Adding a zone

After setting up an account at ZoneEdit.com, when you log in, you are presented with a screen similar to this.

From here, if you haven't already, you can set up a new zone. A zone is a collection of DNS records for a given domain. (If you have already added the zone, then you can skip down to the editing part of the tutorial).

Ignore everything in the "Optional Advanced Bulk Loader" section. Simply type the domain you want to use with zoneedit, and press the "Add Zone" button. You will then see a page similar to this.

You will then need to update the nameservers for your domain to those specified near the top of the page. You will need to contact your domain registrar and ask them to update the nameservers for you, or use their control panel if they offer one. You can however set everything up ready so that once the changes have propagated, your domain will be ready.

Editing a zone

When you first edit the zone, you will see a screen similar to this. (You may see an error at the top asking you to update the nameserver. This will go away once the nameserver changes have been made, and propagated.)

You will need to add several A records (records which point a domain or subdomain to a given IP), so that your domain will work as it did before. Click the "IP Addresses" link, and you will get a page similar to this one.

You will need to add several of these records. The following is a list of the ones you need to add:

• blank (leave the field before your domain blank; this will be the IP used when people visit http://domain.com)
• "www"

The rest of the records depend on your host. If you are hosted on a cPanel server, you will also need the following records:

• mail
• ftp (optional, needed if you want to connect to ftp.yourdomain.com using FTP)

If you are hosted on a Plesk server, you will need the following records, in addition to the four listed above:

• webmail
• mail

To obtain the numeric IP for your server/account, either use your operating system's "ping" program, or contact you web host.

When adding the blank (non-www) record, you will see a screen like this:

Click yes, you want both domain.com and www.domain.com to have that IP. Continue adding the records, until you have added all the required ones. For each record added, you will be asked if you are sure you want it to have that IP, answer yes every time.

Once all the A records have been added, you should have a screen similar to this one:

Mail Records

You now need to enter an MX record, which will handle email for your domain. Click the "Mail Server (MX)" link.

You need to put in "mail.yourdomain.com" handles mail 1st for "yourdomain.com" (You may need to delete any MailForwarders; do so by clicking on "MailForward")

Advanced

Subdomains hosted on a different server

You can use the "IP addresses (A)" section to point a subdomain of your site to another server (ie: your own computer if you have a broadband Internet connection).

Subdomains hosted on the same server

If your host supports subdomains:

You can add subdomains which point to the same IP as you used above. Follow the same instructions as for adding the "ftp" or "mail" A records.

If your host doesn't support subdomains:

You can use ZoneEdit's "WebForward" feature. "New Domain" refers to the subdomain you wish to have (ie: "forums"), and "Destination" is where it forwards to (ie: "http://www.yourdomain.com/forums/").

"Cloaked" means that subdomain.yourdomain.com will remain in the browser address bar, whatever page your visitors are on (so they won't see "http://www.yourdomain.com/forums/a_page.php", for example).

Subdomains hosted on your PC

If you have a dynamic IP (ie: you are on a dialup Internet connection or your ISP does not offer a static IP), then you can use ZoneEdit in conjunction with a service such as no-ip.com or dyndns.org. When you have a working address in the form username.dyndns.org or username.no-ip.com, click the "Aliases (CNAME)" link.

"Alias" is the subdomain you want to have (ie "home" or "mypc"), and the "Actual Name" is the dyndns.com/no-ip.com (or whatever service you use) name (ie yourname.dyndns.org).

