[ebenson]

Hope someone out there can help.

I recently registered a domain name with one company (let's call them Rock) and bought hosting from another (let's call them Hardplace)

Hardplace are telling me to retain the nameservers that Rock supply with the name. Rock are telling me that I've only registered the name with them, so there are no nameservers associated with the account.

So, I'm left with neither company seemingly accepting responsibility for supplying authorised nameservers.

Does that make sense? Anyone know what the answer is?

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Rock needs to associate the domain name with the nameservers that Hardplace provides.
Johanna

[Johanna]

Rock needs to associate the domain name with the nameservers that Hardplace provides.
Johanna

[ebenson]

Thanks - I'll give them another go.

[Major Payne]

Rock needs to associate the domain name with the nameservers that Hardplace provides.
Johanna

Agree. Rock is not doing the hosting so it must be set up to point to your site at Hardplace. You should be able to go into your Control Panel and set this up yourself.

[ebenson]

My problem is that Hardplace are continuing to give me the following instructions:

"Do not instruct your domain host [ROCK] to change the name servers to Hardplace's. You should continue to use your domain host's name servers and only point the relevant A and/or MX records as required."

I've tried to do as instructed above (using the control panel), but Rock say there are no nameservers for me to use.

(Sorry about the Rock/Hardplace thing - just don't want to criticise anyone by name, in case it turns out this is all my own fault.)

[Major Payne]

Rock has no servers to point to your site since you purchased only the domain name from them. The domain name has to point to where the files are on a server.


Check the WhoIs for your domain name.

Every domain has a domain name server somewhere that handles its requests, and there is a person maintaining the records in that DNS. This is one of the most amazing parts of the DNS system -- it is completely distributed throughout the world on millions of machines administered by millions of people, yet it behaves like a single, integrated database!

See Creating a New Domain Name:

To create a domain, you fill out a form with a company that does domain name registration (examples: register.com, verio.com, networksolutions.com). They create an "under construction page," create an entry in their name server, and submit the form's data into the whois database. Twice a day, the COM, ORG, NET, etc. name servers get updates with the newest IP address information. At that point, a domain exists and people can go see the "under construction" page.

[ebenson]

What I'd like to establish is what the law actually says on this? Some sources suggest it's the registrar's responsibility to provide nameservers, others say it's the hosting company. At the moment, I'm stuck with neither accepting responsibility. I would like to be able to point to something authoritative that explicitly says it's the responsibility of one or or the other...

[Major Payne]

Well, all the registrar is doing is registering your domain name. Now it is strange they have not set it up for you like this says they are suppose to:

"To create a domain, you fill out a form with a company that does domain name registration (examples: register.com, verio.com, networksolutions.com). They create an "under construction page," create an entry in their name server, and submit the form's data into the whois database."

That all is done by the company that does the domain name registration. But any "under construction" page is not going to point to your actual site since you are having your site hosted elsewhere. The registrar would have to have their server set up to point your domain name to your hosting server where you're actual files reside.

I don't know what you signed up for at the hosting site as to what they will do for you. I would re-read the hosting package you paid for and see what they are obligated to provide you. Same for the registrar, although they may only be responsible for registering your domain name with WhoIs.

Edited by Major Payne, 02 September 2008 - 04:34 PM.

[ebenson]

Well, it's now been resolved. Hardplace ended up selling me a separate DNS package. Both parties have also agreed that they should make it clearer in their communications that nameservers don't actually come as part of the package.

So, not entirely satisfactory, but at least it's working. Thanks for your help - great forum.

[Major Payne]

I'm sure you had more with getting the problem solved then any "help" I provided here for you. Really hated to hear about having to buy an additional package. I thought they wanted to push for you to buy something else, but would only have been able to tell by looking at the hosting package you bought.

Glad your site is finally up and running. Thank you for using GTG.