By following the procedure below, you can purchase your own domain name (usually for less than $10) and have it always pointing to your dynamically assigned cable/DSL connection. As an aside, I prefer to stay away from the larger Registrars like GoDaddy, in favour of a smaller Registrar I have used for years named IntuitiveISP. Their service is better and fast, and domains start at about $10.
These instructions are written for MyDomains.com and Dyndns.org, but they could certainly apply to other similar services.
- Purchase a domain name, and verify your account at the registrar. You will need to be able to login to your account to change the nameserver ip addresses. For our example, we will use the name myhost.com
- Login to your account at your registrar (where you bought your domain name) and locate info on changing the nameservers. You will need to access this information and change your nameservers to:
- NS1.MYDOMAIN.COM
- NS2.MYDOMAIN.COM
- NS3.MYDOMAIN.COM
- NS4.MYDOMAIN.COM
- Set up an account at http://mydomains.com (free).
- Set up an account at http://dyndns.org (free)
- Login to your account at dyndns.org and set up a dynamic hostname. It makes no difference what the name is, as long as you remember it. For our example, we will setup a host named myfwdhost.ath.cx.
- Login to your account at MyDomains.com and click the link in the left-hand column under Domain Tools labeled Manage Mydomain.com forwarding services
- Click the Add Domains button at the bottom of the page. Enter your purchased domain name (myhost.com) in the field and click the Add button.
- Access the My Domains page of your account at mydomains.com and you should see your new domain name listed. Click on the domain name, and you should be sent to the page that starts with "URL Forwarding" somewhere near the top. Set it up as follows:
- URL Forwarding - leave everything blank, except the Disable Forwarding checkbox - it should be checked.
- E-mail Forwarding - enter an address if desired. This can be a catch-all address such that any wildcard address sent to your domain will be forwarded to this address. Make sure to click the Update button if you make changes.
- DNS Management - this is the meat and potatoes and what actually does the work pointing to your domain, and finally your machine/host. Under canonical name - enter the hostname you chose at dyndns.org (myfwdhost.ath.cx) and click the Update button. If you have a mailserver, enter the hostname you chose at dyndns.org (myfwdhost.ath.cx) and 0 in the priority field and click the Update button again. You should now see something like this under DNS Management (using our example hostnames):
myhost.com CNAME myfwdhost.ath.cx myhost.com MX 0 myfwdhost.ath.cx
MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT HAVE AN "A" NAME LISTED. If you do,then you should delete it.
- At this point, you have done everything necessary to use your purchased domain name, but it may take anywhere from a few hours to a few days before your registrar changes the nameservers (step two above) and the changes propgate throughout the other internet nameservers. When you can do a whois lookup and the nameservers are listed as in step two above, then you are all set and your domain name is now active.
- Set up some facility that watches your dynamic IP (that of your modem/router) and then updates the address at dyndns.org as appropriate. There are plenty of GUI applications at MacUpdate that can do this for you, or if you feel adventurous, try the UNIX/PERL option ddclient -- ddclient Project Page at FreshMeat ... Some useful ddclient setup info

