How to Set Up a Domain Name

STEP 1: Purchase Domain at Domain Registrar

e.g. abdullahyahya.com is registered at godaddy

  • GoDaddy
  • Hover
  • Gandi
  • etc

 

How to find where a domain is registered?
Do a whois lookup, e.g. http://www.whois.com/whois/abdullahyahya.com

 

STEP 2: Set Domain Name’s Name Servers at Domain Registrar’s Control Panel

e.g. below is the control panel to set the name servers for abdullahyahya.com

nameservers

How to find a domain’s name servers?
Do a whois lookup, e.g. http://www.whois.com/whois/qualys.com

 

In the example above, the name servers for abdullahyahya.com point to

  • ns1.gnu.arvixe.com
  • ns2.gnu.arvixe.com

 

STEP 3: Set Domain Name’s Zone Records in Name Servers

The name servers above belong to the web hosting company Arvixe.com. The domain name’s name servers contain zone records to manage the mapping between domain name and corresponding server ip address. The zone records can be updated be editing a text file or via a control panel.

zone-records

You can created various types of records, e.g.

  • A – points a domain name to a web server’s ipv4  ip address
    In the example above, example.com points to 192.0.2.1
  • AAAA – points a domain name to a web server’s ipv6  ip address
    In the example above, example.com points to 2001:db8:10::1
  • CNAME – creates an alias for a domain name
    In the example above, www.example.com points to example.com (which points to 192.0.2.1). Use CNAMEs so that the domain will always point to whatever ip address its aliased domain name points to.
  • MX – specifies a mail server for a domain
    In the example above, example.com’s mail server is mail.server.com (which points to 192.0.2.3 according to the A record for mail.server.com)

 

Note that you can specify records for subdomains like abc.example.com or xyz.abc.example.com.

In the example for abdullahyahya.com, the zone records can be manage via a control panel at Arvixe.com.

add-zone-records

How to find the zone records for a domain?
Run the dig command as follows.

 

dig

 

or you can use a web based tool at http://www.digwebinterface.com/

digwebinterface

 

STEP 4: Specify Domain Name’s Document Root on Web Server

When people go to abdullahyahya.com, a DNS lookup with find that that domain points to the server at 162.254.167.117 which is a web server running Apache. In the Apache configs, you can create virtual host configurations to map between a domain name and a document root, e.g.

virtual-hosts

In the example above, www.example.com points to the folder /www/example1 and www.example.org points to /www.example2

See various other types of virtual host configurations

 

▲