Using third-party services to strengthen your web hosting
Set-up Third-party DNS hosting
DNS (Domain Name System) is the air traffic controller for your website. When somebody types in yourdomain.com, it calls up DNS for directions on where to find your website. The important part for today is that DNS can provide different directions depending on the circumstances. If it’s website traffic, it can point it to your web host or, as we’ll be setting up, if it’s email traffic it can send it to a different email host.
In the goal of protecting against web server downtime, the first step is to move your DNS service away from your web hosting. We will make use of a third-party DNS service that has the single purpose of directing your traffic.
Choose your DNS host
Personally, I have enlisted the services of DNS Made Easy for a top-quality, reliable, professional solution. (I’m supposed to mention that’s an affiliate link, not that it has any effect on my strong recommendation) I use the $60/year package (allows for up to 25 domains), but you can get started at $15/year for 3 domains. I think it’s a very good price for the solid track record they have delivering this critical piece of the puzzle.
However, I promised this would not cost you a cent, so I’m also offering a free option. However, that comes with this disclaimer…
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I have not personally used this service (found it just for this tutorial) and can say nothing good or bad about it.
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They do briefly state that the free service is for non-commercial use only. I’m not sure how strict they are about that, or where they draw the line.
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They explicitly state that the free service has no uptime guarantee, which is fair.
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This same company does offer a professional service for $60/year, but if you are going to pay I would personally recommend DNS Made Easy due to my very positive experience. (and they may offer everything you need at the $15/year level)
That said, if you want to carry on with the free service you can sign-up with editDNS.net. You will have to confirm your new account via email, and then you’ll be able to access their control panel.
(I’ll try to write the following instructions so they can be used no matter which DNS service you use)
Set up your DNS records
Each one of the “air traffic controller” instructions (web traffic goes here, email goes there) is set as a record in your DNS listing. The DNS host that you just signed up with will let you create and edit these records through online forms.
Step 1: Add your first domain
editDNS.net: Adding your first domain is the first thing you see when you login. Enter mydomain.com (or whatever yours is!) in the big box and domain type is regular. Hit the Add Domains button to get started.
DNSMadeEasy.com: After logging in you’ll be at the main menu. Click Managed DNS and then under the line that says Classic Setup, click the link to Add New Domain. Fill out the form with mydomain.com (using your own, of course) and hit Continue.
When you this, do not include any www in front. Just the nice and simple mydomain.com
The website will tell you to change your domain nameservers at this point, but don’t! I am saving that step for last so we make sure everything is set up before the changes take affect.
Step 2: Add your web host A record
The first record will point website visitors to your web host. It points people to the static IP address of your web host, which we will need. To discover the current IP address for your website use this Domain-to-IP tool and enter you domain name. Copy the big blue number, as you’ll be pasting that in a second.
Go to your DNS control panel (where you just created the new domain)
EditDNS.net: When you added the domain, it will create four new records by default. The first one will look like mydomain.com A 3600 1.2.3.4 and you can edit that by double-clicking on it. Replace 1.2.3.4 with the IP address you just looked up. Also, the fourth default line will show www.mydomain.com A 3600 1.2.3.4, and I want you to delete that record entirely with the button to the right.
DNSMadeEasy.com: From the main account menu, click Managed DNS to find yourself at the list of domains… currently just one you added. To the right of the domain in question click the Records link. Near the top click Add A Record. In the form, leave Name blank (it defaults to the root mydomain.com) and enter your copied IP address in the IP box. Click Continue and Confirm.
Step 3: Add a CNAME record for sub-domains
We pointed mydomain.com to your web host, but we need to add in one more record so that your sub-domains (such as ftp.mydomain.com, mail.mydomain.com, and the most important www.mydomain.com) all go to the same place. I like to do this the easy way and create one single CNAME record that points every and any imaginable sub-domain in the right direction using a wildcard.
EditDNS.net: Using the first row of empty form fields to create a new record, put * (asterisk) in the first box, change Type to CNAME, TTL should be set at 3600, and in the last box enter mydomain.com. (including a period at the end!) Click the Add button.
DNSMadeEasy.com: Looking at your domain records, click Add CNAME Record at the top. Enter * (asterisk) for the Name and leave everything else as it is. Click Continue and Confirm.
Step 4: Add your MX records for email
MX stands for mail exchange, and these records instruct the internet where to send email @yourdomain.com. In the next section of this tutorial we will be signing up with the free version of Google Apps Standard to host our email, but we’re going to jump the gun a bit and configure our DNS while we’re working in the neighbourhood.
EditDNS.net: Add a new record with Record Name left blank (since we’re setting up mail for the whole domain), set AUX to 10, TTL to 3600 and IP/Host to aspmx.l.google.com. (again, remember the period at the end)
DNSMadeEasy.com: Click Add MX Record, and fill out the form. Name is left blank, mail server is aspmx.l.google.com. (including the last dot) and MX Level is 10. Continue and Confirm.
To guarantee email delivery you have to set up a few more back-up MX records. (the benefit of using Google’s services) So create six more MX records the very same way, but swapping in this information…
Host/Server: alt1.aspmx.l.google.com. AUX/Level: 20
Host/Server: alt2.aspmx.l.google.com. AUX/Level: 20
Host/Server: aspmx2.googlemail.com. AUX/Level: 30
Host/Server: aspmx3.googlemail.com. AUX/Level: 30
Host/Server: aspmx4.googlemail.com. AUX/Level: 30
Host/Server: aspmx5.googlemail.com. AUX/Level: 30
A little tedious, yes, but well worth it to ensure no email left behind!
Step 5: Redirect mail.yourdomain.com to Google
One final quick step and we’re done with DNS. This is just an ease-of-use thing so the you will be able to type in mail.yourdomain.com in order to access your new webmail system. Much easier to remember than the default address Google Apps will give you.
EditDNS.net: Create a new record, put mail in the first box, change Type to CNAME, TTL should be set at 3600, and in the last box enter ghs.google.com. (including a period at the end!) Click the Add button.
DNSMadeEasy.com: Looking at your domain records, click Add CNAME Record at the top. Enter mail for the Name and set Data to ghs.google.com. (including the final dot) Click Continue and Confirm.
Moving on…
Whew! That was the biggest, most time consuming part of the process. It’s all downhill from here! Now move on to the next page to sign up for and set-up Google Apps for your domain.
