Term Explanation: Domain Resolving; A Record; MX Record; CNAME Record; TTL

1. What is domain resolving?
   Domain resolving is actually the converting process of tying text-based domain names to the numeric IP Addresses that are necessary to locate the domain name's server on the net. For the convenience of memory, IP addresses are replaced by domain names to identify the websites. The resolving of domains is done by DNS servers.
2. What is A record?
   A (Address) record is the corresponding IP address used to specify hostname (or domain name). You can point the website servers under your appropriate domain to your own web servers and setup sub-domains for your domains at the same time.
3. What is MX record?
   MX record is the mail exchange record. You may point your mail server under your appropriate domain names to your own mail server, and manage all the mail settings by yourself. Just fill in the IP address of your server online, it will help you forward all the emails under your appropriate domain name to your own mail server.
4. What is CNAME Record?
   CNAME is canonical name record. Such record allows you to map more than one name to the same computer and it is generally applying to the computers offering web and email services on the same one. For example, there is a computer named 'host.mydomain.com' (A record) offering both www and mail services. For the users' convenience to access the websites, you can give two CNAME to the computer: www and mail. The full names of these two aliases are www.mydomain.com and mail.mydomain.com, actually both of them are pointing to host.mydomain.com.
5. What is the TTL?
   The full name of TTL is "Time To live". In short, it refers to the keeping time of DNS record at DNS server. Below is an example to explain what is TTL's value.
6. Supposing there is a domain myhost.abc.com (Actually this is a DNS record, it generally means that there is a host computer called myhost in the domain abc.com). its corresponding IP address is 1.1.1.1, and its TTL is 10 minutes. This domain or this record is kept in a DNS server called dns.abc.com.
7. Now if an user inputs the following address (or URL): http://myhost.abc.com, what will happen next?
8. The DNS server 8.8.8.8 appointed by the user (or the DNS assigned automatically by his ISP, network provider) will try to explain him myhost.abc.com, surely the DNS server 8.8.8.8 can't resolve right away since it doesn't include the records of myhost.abc.com. But through the recursive search of DNS in the world, it finally goes to the server dns.abc.com.
9. The DNS server dns.abc.com informs the DNS server 8.8.8.8 the corresponding IP address of myhost.abc.com, and then 8.8.8.8 informs the user of the result. To speed up the resolving of this record, 8.8.8.8 will keep the result 1.1.1.1 for a period of time, that is called TTL time. In this period, if the user requests to resolve myhost.abc.com again, 8.8.8.8 will tell the user directly. While if the TTL time is outdated, the whole process will be repeated.

What kinds of domain name can be supported by DNS-DIY?

Except for multilingual domain names, any domain names registered by us. can be resolved by DNS-DIY online. Such as, .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .name, .cn, .us, .cc, .tv, etc.

Why is my domain name resolving not active?

The following reasons may cause your domain resolving not to take effect.

1. The domain name's DNS is not configured to the correct DNS as requested. Please make sure that the DNS are ns1.dns-diy.com and ns2.dns-diy.com, or the IP addresses of the DNS are the same as ns1.dns-diy.com or/and ns2.dns-diy.com.
2. There're not any record for the domain name.

How to check whether the name servers have been setup as valid ones?

You can check whether the DNS has been configured correctly on the right site of DNS-DIY reseller control panel.

To change your domains' DNS, please go to your control panel of your current registrar.

Why is the DNS still showing the old one when I check it even if I have modified it with the registrar?

Our DNS check is based on the current data of the DNS root server. If you modify DNS with the registrar, it will take about 12-72 hours to be reflected on the root server.

Why can't I receive emails when the resolving has taken effect?

1. Please check whether your MX record is setup correctly;
2. Please check to see if your mail server is setup correctly.

You may try our mail forwarding service if you don't own an email server.

Why hasn't the MX record taken effect?

Most of SMTP requires MX record to be pointed to a hostname instead of IP address.

For example, if you would like to setup 218.5.1.249 as the mail server of whatis.cn, you can configure in this way,

1. Resolve mail.whatis.cn to 218.5.1.249 (please fill in mail for host column, and choose A for type column, then fill in 218.5.1.249 for data column, click 'Add' button).
2. Please configure the MX record of whatis.cn as mail (leave host column, choose MX for type column, fill in mail for data column and then click 'Add' button.)
3. Configurate your email server at 218.5.1.249 to accept emails for @whatis.cn.

If you fill in mail for host column in the second step, then all the emails sent to @mail.whatis.cn (not @whatis.cn) will be received by 218.5.1.249. This may not meet with your original intention.

Why are there some hostnames ending with '.' (a dot), while some not? What's the difference?

