10 replies to this topic

[M3ta7h3ad]

I'm interested in signing up with you after reading the lifehacker hosts comparison, but just a little concerned about one thing.  

I don't need another domain name at present and just want to use this website as a development platform as opposed to a mainstream website. I currently host my families email using google apps which my current domain registrar allows me to manage through various cname/aname redirects.

If I was to change namehosts I would lose that control.

Does provide a domain name control panel allowing me to specify various subdomains and redirects? Or alternatively can I simply run my website with a subdomain (or even a /~name folder).

Thanks.  

[M3ta7h3ad]

Meh I signed up anyway

[AndrewB]

You can continue to use your Registrar to manage your DNS if you want that level of control over your DNS records. Just point your website, et al to the IP address in your Welcome Email.

If you delegate Nameservers to ns1.asmallorange.com / ns2.asmallorange.com, then submit a ticket and we'll be happy to add any custom DNS records you require (including Google Apps).

[M3ta7h3ad]

Thanks for the response

[M3ta7h3ad]

Just got the email. The IP address shown is a shared ip (obviously) I'm guessing I just have to set up an Aname redirect from my current provider and your end will translate what user that will relate to on your server.

Failing that is there anyway of getting hold of the "folder" my website is held in on felix?

I tried the usual http://<ip address>/~<username> but that failed

[IBBoard]

http://servername.asmallorange.com/~username or http://ipaddress/~username should give you your website as a temporary access.

As for DNS records, all you need to do to use ASO for your web hosting but not mail is set up the A record to point to ASO and the MX record to point to Google. If you move your site to ASO then you can't move your actual domain registration as well (the last I read ASO can register new domains but not accept transfers), but if you've registered the domain with someone other than your old host then that shouldn't be a problem. If it is your old host who provided access to the DNS records then you can either point the nameservers to ASO and ask them to set up records, as Andrew mentioned, or set up a free account at ZoneEdit.com (which is what I do for my domains on a Virtual Private Server that need SPF records and subdomains).

[sfmga]

IF my domain is registered elsewhere
AND IF my A record points to ASO
AND IF my MX records to Google,
THEN will this interfere will my ability to mail() in a PHP script on my ASO website?

(...Or do I need to take further steps on cPanel?)

Edited by sfmga, 27 January 2009 - 07:37 PM.

[sfmga]

IF my domain is registered elsewhere
AND IF my A record points to ASO
AND IF my MX records to Google,
THEN will this interfere will my ability to mail() in a PHP script on my ASO website?

(...Or do I need to take further steps on cPanel?)

Further investigation: will I simply need to set my sendmail_path to use Google's smtp server instead of ASO's? If so, how?

[IBBoard]

AFAIK you should still be able to send emails using mail(), but if you set up SPF records then you need to make sure you list both the A record and the MX record as valid senders. Based on what I knew of emails and a quick skim of the start of the Wikipedia article it looks like MX records aren't necessarily related to sending, just receiving/transferring.

If ASO do have a restriction that forces the server to be the MX record for emails it sends then using Google's SMTP server should do it. As for how you do it, that depends on the script. Most of them just let you specify it in a config.

Edited by IBBoard, 28 January 2009 - 02:18 PM.

[keturn]

I'm doing a similar thing to the OP, I want to host some things on ASO but my primary DNS is elsewhere.  I've got things working by adding an A record pointing to the IP in my welcome email as described, but I wonder, how stable is that IP?  I've read things here about users being moved between servers and suchlike, will that change my IP?

Is there something I can CNAME to instead?

I could CNAME to machinename.asmallorange.com., and that helps if the server changes IPs, but not if my account changes servers.  NearlyFreeSpeech, for example, has all sites accessible through a mysite.nfshost.com subdomain.

[IBBoard]

If you get moved between servers then the IP address will change. There are normally only two reasons for that to occur that are not under your control, though: 1) you are causing problems with resource usage and so you get moved for the sake of the other customer (although having your site disabled may be more likely) or 2) the server has some kind of catastrophic failure (e.g. RAID failures). Both of those are quite unlikely, though.

You can't really use a cname, since IPs match servers, so it doesn't matter if you use charlotte.asmallorange.com or 75.127.98.100, you're still talking about the same server and if you get moved to another server then neither will be correct. Sub-domains of some main ASO site would be quite useful in some situations, but isn't available at the moment (unless Tim has something set up that he hasn't told us about!)