Setting up a server

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I have crawled the web and cant seem to find the answers to my specific questions.

So I have a mac mini running lion, I installed lion server on it and have registered a domain name. I have given my server a static IP, that with the 192.168.blah.

What I now need to know is how to setup the DNS to connect to my server.

Lion server allows the server name to be set e.g. server.mydomain.com

I am unsure how to connect all these parts. I have an account with name.com and I see the option to add a dns records. The needed fields to set this up are

Type: e.g. A

Host:

Response:

What am I supposed to do here, what is the response field? Also, if my server has a locally assigned static IP, what points to my real address?

If I port forward on my router, how would I ensure that only the server gets the traffic forwarded, and keep my other computers hidden to outsiders?

Sorry for all the questions, but I think they are all related and straight forward for someone who already knows.

user773578

Posted 2012-02-15T14:01:11.837

Reputation: 185

Answers

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What am I supposed to do here, what is the response field?

In your interface, "response" appears to mean the data field. DNS is made up of records, each having a domain name , a type, and some data.

Each type serves a different purpose; for example, A or AAAA type records point straight to an IP address, while NS or MX records point to another server name.

To simply point server.yourdomain.com to an IP address, select A ("Address") as the type, and put the address to the Response field:

  • Host: server

  • Type: A

  • Data ("response"): 1.2.3.4

Also, if my server has a locally assigned static IP, what points to my real address?

You are supposed to put your external ("real") address in DNS, and configure your router to forward certain connections to the server.

I'm guessing the server is connected to a typical home network, so you should browse your router's settings for "Port forwarding", "Virtual servers" or a similar feature.

If I port forward on my router, how would I ensure that only the server gets the traffic forwarded, and keep my other computers hidden to outsiders?

Port forwardings are always configured that way. If you forward a specific external port (say, 80 for HTTP) to a specific internal address:port (192.168.1.42:80), connections from outside will go to that address only.

user1686

Posted 2012-02-15T14:01:11.837

Reputation: 283 655

Great, thanks so much. So what is the need for the server.mydomain.com? If people will visit using mydomain.com, what is the server added for. I have the possibility to set my lion server's host name and computer name. what are these used for. if the DNS connects to the router and the router forwards the traffic, what is the server.domainname.com needed for and why would it be set in the DNS setting? – user773578 – 2012-02-15T14:59:52.027

@user773578: Adding server.mydomain.com is not required. It's just common for computers to have a "name" which refers to the computer itself, not to any particular service within it. (For example: mail.archlinux.org can mean any currently-active mail server regardless of its name or location. On the other hand, gerolde.archlinux.org means a specific server named "gerolde", regardless of what is being run on it. The name is picked by the server's owner; can be anything, ranging from imaginative ones to generic "new-server" or "john-laptop" or "instance0074".) – user1686 – 2012-02-15T15:26:47.453

thanks. so what is the connection between naming it on the site and on the lion server app itself? Is it just for the ease of use? The DNS host doesnt use the name given in the host settings e.g server, with the same named server setting in lion server app right? – user773578 – 2012-02-15T15:50:09.237

Asked: 2012-02-15T14:01:11.837

Viewed: 578 times

Active: 2012-02-15T14:26:22.263