subdomainless entry not working with cname

hi there guys. i apologize if this has been answered before. i searched but couldn't find anything.

i am using redhat9.0 with its bundled bind. i have recently switched all my static a records to cname records because i went with a new provider and no longer have static ips.

i used to have:

domain.com. A 1.1.1.1
www A 1.1.1.1

everything was great i could use domain.com and URL just fine. now when i try to use:

domain.com. CNAME myispsarecordname.com.
www CNAME myispsarecordname.com.

the zone file isn't even processed and no subdomains in this zone file are lookuped. if i comment out the domainless entry (i.e. domain.com. ) then it works.

is there something with a subdomainless entry and CNAMES?
is there another way i can have this entry without using a wildcard for all entries?

thanks in advance, ggenglish.

unless you provide real information, it is difficult to assess your problem. I want you to translate these two lines for me please:

domain.com. CNAME myispsarecordname.com.
www CNAME myispsarecordname.com.

thank you for answering so quickly. i've seen many other posts of yours here and it seems you are very knowledgable.

here is my lookup from your tool:



i have commented out my
silvercat.ca. entry because it won't work.

i want to be able to have URL

does this help clearify things?

thanks, ggenglish.

This is why I wanted the translation. It is exactly as I feared you had done. Not only will your IP address change, your ISP domain will also change with it. CNAME'ing to the domain will not work.

Either you manually edit your zone file every time your IP changes (which should be rare if you're online all the time), or find or create a program which will keep it up to date for you. Keep in mind that every time you change the zone you'll have to have BIND refresh the zone too.

i'm sorry silentrage i don't understand what is wrong? my rogers account that you see in the translation is always going to be the same.....its my account id. the ip associated to that name might change once a year.

i know people that have done this for years and have had the resolution work. i could see it being a problem for a dsl where the account name changes but with our cable provider our name doesn't change. its our account.

thank you for your time on this,

graeme.

I use comcast cable, and my ISP provided domain changes every time the IP changes.

But I'll just take your word for it. Your problem is not cause of the CNAME's, it is just that one domain that won't go to the website. The www domain does go to the website.

Currently you have no A record associated with the root domain. Therefor it won't resolve. You can't just add a CNAME record to it, cause then your MX and NS records will no longer work. So the solution is to add an A record for your root domain:

silvercat.ca A 24.192.128.7

That is all you can do.

ok, i think i understand it. the whole cname can't point to another cname problem. needs to point to an a record.

thank you for your time in helping me to understand this.

ggenglish