HG and Godaddy - addon domain/IP question

[mspmatt]

I have a Baby account at Hostgator (HG)

I have a domain registered at Godaddy and assigned as my primary domain with HG. At Godaddy, I am pointing this domain to the HG nameservers.
I also have a second domain registered at Godaddy and I have created an addon domain for it at HG. At Godaddy, I am pointing this domain to the HG nameservers. Both are working perfectly fine.

Here is my issue: For the addon domain, addondomain.com, I would like to have a subdomain like trans.addondomain.com. And, I need to point trans.addondomain.com to a different IP address for a server located in my home. The reason: I need to point to a Microsoft .Net application that is running there.

I created the subdomain in CPanel and it allows me to setup a redirect to a URL, but that won't work. At Godaddy, I can use their "Total DNS Control" option to change the @ record to point to my HG IP. I can also create a record for the subdomain trans.addondomain.com at Godaddy and point that to a different IP. I believe this would be a possible solution to my problem.

However, to use "Total DNS Control", you have to be pointing to Godaddy's nameservers. Once I change the nameservers to HG, I no longer have the ability to change the @ record, etc...

Question - So, at Godaddy, I can change the nameservers to point to HG or I can use "Total DNS Control" and point my addon domain to my HG IP address. If I do the latter, I think it would solve my problem. But, are there any disadvantages to doing so? Is there any reason that I would not want to point to my HG IP address instead of using the HG nameservers?

Finally, does anyone know of a better solution for me to try?

Thank you in advance.

[slapshotw]

I'd just use GD's total DNS controls. Point your MX servers, A Records, and CNAMEs to whatever you want on that. That's essentially what the HG nameservers do, which is tell your computer what IP you're really looking for depending on the URI and type of traffic.

[quietFinn]

Keep the nameservers pointing to HG nameservers.
Then contact HG support and ask them to add an A record for the subdomain trans.addondomain.com, pointing to the IP address.

[mspmatt]

Originally Posted by quietFinn

Keep the nameservers pointing to HG nameservers.
Then contact HG support and ask them to add an A record for the subdomain trans.addondomain.com, pointing to the IP address.

Thanks for the reply.

Is there anyway that I can do this myself with a CPanel option, or do I need to contact Support?

[mspmatt]

Originally Posted by mspmatt

Thanks for the reply.

Is there anyway that I can do this myself with a CPanel option, or do I need to contact Support?

I think I found the answer to this. You can only do it yourself if you are a reseller.

I have one additional question then:

Option A:
It sounds like I can control where I'm pointing domains using the Godaddy DNS controls, but again, that requires me to use Godaddy's nameservers.

Option B:
Or, I can use HG nameservers at Godaddy, and ask HG to modify where I'm pointing the subdomain.

Is there any advantage/disadvantage to doing one option over the other?

If my home IP address changed, it would be faster for me to edit the IP at Godaddy instead of contacting HG Support, but that is the only thing I can think of. I just want to make sure I understand the circumstances before I proceed.

Thanks again.

[slapshotw]

That's why I gave the answer of keep it with the GoDaddy system. You can edit the entire thing yourself, something you can only do as a reseller here but not a shared hosting client.

There's another big reason that I have to respectfully disagree with quietFinn about this: redundancy. If you keep all your DNS settings on the HG box, and the HG box goes down, access to your home server will be cut off even though your .Net app is still functioning normally. But, if you keep your DNS with GoDaddy, the HG box going down shouldn't affect access to your home server.

[ldearing]

Originally Posted by quietFinn

Keep the nameservers pointing to HG nameservers.
Then contact HG support and ask them to add an A record for the subdomain trans.addondomain.com, pointing to the IP address.

if you wouldn't mind giving a bit more info...why is this your prefered solution over the GoDaddy nameservers.....thanks

[quietFinn]

Originally Posted by ldearing

if you wouldn't mind giving a bit more info...why is this your prefered solution over the GoDaddy nameservers.....thanks

If you use GoDaddy nameservers then the authoratative nameservers and DNS for that domain are those in GoDaddy.

BUT, when you have a website account for that domain in HostGator THEN there is also a zone file for that domain in HostGator server, which means that there are TWO places with DNS for that domain, and BOTH are (or they are configured to be) authoritative.
In fact that works, i.e. your website will be functional, but it is not right. And you MAY run into troubles with that kind of setup.
So if you use GoDaddy nameservers you should do something with the zone file of the domain in HostGator server... but I do not know what.

[ldearing]

thanks quietFinn - i knew both GD and HG would be authoritative, but if the dns records were really being housed at GD, i was thinking that no dns requests would be handeled by HG unless the requests were sent directly from GD..... the domain pointed to an HG ip address..... esentially making HG sort of an "internal" dns zone.... just brainstorming here. im like you, i know it would technically work, but i cant put my finger on a real problem.

i myself have a couple domains hosted here (HG) with DNS housed at a third party DNS service.... pointing these domains to HG ip's.... no "known" problems.ou

by the way - congrats on your 1,000

[ezraanderson1979]

want to leave my dns pointing to godaddy servers. NS5.SECURESERVER.NET NS6.SECURESERVER.NET That’s where I registered my domains, and I want them to handle my mail. my reasoning for this is I am in china and my site keeps getting blocked, if my site gets blocked I should still have full access to incoming mail. So I am using godaddys “total DNS control” but to use it i need the name serves to point to goaddy. I want to point it to my add-on domains(www.addon-domain.com) at hg I think, I want to change the “a record” But if I change it to my static Ip xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx, it just goes to my main domain (main-domain.com) not my add-on domain How should I set this up? My option to change are A record Cnames then i will set my mx records to point to my mail (why is it squsishing my post?) it looks really bad, but i cant fix it

[ldearing]

if you have a baby shared plan or better (hatchling wont allow this) you would set up an add-on domain in your cpanel. that creates a behind the scenes dns zone for that add-0n domain. then at GD when you point the A record to the IP address it resolves to the folder your add-on domain lives in. i do this very thing with GD handling some of my domains DNS records in TotalDNS

[ezraanderson1979]

thx thats what i did.. gd "total dns" a(host) point it to my ip... and after about 12hours it started working. using baby plan>