DreamHost nameservers for another site?

First, I'm sorry in advance if this has been covered already. Nothing jumped out at me in a cursory search, so I'm going to go ahead and ask.

I run a dedicated server hosted elsewhere, with its own IP. Unfortunately, the host doesn't offer nameservers. Am I able to set up my DreamHost account with the dedi's domains and have its nameserver point to that IP?

I have absolutely no idea.. but I wouldn't think so.

Until someone can give a definitive answer you might try using Panel > Domain > Add Domain then scroll down to Redirected and see if you can input your server's IP in the box (rather than a regular URL). Never know your luck!

Are you going to host the domain in DH or in dedicated server?

On the dedi. I only want to use the DreamHost nameserver for that domain.

I don't want to redirect. It's a shoddy solution, and it prevents my code from detecting what URL the user has navigated to, which is vitally important for what I'm doing.

And I have a client whose site was set up in a redirect by whatever idiot designer got her started. When I redesigned her site I had to do every link as an absolute URL!

Did you take a look at the custom DNS article in the wiki:

http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Custom_DNS

--rlparker

Nope, I hadn't seen that. Does that do what I want? My knowledge of DNS is rather patchy to say the least.

I believe it would, though that is *not* my forte, and *I* would submit a support ticket so they could help me with that (or wait till one of the DNS gurus out there wakes up and chimes in - because they usually do!).

Essentially, as I understand your issue, I believe what you need to do is to "add the domain" in the Panel -> Domains _ Manage Domains screen so that DH will generate a DNS entry for it.

This should not make any difference to how your site actually resolves *now*, as long as the nameservers for your domain are still set with your registrar pointing to your existing IP address.

Once you have "added the domain" to the DreamHost system in order to have a DNS entry in the DreamHost name servers, you can edit those DNS records as described in the wiki article to point to the correct IP address for you dedicated server, and *then* correct your nameserver information with your domain registrar to point to DreamHost's nameservers.

Where I'm am flakey is with the actual edits to the DNS records - others here understand that a lot better than I do (especially at this time fo day - 0345 hours here).

--rlparker

I was under the impression the OP didn't have a nameserver and was resolving via IP.

Yeah, I saw that, but irrespective of his *host's* lack of nameservers, if he "host's" his domain here (not actually, but tells the panel that he does just to get a DNS entry in DH's nameservers), edits his DreamHost DNS records to set the *real* IP address for where it really *IS* hosted, and then sets his domain to use DreamHost's nameservers with his registrar, shouldn't that fix him up?

--rlparker

It should.

Crazy way of going about it tho if it's a case that the server is in one location, the nameserver here, and the registrar somewhere else. If anything goes wrong they'll all be in a position to just point fingers at another party and not resolve any issues, should any crop up.

@OP: I only suggested trying the redirect approach as I assumed the site is already setup and functioning under it's IP. If a redirect is setup here any browser URL will reflect the IP upon redirection and the site should function precisely as it does already.

You have a Dreamhost hosting account and host some domains here, right?

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That's correct.

I'm planning to use DreamHost as both registrar and nameserver if I can get this to work. If a problem crops up, it'll be pretty easy to tell whose fault it is: I should be able to access the site via IP if the host is still working. My dedi is unmanaged, so I know everything that goes on there. The only time I need to get my host involved is if there are network problems.

Yes, you can just manage DNS on DH, and then set the proper IP on DH panel.
Just REMEMBER to not create the domain as HOSTED. You just want DNS.

I did that mistake, and one of my company sites was left with 3 IPs: One on DH (empty website) and two other on two mirror external servers (hosting the site).
After a bit of talk with DH great support team, they told me told me to DELETE the hosting for that domain.
Now I just manage DNS for it.

In reply to:

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I'm planning to use DreamHost as both registrar and nameserver

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Then you should have no problems at all.. you'll have full control over everything here.

Good.
1. Add the domain to the panel. Pick any of the hosting options except fully hosted (just because it'll be less confusing to not have the web directory created).
2. From your list of domains in "Domains>Manage Domains", delete hosting for your domain. There are two different delete buttons, so make sure you don't delete the domain by mistake.
3. Click on the "DNS" link on your domain in that same "Domains>Manage Domains" page on the panel.
4. Add a blank "A" record with the IP address of your dedicated server as the value. You will probably also want an "A" record for "www".
5. Wait for DNS to propagate.

Note that if you register the domain somewhere other than Dreamhost, you have to set the nameservers for the domain to the Dreamhost nameserver. You said you were going to go with Dreamhost as registrar, in which case you wouldn't need to explicitly set the nameservers.

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Awesome, that's what I was looking for. I'll try it out and post back if I have any more problems.

Thanks for the help, everyone. :)

Ah... I am late