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What is a domain?
• What do I need to do to have my own domain name?
• How do I register a domain name?
• Access Communications Services
  • DNS hosting
  • Virtual domain web hosting
  • Virtual domain email hostings
  • Cable Modems
• Note for Novell administrators

A domain is a neighbourhood on the Internet. Examples of domain names includeaccesscomm.ca and netscape.com.

Domain names are similar to a prospecters mining claim ... if you haveregistered a domain name, you have the right to develop services at that nameslocation. However, that's all that a domain is: just the right to use it.Developing the actual services (such as a web server) is another step.

Being a neighbourhood, domain names are not individual computers. The nameof the computer is prefixed to the domain name, and is known as the host or hostname. An example of a host name is www, and the full address to that serverwould be the host name prefixed to the domain name, such aswww.accesscomm.ca.

Please note that there is nothing that requires your web server host name to becalled www, you could call it webserver if you wished. The host namewww is simply a common name for web serving hosts.

 

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To use your own domain name, (i.e. www.example.com), you would have tofirst register the domain name you wanted with the relevent authority.

Once the domain name is registered, you need to arrange for DNS hosting.This is what translates the name (i.e., www.accesscomm.ca) into an IPaddress (i.e.,204.83.142.80). InterNIC and CDNnet both requireyou to have 2 DNS hosts for your domain name, to ensure that DNS will beavailable even if one server is down.

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For a domain name ending in .com, .org, .net,or .edu please seeICANN's list of approved registrarsfor more details.

For domains ending in .ca, .sk.ca, or.regina.sk.ca, please seehttp://www.cdnnet.cafor more details.

Please note that there will be a charge associated with registeringyour domain name with the domain name authority. Access Communications is notinvolved in the domain registration process.

If you wish to have us host your domain name record on our server you will need to supply the following information:

Primary DNS server name: dns1.accesscomm.ca IP address: 204.83.142.2

Secondary DNS server name: dns2.accesscomm.ca IP address: 204.83.142.4

Please note that there is a fee associated with having Access Communications host your DNS record, explained in the Access Communications DNS hosting section.

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Once you have your domain name registered, you need to find two DNS serversto host your DNS records.

Access Communications can host the DNS records for your domain. The charge is aone-time, per-change $50.

We usually set up your DNS as follows:

Type	Host	details
MX	mail	10
A	mail	24.72.x.x
A	www	24.72.x.x
CNAME	ftp	www
CNAME	pop	mail
CNAME	smtp	mail

Of course, we can also set up your DNS record to your specification.

To have changes made to your DNS record, please call our Help Desk at565-5357. For more information on DNS and how it works, please visitAsk Mr. DNS.

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With a virtual server, we configure our web server to respond to requestsfor your domain name (i.e., www.example.com). Just like a regular user web space, you FTP in to your virtual server to set up your web site.

For information on our virtual domain web hosting, please click here.

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With a virtual server, we configure our dedicated virtual email serverto respond to requests for your domain name (i.e.,www.example.com).

For information on our virtual domain email hosting, please click here.

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If you have a cable modem and have already registered your desireddomain name, you can run your own DNS and/or web server on yourcomputer. If you are running only a web server and not a DNS server,an important step is to arrange with someone to host your DNS record.This is what directs, or resolves, a fully qualifed domain namesuch as www.myexample.com into the IP address of your computer.

This method of web hosting costs nothing, beyond being a WAVE cable modemsubscriber, but requires you to run your own web server and possibly DNSserver. Note that if you do not run a DNS server, that there may be a feeto have someone else host your DNS, depending on where you get it hosted.

Access Communications can not provide support for your web or DNS server if youchoose to run your own. Please also be aware of the WAVE contractualobligations relating to reselling of bandwidth and appropriate use ofthe WAVE.

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If you are using certain version of Novell as your TCP/IPserver, please be aware that we've run into some problemswith Novell servers sending out large numbers of broadcaststo the cable modem network.

nisbind.nlm is autoloaded by unicon.nisbind will try to find a NIS server on the network bybroadcasting NIS packets. To correct this, change theBinderEnable setting in the sys:etc wparamsfile to FALSE. This setting is in the [NW_NIS] sectionof nwparams.

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