The
DNS Editor lets you alter your
Domain Name Server
zone file. The editor can be used to point a
subdomain to any IP address. Only those who have a thorough understanding of DNS should use this option.
For example, if you have a domain (let's call it youredomain.com) hosted through EarthLink, you probably also have a Web site hosted by EarthLink that you will see if you type www.youredomain.com into a Web browser.
Using the DNS Editor, you can create new subdomains and point them at IP addresses different than that of your Web site. www and ftp are subdomains. The principal domain is
youredomain.com
. We, by default, set up
www.youredomain.com
and
ftp.youredomain.com
.
Let's say that you have the domain joe.com. Let's also say that at work, you have a computer that is set up as an FTP server, and it's all yours--you own it and operate it. Furthermore let's assume that it's accessible on the Internet with the
IP address of 123.123.123.123.
If you wanted to, you could use the DNS Editor to point
ftp.joe.com
to that IP address. Keep in mind that this would not affect
joe.com
, or
www.joe.com
. Only ftp.joe.com would point to the new computer.
Now let's assume that instead of an FTP server, the computer at work is a little Webserver, and that you are a big Teletubbies fan with a Teletubbies web page on that server. You could create a new subdomain called "teletubbies" and point it to that IP address. That way if anyone in the world typed
http://teletubbies.joe.com
into a Web browser, it would bring up the pages on that work computer's web server.
That sounds very useful, but keep in mind that it will only work if you've obtained a static IP address other than the address you are given with your EarthLink Web Hosting Account.
Also keep in mind that if you alter your DNS zone file improperly, your Web site may cease to function correctly, and people won't be able to see your site on the Web. In the words of one of our Web Engineers:BE CAREFUL MODIFYING DNS ZONES. UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING HERE, YOU CAN SERIOUSLY DAMAGE YOUR SITE!
