Point your domain to your home server

Just bought a domain name and want to host it at home? When people type in www.yourdomain.com how are they going to find you if you have a dynamic IP address? If your IP was static you could just use that and point the domain there.

Mine is not, so I use www.DNSexit.com they are free and it was very easy to setup and manage my domains.... AND they have a client that runs on linux that will update them if your IP address ever changes making your setup maintain itself.

So enter your domain in www.yourdomain.com into DNS, I believe they will automatically decect what your IP is, but if you want to find out yourself you can do www.whatismyip.com and paste that in.

Now login into godaddy.com, whoever your registrar was for your site and point your DNS servers to:

ns1.dnsExit.com
ns2.dnsExit.com
ns3.dnsExit.com
ns4.dnsExit.com

The 1, 2, 3, 4, etc... is for redundancy. Two should be fine.

Sometimes it takes awhile, up to 4-6 hrs, but once it is set up and your domain is pointed to the DNSexit DNS servers then you are all set and when you type in www.yourdomain.com it will come up with your website (Only if you have ports open on your router directing them to the right machine that is running a webserver).

Now to stop you from having to login and update your IP whenever it changes which usually only happens after a power outage really (at least for me). You can down the Dynamic Client from DNSexit.

Then run (if running debian/ubuntu):
dpkg -i ipUpdate-1.6-2.deb

Trouble shooting:
To make sure your server is running get on the machine and type "localhost".

Now lets see if the world can see it, type www.whatismyip.com and paste the IP into your browser. If you see your website great! If not then your ports on your router are not forwarding to the right machine.

Next, register with DNSexit and type in your domain name after 4-6 hrs, give them time to update their system. If you see your website you are done, if not they have not updated their system yet, or your domain name is not pointed to the DNS servers. You can do a WHOIS lookup on your domain to see what the current DNS servers are on it.

Good luck, enjoy,