A host name ending with a dot means FQDN(Full Quality Domain Name); While that without a dot refers to the host name under the appropriate domain.

For example,

1. Add a CNAME record "abc" which pointed to "123" under whatis.cn, then abc.whatis.cn means resolving using 123.whatis.cn.
2. Add a CNAME record "abc" which pointed to "candidinfo.com", then abc.whatis.cn means resolving using candidinfo.com.

Why is priority always setting as '0'?

The priority value is only effective on MX record. For other types of records, the value will be disregarded.

Can I setup wildcard DNS records to my domain names?

Yes. Please fill '*' for hostname.

Get your hosting basics right

It's where your business stays and moves forward. Your web hosting is the placement of your website into the internet through a server. Is your website complex or simply simple? Effectively to be on the internet, you need a strong platform or launchpad into a hosting server. Do you have it? How strong and unbiased your web server is?

How to choose an honest web hosting service provider?

Searching in the dark? Not sure? Zeroing into a reliable hosting can be a uphill task. This is because hosting companies mostly stress on the large corporate market and overlook the sensitive small office/home office (SOHO) sector. Do their plan blend with your requirement?

Selecting a server operating system

Why selection of server is so crucial? because that's the platform (Linux or Microsoft Windows NT Server) where you and your team of web developers, designers, database administrators are going to work, most likely for a colocation setup. What's your OS going to be then? Is it in rhyme with your infrastructure? Also are you sure what suits you the most?

What's in a domain name?

Your business identity can be in crisis. What's in a name??! Everything…that's how you and your business are perceived by your target. A domain name (Web address) is your Internet identity and your unique online brand, the way your clients and web readers perceive you.Are you in line with yahoo?

Want to host the site. Get a details inside

Yes, you are the king now. They know it. But, do your hosting service providers practice what they preach? Learn the basic and advanced services you should expect from them. Know what lies behind the curves. What's the industry norms?

Pitfalls to avoid while choosing a host

There's only one way out. You've to pick the right hosting consultant from the world wide crowd. When everybody says I am fine, don't get bold out by the sheer comfort zone allure. Can you afford to ignore these common three deadliest mistakes.

Selecting A Web Host That Meets Your Needs

Are you sure, what exact services you gonna expect from your hosting provider. From server to support, from bandwidth to free trials, are you crystal clear what do you want from them? Here, we have quickly picked the crucial complexities about your hosting needs?

7 golden rules to save dollars on web host

You can lower down your cost remarkably if you've picked the right web host and if it's been providing right service to you. Find out some of the aspects which you need to know about low cost and high standard web hosting. These reasons directly attribute to your final balance sheet.

Bandwidth blues

Can your neighborhood bye lane accommodate a twenty tire logistic truck without destroying the fence and season flowers? Can you afford to travel shore-to-shore in international highways with a tiny scooty? If that's dissonance and complete mismatch, do you want this happen to your bandwidth avenue? Get a bird's eye view on bandwidth basics, we bet you wont find in any other hosting directories (due to some vested reasons best known to them).

Customers are emotional buyers!

So you have browsed the internet extensively, hopped from shop to shop, earned enough knowledge about the hosting market. You are sure about what you should look into a comapany before you finally say yeas. But stll sometimes we take decisions which are purely led by emotional quotient.

Happy Host Shopping

The majority of site owners on the Internet have a very 'close relationship' with their Web sites. They spend hours, days, weeks, months, even years working on each detail of their site. The dedication a site owner has toward their site is unsurpassed! With technology advancing daily, and options so vast, the site owner can easily become overwhelmed. Fortunately for all of us, there is a wealth of information to be found on the Internet to help guide and educate site owners with every aspect of their web presence!

Shared Hosting

• Easy to use, not only for there's no server management you need to do but also for it's cheap prices.
• Many users share one physical server and sometimes one IP address, which makes price lower, but on another hand, you can be affected more easily by other users who share the same server.
• You cannot customize system and install extra applications.

Dedicated Hosting

• As a owner of a whole server, you can change the system, install applications that you want, restart the whole system when you think it's necessary. No affect from others and much bigger disk space, whole server resource.
• Much higher prices than shared hosting
• You need to have knowledge of server management and manage the serve by yourself.

Virtual Private Server

(Shared UNIX hosting with a dedicated function)
VPS is using the technology which divide one Unix sever into several separated partitions, and each partition work like a independent Unix server.

Centralised VPS management

Easy Scalability

• Enables seamless control over your VPSs, from one partition in a single server to thousands of virtual servers across hundreds of physical servers.

Automated Set Up

• Lets you dynamically create, update and remove VPSs with shorter setup times and fewer errors.
• Includes templates for no-worry setups of new VPSs.

