Hoo, Boy, you're asking for a lot here... The DNS system consists of basically 3 layers: the root DNS servers, the registrars, and the name servers.
When you request a domain name (using a browser, or mail, or anything), here's basically what happens: 1. The TCP/IP stack on your computer goes to the root DNS servers to get the name servers for your domain. 2. It connects to the name server(s) specified in the registry for your domain. 3. It queries the name server(s), which return the IP address of the domain. What the registrars do is add your domain to the Internet registry, and point your domain to whatever name servers you designate. If you have a web hosting package, you generally use their name servers. If you are pointing to your own computer, you'll need to make some other arrangement--the registry requires at least two name servers with different IP addresses for any domain. Your options: 1. If you have multiple IP addresses, set up 2 name servers and add your domain. 2. Contact your ISP to have your domain added to their name servers. 3. Use a third party domain name service, such as EasyDNS.com, DynDNS.org, tzo.com, and I'm sure there are many others. After you have your domain listed in the appropriate name server, then go back to your registrar and add the name servers to your domain. For mail, you should put what is called an MX record in your DNS settings (on the name servers). If this is unspecified, your mail will route to whatever the root server for your domain is--but it's good practice to list an MX record, even if it's the same computer. Domain Name Forwarding is probably something specific to your registrar, an option that provides limited use of their name server (probably adding an alias to your computer). I'd suggest, if you don't have a web host, going to EasyDNS.com and reading their help. They charge $20 per year for up to four name servers scattered around the world for maximum reliability, and can provide backup mail servers. I'd also suggest that you're digging into a much deeper nest of issues than you realize--when I first dug into all of this, it took nearly two months for me to figure out how the whole thing works, and get a mail server up and running reliably. In short, for your email address to be resolved, here's what you need: 1. A valid domain listed at a registrar. 2. At least 2 name servers for your domain. 3. An MX record pointing to a computer running an SMTP server. 4. An SMTP server accepting mail for your domain. 5. An account on the SMTP server for the mail account. And to access it from Squirrelmail, 6. An IMAP server that can access the incoming mail for the account. 7. Apache/PHP/ all the rest of the (easy) stuff. Cheers -- John Locke Owner, Freelock, LLC http://www.freelock.com > I just went and regestered a domin name for my personal site and have a > couple of questions. > > I have been able to get the site working only by using domain name > fowarding and pointing it at my IP address. This option does not seem to > work for email. > > I have an option to create nameservers and another option to change > nameservers. Yeah, needless to say I am lost here. Should I point the > nameserver at my ISP' DNS servers? Or at my local box? No clue really. > But what would allow my email address to be resolved? > > Thanks in advance for any help. > ------------------------------------------------------- This sf.net email is sponsored by: To learn the basics of securing your web site with SSL, click here to get a FREE TRIAL of a Thawte Server Certificate: http://www.gothawte.com/rd524.html -- squirrelmail-users mailing list List Address: [EMAIL PROTECTED] List Archives: http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_id=2995 List Info: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/squirrelmail-users