© 4WebHelp and SfCommand

Latest comments on this tutorial
dvdljns
I just signed up for zoneedit. I did not get a single page that looked like that. I allso never got zoneedit to work. Had to change my dns back to my domain registerer. Maybe you could update this info since I would really like to use zoneedit?
blahblahblacksheep
this ZoneEdit page for registration only pops up when i go to one website.  the one that i use everyday for my business.  but nowhere else.  why?  i close it and i can't do any work.  how did it get on my pc?
Anthony Selby
I use the free client from http://www.northrivertechnologies.com/zoneedit.htm it runs as a service and has a nice GUI and can send Email
ron
Hi There, Im hosting my Web server but apparently my minor issue is when type www.rms.com still wont show., but typing www.rms.com:6000.. do i have to use webforward instead???? pls advise me ty...
prithwis
i have been using ZoneEdit for years and never had a reason to complain until the last couple of weeks .. when both the site and the DNS servers seem to be intermittently unavailable. when it goes down neither does my domain resolve nor is the base zoneedit.com accessible. is there anyone else who is facing this problem? is there someone giving information about this ..
Jeff
I was trying to run Apache on my own server box on my broadband cable connection.  I forwarded the URL to my IP:8080 as my ISP blocks port 80 and this works fine if hosting only one website.  But Apache cannot resolve different domain names using DNS forwarding.  I had to enter an "A" record to get multiple domains on one IP to work - BUT you cannot use a non standard port - it simply won't allow you to enter a port number. Is there a way around this?
Barney
I just blogged about failover using ZoneEdit. See <a href="http://barnabyfry.wordpress.com/2007/03/22/poor-mans-failover/" target="_blank">Poor mans failover</a>. I had some downtime with ZoneEdit (both nameservers) so now I use two different nameservers.
Daniel, 4WebHelp Team Member
Thomas: I have answered your question on the forums.
Thomas
Does the email forwarding with Zone Edit require the name servers to be at Zone Edit, or is it sufficient if only  the MX-records point to their servers? (I am asking because I would prefer the name servers to be with my web host). Thomas
devil
can i make form zonedit for example i whant tu run irc server and to pint some dns like irc.mydomain.com but to go on other port directly like irc.mydomain.com:5566
laszlo
I have been using zonedit for a long time and love it. I DO have one problem, and I can't resolve it. I have 2 machines and a router. I can configure the router so for example port 9090 comes to one of my ervers. However, it seems to me that zonedit's port forwarding ONLY works for outside connections. Foe example if I enter on one machine: http://mydomain.com/ blah, blah, anyone can access it from outside my LAN, but neither of my 2 sorkstations can. I am right now with verizon DSL. Any help will be appreciated. Please drop me an email at lnadai@wlbiz.com thanks, laszlo
Arye
I have been using zoneedit.com for a long time With good results altough i didnt find a small quick dynamic dns IP client so i created my own freeware dns client just for zoneedit.com you can grab it at http://cpdns.cellphoto.net
binoy
can i create my own nameserver using zoneedit
Chamooze
Does anyone know if ZoneEdit supports pointing any subdomain a user enters to the same IP, like *.domain.com => IP? So even if the user enters adsfasdfa.domain.com he will still be sent to the IP instead of getting a "domain not found" error? Please send me a mail if you know..
wuitsung
Hi,      But changed the default port 21 to port 28 in my serv-u program. So do I need to do any forwarding or any modification in the ZoneEdit ?
Jerry Samuels
How does Zoneedit work? Does it allow the usere to create subdomains within a existing website, using the name 'subdomain.yourwebsite.com'? For that matter can you completely mask the name.that is, can you create a simple name for all that stuff, like anyname.com/?/arc...? Once the subdomain is created then is it correct to say we must add an HTML or other page to make that subdomain viable? Thank you for you help
Daniel, 4WebHelp Team Member
RocketGeek: It's working fine here right now.
RocketGeeek
ZoneEdit has been down for the last two days, anybody else seeing this?
John Littleton
Has Zoneedit Close down
Daniel, 4WebHelp Team Member
Rik: It's working fine here.
Rik
Where is Zone Edit? Has it closed down?
Jason
This is an excellent example! I always wanted to make the same tutorial, but now, i dont need to anymore! ZoneEdit.com is the best. I use it for all my domains and it's never missed a beat. Can you believe it's free? I still cant!
Sabreweb
Very helpfull, thanks!
thetribe
Excellent tutorial, I'm just about to play around with ZoneEdit myself so you've just made life that little bit easier, cheers.

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