TechKnack

The cost of a domain name these days is about $10 per year, depending on which registrar you work with. I’m currently using GoDaddy.com, where I can get .com, .net, and .org domains for $10/year (less, if I find a valid coupon code online ). I’ve heard that there are better registrars out there, but I haven’t been able to find them. The ones I’ve found either don’t tell you how much they charge per domain until you’re checking out, or charge too much, or, according to reviews, have horrible customer service. However, my failure to find these good registrars surely doesn’t preempt their existence. Please, feel free to share whatever domain registrar(s) you use, what you pay per domain per year, and all the good details, in the comments .

Once you have your domain bought, you need an IP to point it at. For this series, I’m going to assume you’re using your home IP, assigned by your ISP. Usually, an ISP will assign its users dynamic IPs, meaning that whenever you connect to your ISP, you get a different IP. Some ISPs offer packages with static IPs, giving you an IP that will always point at your computer. While a static IP would make hosting easier, hosting with a dynamic IP is completely doable.

After getting a domain name and an IP, you need to link them together. This is done through DNS, the Domain Name System. I gave a basic explanation of DNS in my last article, “Is your DNS cache poisoned?“. To tell the system to point your domain at your IP, you need to specify your domain’s nameservers through your registrar, and then set up those nameservers with the appropriate information. I use FreeDNS’s nameservers for my domains. FreeDNS requires registration to use their service, but there is no mandatory fee. They do have a premium membership option, but the free membership provides all of the basics for managing a domain.

If you have a dynamic IP address, you’ll need some way to alert your Dynamic DNS provider (FreeDNS being an example) when your IP has changed. FreeDNS has a list of programs that are capable of updating that service, and other Dynamic DNS services often provide their own clients. I run a linux server, and I’ve settled on using inadyn (manual page, download). Inadyn is a command-line program available for Windows and Linux (and, presumably, is capable of running on Mac); it takes a number of command line options and, once called, can run in the background as a service, updating the appropriate Dynamic DNS service when a different IP is detected.

Next article, I’ll talk about setting up a server. In the meantime, what domain registrar and DNS solutions do you use, if any?