Setting up a domain name at little or no cost

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Setting up an Internet Domain

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As an example the domain "consumer.washington.dc.us" will be set up at no cost. This example also applies to domains such as "domain.com."

Step 1 - Find a domain that is available that you want to register. See the traceroute page and use the whois tool to see if a domain is taken (search on "domain.com" without "www" or "http.").

Step 2 - Find out the IP address of the planned web site from your Internet provider or hosting service. This web site is 206.156.18.122. If you want to just reserve ('park') a domain name without setting up a web site use 127.0.0.1

If you just have a web page under another domain (such as www.domain.com/user/) then you can use Monolith's free redirect service. You must make arrangements with them to set this up. Also, if using the free public DNS service (see step 4), read the FAQ at their site and see #10 for special instructions. This redirect service can be slow for the user since it is a heavily used service.

Step 3 - Set up e-mail for the domain (optional). If you want e-mail that is sent to the domain this must be done by the e-mail server operator. ISP's or web hosting services will normally offer this service at a fee. Accounts could be set up such as user1@domain.com, user2@domain.com, etc. or the e-mail could be set up to send all e-mail to one account '*@domain.com.' If you don't need e-mail skip this step. It can always be added later.

Step 4 - Domain name service or DNS (required before domain registration). This is the most confusing part of the process and is required during the domain registration process. The Internet works by using numbered addresses. This web site is actually http://206.156.18.122/. A process called "DNS" converts the numbers into the names.

DNS works by requiring each domain to have a file available on the Internet that gives instructions on how to make this conversion, send e-mail, etc. If the domain registration computers had to hold all these files it would need to be huge. Instead, they simply tell the user where to get the file.

For example: A user enters http://consumer.net/. The request eventually gets to one of the main computers at the Internet domain registration service. It tells the user to look to the domain's DNS computers for the answer. The user then connects to one of these designated DNS computers and reads the file that says consumer.net should go to 206.156.18.122. At least one alternate is provided in case the server is down, connection slow, etc. This is the 'secondary DNS.' A picture of the process is shown here.

There is a free DNS service available at: http://soa.granitecanyon.com/. Go to "Create Primary DNS," enter your domain name, and choose a password. They provide an example of various DNS configurations. Note that if you did not set up e-mail for the domain you must enter your normal e-mail address and add the ;EXTREF at the end of the line. This is the file used to set up consumer.washington.dc.us (';' indicates a comment):

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; Name Servers. These are the free nameservers, you need these for domain registration!
; You also need the IP's of these which are
; ns1.granitecanyon.com is 205.166.226.38
; ns2.granitecanyon.com is 208.146.254.90
; Note that they are on separate networks to provide redundancy

consumer.washington.dc.us.   IN   NS    ns1.granitecanyon.com.
consumer.washington.dc.us.   IN   NS    ns2.granitecanyon.com.

;administrator contact, replace @ with a dot for this format.
; add EXTREF at end of external addresses
;my external e-mail address is russ@moon.jic.com
;so the EXTREF comment is added
;an internal address of russ@consumer.washington.dc.us
;is also used as a contact address

consumer.washington.dc.us.   IN   RP    russ.consumer.washington.dc.us.
consumer.washington.dc.us.   IN   RP   russ.moon.jic.com. ; EXTREF

;A records. This identifies the IP of your web site! the local host 127.0.0.1 is standard
;You must have your IP address of the web site from your ISP
; To park a domain name without setting up a site use 127.0.0.1 for both entries
; Note that the the A record is set up without the www
;www will be added later
;this way http://domain.com and http://www.domain.com will both work

localhost.consumer.washington.dc.us. IN A 127.0.0.1
consumer.washington.dc.us. IN A 206.156.18.122

; Canonical names. This sets up aliases such as
; http://www.consumer.washington.dc.us/, ftp...., etc.

http://www.consumer.washington.dc.us/. IN CNAME consumer.washington.dc.us.

; MX records. This is the optional Mail eXchanger
; This is necessary if you want e-mail
; the 10 sets the priority level in case there is more than one
; mail server

consumer.washington.dc.us. IN MX 10 http://www.consumer.washington.dc.us/.

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One you enter the information you will receive a confirmation e-mail that must be returned. The DNS will set up within 24 hours according to the message I received.

The most difficult part is now over! Just remember to write down the 2 DNS servers and their IP addresses:

ns1.granitecanyon.com is 205.166.226.38
ns2.granitecanyon.com is 208.146.254.90

STEP 5 - Register your domain! In this case I am using the '.us' domain registrar at http://www.isi.edu/in-notes/usdnr/. I filled in the application, including the DNS entries and I wait for it to be set up (they said up to 4 weeks). To register a .com, .net, or .org address in a much shorter time see Internic ($70 for 2 years).

It may take a day or two to become active once it is registered. The reason is that ISP put DNS information in a 'cache' so they don't have to keep making requests to the main registration computers. Most update their records at least once a day. This means that one person may be able to access the site while another person using a different provider may not for a short time.

web@consumer.net

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