Registering and Hosting Domain Names with MSLN
If you get your email or have a website through MSLN you may have dreamed of
having an email address like myself@myschool.org rather than
myself@myschool.mydistrict.k12.me.us. If you register your own
domain name it is possible to take advantage of existing MSLN hosted services
like e-mail and web space.
There are two steps to owning and using your own domain name:
- You must register (reserve) your name from a domain name registrar. A name may be reserved for a variable time period depending on the registrar.
- You must find an ISP (internet service provider) to host your domain name. You may change the host ISP in the future since you own the name. MSLN customers have the unique advantage of getting their domain name hosted by MSLN free of additional charge.
Registering a New Domain Name with MSLN:
There are a number of registrars from which you can purchase a domain. VeriSign (Network Solutions) is just one of many. The process required when someone wants to register a new domain (.org, .net) is as follows:
- If we are hosting the site it should not be a .com. We do not want to host .com domains, but most others are OK but we do want to review them just in case there is some potential problem.
-
The standards for the internet require that the whois contact for a domain be whoever is running the DNS severs for a domain. Because of this we strongly suggest that you set the tech contact for your domain to the following and not use the "private registration" that most registrars offer, usually for an extra fee. However we do not require this as a pre-requisite to providing DNS services for your domain.
When purchasing the domain, you should specify the following as name
servers:
Primary Name Server: nameo.unet.maine.edu 130.111.32.11 Secondary Name Server: namep.unet.maine.edu 130.111.130.7 - You should specify someone in your organization as administrative and
billing contacts. If you are using VeriSign (Network Solutions), you
should specify the technical contact handle as IKA. If you are not using
Verisign, the technical contact should be:
Name: Irelann Kerry Anderson Email: ika@maine.edu Address: UNET Computing Center University of Maine Orono, ME. 04469 Phone: (207) 561-3508 Fax: (207) 561-3531 - As soon as you register any number of domain names, please let us know and we will add these domain names to our system. You can either email MSLN@lists.maine.edu or call our help desk at 1-888-FOR-MSLN (1-888-367-6756).
Hosting of Previously Registered Domain Names:
If you currently have your domain name registered and hosted by another party, we would be happy to host your domain for you. To let MSLN host your domain name the current administrative contact for the domain name must make a couple of changes through your registrar as follows:
- Change the technical contact information to Irelann Kerry Anderson as noted above.
- Change the primary and secondary name servers as noted above.
The administrative and billing contacts should remain as they are. In any case they must be set to a person at your organization. Once these changes are made please contact us. At that time we will configure our servers to begin hosting the domain and you will be able to use the domain for whatever purposes you wish. If you have any questions about this process, please feel free to contact us.