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My hosting provider (amen.pt) told me I can keep my e-mails and webmail hosted with them and host the website elsewere. For this to work I need to change the DNS A record 'www' to the IP of the other server.

My question (which I asked them, but haven't heard of them so far...) is if this IP must be static or can this configuration handle a dynamic IP. This is because I'm thinking of moving the website to Webfaction and I think I have a dynamic IP there...

Thanks!

fana
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    Check with Webfaction - it's extremely unlikely for them to give you a dynamic IP for your website. There's no reason for them to do so - if they do, they've got a weird setup and you'll want to use a different web host! – Demelziraptor Sep 06 '11 at 10:19
  • Ok, I'm checking with Webfaction in order to dissipate all doubts – fana Sep 06 '11 at 10:45
  • This should help you (it shows how to get your website IP from webfaction control panel; check the Using Your Own Name Server section): http://docs.webfaction.com/user-guide/domains.html#pointing-your-domain-to-webfaction-s-servers – Demelziraptor Sep 06 '11 at 11:35
  • By the way this IP will be static but not fixed. The difference being that webfaction may change the IP - if this do this at all, it will be very infrequently, and they should tell you beforehand so you know to update the DNS with amen.pt so the website doesn't go down. – Demelziraptor Sep 06 '11 at 11:37
  • @Demelziraptor Oh that's more clear now! I checked with webfaction and they told me the IP is static and this configuration will work fine. I guess I misunderstood the static vs dynamic IP thing – fana Sep 06 '11 at 11:41

3 Answers3

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If you have a dynamic IP address on your server then you need to have some method of detecting the change and then updating your DNS records with the updated information. During the time between the IP address changing and your update to the DNS your site will be effectively down.

You will need to find out if amen.pt allow and have some method of facilitating an automatic update to your DNS records. Failing that you will probably have to host your DNS with a company that does allow and facilitate automatic updates when IPs change.

user9517
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There are several tools (e.g., DynDNS) to update DNS records dynamically. If amen.pt does not allow to change your DNS configuration with an external tool you can create a fix CNAME record for your www address which point to the dynamic address. For example you can have a CNAME entry for www.example.com pointing to dynamic.example.com.

You can then use any public tools (as DynDNS) to update dynamic.example.com

Matteo
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Easier solution:

1 - Create a CNAME record from 'www.mywebsite.com' to 'dynamic.mywebsite.com'.

2 - Point your A name record from 'website.com' to '174.129.25.170' which is the wwwizer.com service. It will redirect your website.com to www.website.com that points to your dynamic IP.

Best solution:

Not all domain registrars allow you to set you base host as a CNAME, the problem is:

A points name to IP CNAME points name to name

If you can't point your A to an IP because it's dynamic and you can't point website.com to a name due your domain registrar limitation. How will you point to your domain to the dynamic IP?

I suggest you to use cloudflare as far as I can remember they accept you to set your base domain as a CNAME. Follow these steps:

1 - Create your account in https://www.cloudflare.com it's a free CDN (content delivery network) you'll be able to just use the DNS service if you want.

2 - Change your nameservers to cloudflare.

3 - Wait the DNS propagation time (24 hours) and check if cloudflare is working. (It shows in your cloudflare dashboard)

4 - Point 'website.com' to dynamic.website.com then point 'www' to 'website.com'.

Hope it helps.

Maxmiller Alves
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