very often and work them to see if they might be profitable. Sometimes they are and sometimes they are not. In the meantime I don't have a lot of money to pay for hosting. This is why I built a server.

As I understand it most dynamic DNS services will give you 2 free hostnames with their free service. Their Pro versions are just $15 but only give you 30 hostnames or so. Not bad, but my problem is that I could burn through 30 hostnames in a weekend.

Most colo prices around here seem to start at around $50/month and the facilities are not close. Being more on the newb side, I could see having to travel the 60 miles or so pretty often when my server goes down.

What is the best solution?

 

You could get a hostname from dyndns.org that you point to your server, and then you use a registered domain of your own, create as many subdomains as you need and use CNAME records that point to your dyndns.org hostname.

 

Falko,

First let me say I really appreciate the efforts that you and Till and everyone else have put it in to get me to this point. You guys are incredibly patient and understanding.

When you say subdomain, you are talking about

subdomain1.mydomain.com
subdomain2.mydomain.com
subdomain2.mydomain.com

Correct?

If this is the case, it will not work for me. I have to have separate and distinct domains. Am I just stuck having to pay for the colo or hosting? I don't believe I can get a static domain at my house.

 

so how is this, - you have cash for so manny distinct hostnames, but you dont want to pay for decent hosting, btw you could ofcaurce also rent a cheap VPS solution.
they start at about 30$ / month or so.

 

I-chat,

Not sure that I understand your question but I'll try to explain my situation. At any given time I have about 250 domains. On these domains I am constantly creating sites. Some are niche directories, some are niche sales sites, some are full blown auction sites, and each is on it's own domain. Many of these sites I sell for a handy profit even considering the time and effort I have put into building them. Some don't work out and tend to be sold in "stables" that other designers will work on and attempt to turn into money makers.

Therefore, my sites change all the time. At the end of each month I may have sold 100 sites and purchased 100 new ones which I need to host. In order for me to sell them, I need to have them up and online on their own domain.

I think you can see the hassles in creating a new hosting account for each domain that may only stay there for 10-20 days. Also, there is no real need for "good hosting" for me. The sites are gone too soon for me to worry about customer support, etc.

A VPS is not a bad solution. I hope to get there someday. However, until I am comfortable that I wont be screwing up the server on a weekly basis, I think it's not a viable option.

I could be wrong, though. I'm new and I'm open to suggestions.

 

You can do this for distinct domains as well. Just Create CNAME records that point to your dyndns.org hostname. If you need to create MX records as well, remember to point them to the dyndns.org hostname as well (instead of pointing to the domain name which is a CNAME) because MX records must not point to CNAME records.

 

Falko,

Invaluable information.

Thanks.

 

I-chat is right, VPS is an excellent option, and as you require more power to your VPS you can get the VPS provider to upgrade your account.

Also, If you follow the "The Perfect Server" Set Up Instructions to the letter, and then don't mess with it except to add new sites, then you aren't in any real danger of stuffing up the server on a weekly basis......and even if you do stuff it up, the support forums are great.

Your talking about setting up your own server anyway, the only difference with a VPS solution is you log in using SSH, or a VMWare client...other than that its the same.

 

Agent,

Thanks. I'm sure you're right but I am a little gun shy. It took me 9 attempts and a lot of help from Falko and Till and others to get this server to a stable state.

I can't tell you how many times I dug the server out of the closet because I could not remote into it. Granted, the majority of my issues stemmed from a hard drive that was failing. But with my limited knowledge of Linux, I could definitely see me paying for hours of support, reboots, etc.

Once I have some more experience under my belt my comfort level is bound to improve.

Thanks again for the advice.

 

At this point i would recoment you a vps even more, if you had so many problems with hardware etc etc and/or with linux its better to have a vps - because at least the hardware will be mantained for you (no worries about that),

in general i would say that it makes it also more easy to get server support on a vps than in a hosted server. (a hosted server neads either an expensive kvm-over-ip connection, or a running OS where as a virtual server is almost with all providers also avible over vnc, rdp or other such software solution.

that means that you can get anyone to help you at any time in any pricerange. (not just those verry expansive - remote hands services some webhosts offer you) ...

 

change with ispconfig3

I just changed a domain from ispconfig2 server to ispconfig3 server and the dns is not acting the same way.
Here are the info on the ver 2 dns server.

;;;; MAKE MANUAL ENTRIES BELOW THIS LINE! ;;;;
sub IN CNAME sub.dyndns.org.

And it was working for a couple of years.

On ver 3 I created a CNAME in ispconfig pannel but when I make a dig sub.domain.com I get this:

root@sub:/etc/bind# dig sub.domain.com

; <<>> DiG 9.7.0-P1 <<>> sub.domain.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 25018
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;sub.domain.com. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
sub.domain.com. 84515 IN CNAME sub.dyndns.com.domain.com.


ISPCONFIG 3 dns add the domain after the dydns.com name so the host can't resolv.

Any pointer on how to fix this?

Thanks in advance.