DIY Hosting...can you host your own DNS server?

[Guest ironfistchamp]

Basically I have my own webserver but don't really want to pay for a domain name and would like to get better at all this networking business.Is it possible to set up my own DNS server. Well I have found how to do it but it isn't very detailed. After it is set up on my server do I need to do anything else.How is it that other computers on the internet get to it?Any help clearing this up would be great. ThanksIronfistchamp

[SFB]

I dont know if this is exactly what you want but it is what i use. you can get a free subdomain at http://dyndns.com then they will redirect that or something to your server. all you have to do is give them your ip of your server. it works well if you have a static ip.

[boen_robot]

If you have a specialized rooter or something, you may turn it into a DNS server, but it's settings would only apply to the people that are inside your network.What do I mean... Let's say people in your neighbourhood connect to the internet by first connecting to your rooter which happens to be an HTTP and DNS server as well. Your computer is connected to the ISP and serves them all. When they type domain.com in their browser, that request is first sent to your rooter. Besides determining speed, traffic and other stuff that might be interesting to the ISP, your DNS settings are also applyed. If there aren't any special settings, the request is forwarded to the ISP. If you have previously set that domain.com should refer to the rooter itself, that's where your users will be redirected- the rooter's HTTP server. The ISP could do the same on his server as well actually and in the same manner- their settings will be applyed only for their customers.So there is a bit more to the term top level domain. By that, domain registars not only mean domain.com instead of domain.example.com but also mean a domain that is accessable for more people then in your own network (most often that's the world, but there are some exceptions).Unless you were the owner of ICANN, the company which owns the top 6 DNS servers (one for each continent) there's no way you could deliver a certain domain to the world without paying some domain registar. They will be the one to contact ICANN which would register your domain on their DNS servers. If you'd like to be a domain register you must contact either ICANN or some existing domain register and do some kind of business talkin' which I'm not aware of.