Re: Newbie questions


Subject: Re: Newbie questions
From: Paul J. Lucas (pauljlucas@mac.com)
Date: Fri Jun 15 2001 - 17:58:13 MDT


On Fri, 15 Jun 2001, Carolyn Jean Fairman wrote:

>I wrote:
> You want a name, not an IP. Chances are, you won't want the
> name you get.
>
> So do you mean I'll get some name like
> gobbledygook@adsl-72.34.117.21.pacbell.net

        No, like adsl-72.34.117.21.pacbell.net; things to the left of
        an including @ signs aren't part of host names.

> and this will be the HOST name on my machine? I can't have it called stavia?

        You can call your machine anything you want, but you will not
        be able to get at that name from the outside.

> If I get a fixed IP from pacbell, which I'm considering, what can I do then?

        Then you need either to use PacBell's DNS services (a royal
        pain) or cough up $35/year for your own domain name through a
        registrar of your choice.

        Personally, I do the latter and I can change where my domain
        points, add subdomains, machines, MX records, yadda yadda, at
        my whim via a web interface and not have to get PacBell to do
        anything.

        In my case, my machine's actual name is not visible from the
        outside, but I don't care since I currently only have a single
        machine that is port-mapped through the firewall anyway.

        Note, however, that my reverse DNS still says something like
        adsl-XXX-XXX-XXX-XXX.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net. I'd like it to
        point back to my domain, but PacBell won't do that unless they
        provide forward DNS also. But I really don't care all that
        much.

        Note that PacBell, in their infinite wisdom, doesn't sell
        single static IPs; you have to get a bundle of 5. (Actually,
        you get 8, but 0 is the network address, 1 is the router on
        PacBell's end, and 7 is the broadcast address, so 3 IPs out of
        every 8 are wasted. Sigh.)

> Try just waiting like 2-3 minutes. The server is probably
> trying to do reverse DNS on you and it can't since you're not
> in reverse DNS. It will eventually time out.
>
> Hm, timed out as in not connected? :)

        No, "timed out" as in "reverse DNS server timed out with a
        response because there isn't one."

        - Paul



This archive was generated by hypermail 2a24 : Fri Jun 15 2001 - 17:03:43 MDT