Robust Server Configuration

• Makes transferring an VPS from one physical server to another machine an automated and transparent procedure.
• Facilitates rapid and accurate system rebuilds in the event of disaster recovery for improved customer response and server availability.

Dynamic Resource Allocation

• Maximize server uptime and availability by letting you scale and assign resources without restarting your VPS.
• Integration with other data center application .
• Use comprehensive set of XML-based command line interfaces to access key objects.

Free Hosted Web Counters

These counters are free. It monitors the Internet traffic generated by your website through a visible icon on your homepage. Service highlight includes (may differ to schemes) hour, day, month, year, last visits, browser versions, search engine and keywords and likes.These are basic plans and not as advanced as paid tracking services.

Paid Counters

It allows to monitor and analyze customer's behavior while visiting a certain web site. The ideal solution should provide a broader view of the visit trend and simultaneously, measure all the parameters which are indispensable for a correct comprehension of the visitors' behavioural pattern. The services variably include password protection, icons and counters, visit per page, keyword search,visit frequency, time report, country of origin etc.

Free Web Counters

Addfreestats.com:
Can track 120 unique pages at one go.

Extreme-dm.com:
The free service is limited to one page per site.

Goldstats.com:
No limit on maximum pages tracked.

Hitbox.com:
Free for personal websites only.

Indextools.com:
The free service is limited to no more than 500 page views per month.

Nedstat.com:
One counter per page.

Onestat.com:
The stats provide by the free trackers are not password protected.

Sitetracker.com:
Free trial provides details over the last 7 days.

Stats4you.com:
The free version requires a small icon to be displayed on the page to be tracked and can be used for no more than 3 pages. Websitetrafficreport.com: They send you the report via email every day.

Free Web Counters

Subscription based Hosted Web Counters

Counter.com:
Basic price starts from $5. Records elementary stat. Can use customer digit.

Countermania.de:
This German site offers you multiple page tracking and refer logs.

Counterstats.com:
Offers customized digit styling.

Webhits.b-online.de:
Germany based web counter, records limited seats, which include refer logs.

i-depth.com:
Provides a number of programming services including a hit counter.

Idstat.com:
Offers you customized services.Compiles graphic statistics.

Countmania.com:
Provides client with a counter, clock, date and a visitor log which keep tracks of all the information.

Web-stat.com:
A search engine tracker with detailed statistics.

Gumball-tracker.com:
Capable of multiple pager tracking and search engine keyword analysis.

Watchwise.com:
Vast and reliable. Has a hidden tracker.

You download a file when you access a web site. This file can be an HTML web page, a GIF image, a MIDI sound file, or a combination of these. These files are downloaded to your computer and displayed in your web browser.

Data is being transferred, each time you download a file The chunk of data depends on the size of the file. If you download a web page that is 1 kilobyte (1,024 bytes), or 1 KB, in size, it means 1 KB of data has been transferred. If 100 people access that same web page, then 100 KB of data has been transferred.

Bandwidth basically is the bunch of data (files located on your domain that are viewed by visitors, email, file transfer protocols that can be send/received by your web server. You can understand how important this factor is when buying a web hosting plan or leasing a web server. Generally speaking, the more bandwidth you have, the more visitors can visit your web site.

How to determine how much bandwidth is needed

To determine how much bandwidth you need per month, you will need to have a look at your web site statistics. Visitors per month times avg. data transferred per month per user = Amount of Bandwidth used per month. Bandwidth is usually measured in MB or GB. It is not very important to get the exact number of visitors. An approximate number will be sufficient for calculating the monthly bandwidth usage.

Whereas the accuracy of the numbers in the first part of the calculation was a rather unimportant factor it plays a big role in the second part of the calculation. Finding the average files transferred can be difficult if your web site is very large, since it has to be done for every single page. To find the size, add up the size of every image on the page and the size of the page of every single page on your web site. To make life a little easier for you it is recommended to use the following loading time test tool. Once you've obtained that number add 25% - 33% to that number to give your web site room and allow it to grow.

Term Meaning Number of Bytes

• KB Kilobyte 1,024
• MB Megabyte 1,048,576
• GB Gigabyte 1,073,741,824

Bandwidth is the term used to measure the amount of data being transferred from your web space. This does not directly relate to the number of 'hits' (views) a web site receives. One single hit to a web page that is 100 KB in size uses the same amount of bandwidth as 100 hits to a 1 KB page.

You will want to be wary of any host offering a certain amount of 'hits'. Always look for a bandwidth allotment when looking for a host.

How much do I need?

Let's imagine we give three people, Jack, Martha, and Kris, each a $1,000 gift certificate to a shopping mall. They can spend that however they wish and take as many different trips to the mall as needed to spend the money.

