How to setup DNS with godaddy

by Ruchira on November 4, 2010

This guide is about setting up your domain name to work with your vps or dedicated server remotely. It means without running DNS server like BIND,DJBdns locally on your server.

This guide is a part of LNMP0.5RB full web site setup guide!

You have little bit of a advantage of running your dns server remotely because it saves you some available ram on your server and allow you to easily setup failovers.So on this guide I’ll explain about setting up you domain on godaddy to work with LNMP0.5RB setup

You can use godaddy’s dns for free to point to your server. To do this you need to setup your domain to use godaddy’s DNS.

  1. Park your domain with godaddy

If you already setup your domains for use another name server ex- in this pic ns*.linode.com
godaddy dns

You will see – Total DNS
Total DNS: (Not hosted here)

So go ahead and click “Set Nameservers” and choose the option to park your domain-
godaddy dns park

Then you will have options to point your domain to your server by using godaddy DNS.

total dns

2. Add A record to your server IP

All now you need to do is add “@” as host name and add your server ip on the “” field. Also you can refer godaddy guide for get a idea about setting up A record.

To create a new A record for this zone file, please enter the Host Name, “Points To” IP Address, and TTL in the fields below; then click “OK.”

An A record – short for address record – is a record within a zone file that maps a domain name to an IP address. Thus, you can use an A record to indicate the IP address you want your domain or subdomain to point to. Also referred to as a host or host name. For example, if you want your domain “domainnamegoeshere.com” to point to your home computer (whose IP address is, for example, 172.0.0.1), the A record would list “domainnamegoeshere.com”, or “@” as the host and “172.0.0.1” as the “Points To” IP address. Entering “@” will automatically insert your domain name as the host name for the A Record. If the A Record is for the domain “www.domainnamegoeshere.com”, the host name should be entered as “www”.

Do not enter “www.domainnamegoeshere.com” as the host name for an A Record.

You can create a wildcard A record by setting the Host Name value to “*” (asterisk). The wildcard causes the server to respond with the IP address specified instead of an error if the subdomain queried does not exist within your zone file.

godaddy a record

All is done now. you can setup MX records for google apps if you like on godaddy dns panel also!

After few hours you can see that the domain is pointing to your server
ruchira sahan

Congratulations your server is ready for rolling!

I'm Ruchira Sahan and all posts on this blog are completely my thoughts and writings. I love DIY and Technology. So feel free to contact me for anything about this blog and don't forget to add a comment if this blog helped you! Thanks
Ruchira
View all posts by Ruchira

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

1 MarkL November 7, 2011 at 12:11 PM

Thanks for the guide. Btw, is there a reason why you would not use Linode’s name servers (and DNS manager in Control Panel)?

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2 lup July 30, 2012 at 3:29 PM

You did terrible job on hiding ip from pictures….

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3 Ruchira August 14, 2012 at 2:15 AM

bahahahah.

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