Got this done *BUT* I had to do two tricks to make it work right. You
need
to know about the tricks so that if I get hit by a bus, the next server
grease monkey won't be completely lost.
Trick #1.
You can change the DNS A record for a host to point to any IP address, but
you can't make it point to an IP address with subfolders and a specific
start file. When you build a web site at ix, the IP address resolves
to the
root of the site, where the root is supposed to go in the directory with the
same name as the domain that resolves to it. In our case, the web site
root
is supposed to go in /pj2t.org. You migrated it from the Kent server
in
folder ccc, so the web site root was actually in sub-site /pj2t.org/ccc.
That would have been OK except that there would be no way to access the web
is no good. Here's the trick. I added a hidden file named .htaccess
to
/pj2t.org, where .htaccess contains one line:
This is an Apache server trick that does a server side redirect from the
Trick #2.
The name servers at godaddy were registered as authoritative for domain
pj2t.org. The name servers at ix knew about pj2t.org, but the name
registrar did not post them as authoritative, thus they were ignored.
That
was a problem, because while I could change the host A record to resolve to
a new IP address, the lookup disregarded the original domain name and always
showed the hard IP address in the browser address bar. Even if you
browsed
no good, so I had to change the name servers of record at godaddy (the
registrar of pj2t.org) from godaddy's name servers, NS05.domaincontrol.org
and NS06.domaincontrol.org, to ix's name servers, NS19.IXWEBHOSTING.COM and
NS20.IXWEBHOSTING.COM. This leads to the somewhat unorthodox but 100%
legitimate situation where the sponsoring registrar for pj2t.org does not
host the name servers for pj2t.org. You can see this by doing a whois
lookup on pj2t.org.
web site. Browse to
www.pj2t.org
and you will see the new web site. How do
you tell the difference? Look for the two exclamation points after the
pink
"Consortium" in the upper left as a sign that it's the new site.
73,
Jim, W8WTS.
As part of my day gig, I pay real money for a professional grade DNS
analysis suite named DNSstuff.com that is my diagnostics lab for whether I
have my DNS records, pointers, redirects, etc. set up perfectly for the many
domains that I administer. Running DNSreport on pj2t.org yields the
following report:
ts=true&token=02c1ee858c39a08c2595ca0e1750d019.
pj2t.org is squeaky clean and almost completely compliant with all DNS
standards and practices. The first two warnings are of no consequence
to
us. The last warning is necessary because of the pj2t email reflector.
If
I set up an SFP record for pj2t.org, mail from the reflector would become
registered spam.
We are A-100% good to go.
The next logical step is to transfer registration of domain pj2t.org from
godaddy to ix. This will consolidate us to a single provider for
hosting,
name servers, and domain registration. Let us let all of the dust
settle
from the web site move. When we are back in steady state, we will
transfer
the domain. I have done many domain transfers. It is not
particularly
difficult, but it does require one to keep an eye on the process.
73,
Jim, W8WTS.