Martha is a 'value for money' shopper. She buys a lot of small items over a period of time, making many trips to the mall.

Kris makes fewer trips than Mary, spending around $100 each time purchasing quite a few items each trip.

Jack is an impulsive spender. He buys a new stereo system and spends the whole $1,000 in one trip.

If the $1,000 is an amount of bandwidth, with the shopping mall being the web server, here's what it would boil down to. Martha's site would be a smaller web site with very few graphics, but lots of traffic (hits). Her site wouldn't use a lot of bandwidth per hit. Kris' site would have a lot of graphics and other overhead, so hers wouldn't take as many hits to use up her bandwidth. Jack's site would offer a large file for download, probably a shareware program or video file. His site would use a lot of bandwidth with a single hit.

So what does this mean

The above example shows us that there is no defined number of hits available to a given amount of bandwidth - it depends on what is being downloaded for each hit. Obviously, the larger the download, the more bandwidth is used, and thus the less hits you can have for that amount of bandwidth.

How much bandwidth a site will use depends on many factors. You have to consider what kinds of files people will be downloading, along with how many people will be downloading them.

What About Unlimited Bandwidth?

There is nothing called unlimited bandwidth.

If and when you run across a host claiming to offer Unlimited Bandwidth, you will definitely want to find out what their meaning of unlimited really is (or better yet, just turn and run). No host can really offer true unlimited bandwidth. If you could get unlimited bandwidth for around $20.00 a month or less, why isn't Yahoo or Microsoft hosted there?

You will find that there is no such thing as unlimited. Somewhere, you should find a statement describing what is meant by the term. Usually it will fall under one of three categories:

• Your site must 'qualify' for unlimited bandwidth
  A lot of hosts do this - if your site uses less than, say, 5 gigs per month, it qualifies for unlimited bandwidth. As soon as your traffic goes above that you no longer qualify for the unlimited bandwidth and are either charged for the excess or forced to move your site. In other words, it's unlimited as long as you stay within the limits.
• Restricted bandwidth
  This is where a host allows you all the bandwidth you want, providing that you do not offer mp3, zip, tar, exe, and a number of other file types that are usually larger than standard HTML and graphics. Or they may limit the amount or size of files you can have on your web space. Or they may limit the types of pages you can have, such as "no image galleries." Further, they usually require that all files stored in your space be linked only from your own pages. This means that you must use all of your files, graphics, etc, only on your web site, and cannot allow other sites to link to them (other than linking to your HTML).
• Absolute lie
  There are some hosts that simply advertise things that they cannot offer. They say things like "We won't penalize you for your success," but once your site does become too popular, you find that your account has been deactivated. A lot of these hosts will have stipulations buried in their Terms of Service that don't relate to bandwidth, but that they can easily snag anyone on. These are little backup plans they use as an excuse to deactivate an account, usually without refund, for whatever reason they want to. This way they are not known for kicking sites off for bandwidth reasons, but rather for a TOS violation. But word does travel…

Luckily the hosts that fall under # 3 usually do not last unless they change their policies before too many people become aware of their business practices.

Why do they do it?

Hosts use false advertising because other hosts do it. They figure that the majority of consumers do not understand how little bandwidth they really need, and will never know that it is not really unlimited. For the most part it is true that most people do not understand bandwidth - they see a limit at one host, and another host with no limit, and they figure better safe than sorry… Unfortunately, there are those who do use it and learn this lesson the hard way.

Statistically, most sites use less than 500 MB per month, which is 1/2 of one gig. Unless you are offering software or music or video downloads or are just very popular, you shouldn't have to worry too much about bandwidth. Just keep in mind that if a host falsely advertises unlimited bandwidth, who knows what else they are lying about or what other tricks they might pull? We recommend that if you see a host making this offer, you don't even consider hosting with them. Don't support this dirty trick, and don't risk your time and money on a host that obviously isn't trustworthy.

How can bandwidth be saved?

There are a number of ways to save bandwidth. A general advice is to keep all files on your web site as small as possible.

To reduce the size of your pages you have to remove unnecessary tags from your code. WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) programs like Dreamweaver have a clean HTML function.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is also an effective way to save bandwidth. It is designed to reduce HTML file size by attributing values for any HTML element/command at the beginning of the document.

Once that is done you have to go to the next step, optimizing all graphics and pictures. It is important to know that graphics (vectors) have to be saved as .gif files and pictures as .jpeg files. If you don't own a picture program like Fireworks or PhotoShop then you can optimize your pictures for free at NetMechanic.com.

Your dial-up visitors will thank you for optimizing all your web pages.