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DHS Static Hosts

 

1. What is the Static Project?

The static project aims to provide low cost third level hostnames and domains to members of the Internet community thus saving members the bill of other registries who charge more money than most people who want domains for personal use can afford to spend.

2. Why was the Static Project created?

In late 1998 Monolith, a provider of free domain names, shut down leaving thousands of users without a domain name to use or any reasonable alternatives. Seeing the gap, several members of the Monolith management who dealt with staff and support issues decided to recreate the project under a new name and a new team of people. The static project is one of the results of this effort.

3. What is a Static Host?

A static host is simply a hostname, a relationship between a name and an IP address. By using a static host you can very easily point a name to a machine you operate without having to deal with the complexities of creating and operating a DNS server. So if all you want to do is run a web site or your own mail server then a static host is a good choice.

4. What is a Static Domain?

A static Domain is where you have control of every aspect of your name space. So if you chose to register the name domain.dhs.org, you could control every aspect under that name. By under that name I mean you could decide that www.domain.dhs.org points to one machine and ftp.domain.dhs.org to another. This is the ultimate in domain control that any service can offer. To do this you need to be familiar with how to create a zone file and configure two name servers. Some people may be able to ask their Internet Service Provider for assistance with this or you can consult some documentation such as the Linux DNS How to.

5. What is a MX or Mail Exchanger?

The MX record specifies where the mail for your hostname should go. For example if you had a hostname called hostname.dhs.org and you had it pointed to the machine alpha. But alpha was a busy server handling your web site and ftp site and you found that you needed to move the mail to another server called beta. So by setting the MX record for hostname.dhs.org to beta.isp.com you can send all the mail that would be sent to people @hostname.dhs.org to the machine beta. Hence what a MX record is used for.

6. Does a MX record need to be a particular type?

Yes. A MX record must be a fully qualified domain name. That means that the hostname must be that, a hostname such as mail.isp.com or wombat.australia.net. It cannot be an email address or an IP Address.

7. I pointed my MX record to my ISP's mail server but I never receive any mail, why?

The mail server that receives the mail for your domain must be configured to accept the mail. So if you wish to do this you must contact the operator of the server in question and ask them to configure it. Most ISP's will do this for you but they may charge for the service.

8. I only have one DNS server, can I point both my DNS severs to the same address?

While it is possible to do it DHS has configured the software we run to not allow this to occur, as it is bad practice. There are places on the Internet who will exchange DNS servers with you so you can both be secondaries for each other or you could try Granite Canyon.