Hostname question, and DNS question

[andrewfashion]

Okay, this has been confusing me the entire time through the ISPconfig setup, although I did succeed in the setup, everything seems to work great, except I am having huge issues with the SquirrelMail for some reason... I can't login, but anyways!

MY questions:

1st: The entire time through the install, you kept referring to hostname as server1.example.com, what exactly is this hostname stuff? Is it important, can it be anything we want? do the hostnames have to match everywhere? /etc/hostname, /etc/hosts, and setting up ispconfig? I honestly don't know what the hostname is?

What questions can I ask myself in choosing a hostname? Does it have to be a domain you plan on hosting? I mean, how do you choose a hostname!!?!?!

2nd: If for example I used the hostname ubuntu2.splitnetworks.com, do I have to register that nameserver somewhere and point it to my ispconfig box? For some reason I am under the impression your hostname must mean something and have to be a registered namesever? Maybe I am 100% wrong.

3rd: Since so far, I have been keeping the hostname the same through out everything in the howto (ubuntu2.splitnetworks.com), can I change the hostname in ispconfig to something else? for example: "myserver"

Someone please shine some light on this probably very dumb question that is DRIVING ME CRAZY

Thank you for helping, and I know it's prob a dumb question...

[rdv25772]

Originally Posted by andrewfashion

1st: The entire time through the install, you kept referring to hostname as server1.example.com, what exactly is this hostname stuff? Is it important, can it be anything we want? do the hostnames have to match everywhere? /etc/hostname, /etc/hosts, and setting up ispconfig? I honestly don't know what the hostname is?

What questions can I ask myself in choosing a hostname? Does it have to be a domain you plan on hosting? I mean, how do you choose a hostname!!?!?!

The hostname is to identify your server, see for example Wikipedia. So you know on which server you are. To choose a hostname it all depens what you like. You might call it www.splitnetworks.com, only this might be confusing where the server WWW. The hostname ubuntu2.splitnetworks.com is a good one. You should never use a hostname for more than one server on the same domain.

A hostname like ubuntu2.splitnetworks.com is easier to understand then an IP address like 192.168.0.1 for humans.

Originally Posted by andrewfashion

2nd: If for example I used the hostname ubuntu2.splitnetworks.com, do I have to register that nameserver somewhere and point it to my ispconfig box? For some reason I am under the impression your hostname must mean something and have to be a registered namesever? Maybe I am 100% wrong.

The hostname is like your name in a telephone dictionary. It is easier to know the name of the person you want to call then the telephone number. The hostname will be translated to an IP address by the DNS.

That a hostname needs to mean something is not nessecary. You can also give it a number. You only need to follow the rules of the namingconventions on the internet otherwise you can cause problems.

The thing you need to do, is to get your server known to the world. There are the nameservers for. When you register a domain, mostly you will be able to direct the domain name to an IP address. You can host your own nameserver as well. This is not easy.
For myself I have registered a domain name with a registar. They provide me a service to modify the DNS zone records so I can point my domain to my server.

Originally Posted by andrewfashion

3rd: Since so far, I have been keeping the hostname the same through out everything in the howto (ubuntu2.splitnetworks.com), can I change the hostname in ispconfig to something else? for example: "myserver"

Why would you do that?

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Please correct me if I am wrong.