FAQ/dns

DNS stands for "Domain Name Service" and is how computers on the internet identify specific servers by their names. That is to say, when you type "www.google.com" into your browser, your personal computer has no idea what specific piece of hardware, of the billions on the internet, that refers to, so it looks up the numeric address in a directory. That directory is called Domain Name Service (DNS).

The way it works is that each organization (hosting company, business, school, etc) has a DNS server, which lets upstream servers know that it is the authority on the identity on the domains it represents. That means to have your domain hosted here at Cornerhost, your domain must be listed here at Cornerhosts' DNS servers (note there is more than one, because if one falls down, there'd better be a backup or nothing will be able to find your domain!). Your internet connection to an ISP also involves a DNS; depending on how you connect to the internet, you may have had to manually configure your connection by entering the IP numbers of the DNSs to use, otherwise your connection was of the sort in which when you connect, your ISP tells your computer what the IP is for the DNS. So when you tell your browser to go to Google.com, your browser asks your computer where it is, and your computer asks your ISP's DNS where Google.com is; your ISP's DNS knows because it's talked to Google.com's DNS -- or more likely to one of the main authoritative DNSs which let it know what Google's DNS said.

The Cornerhost.Net control panel allows you to make some changes to your DNS listings.

Creating a subdomain at Cornerhost

Select "add subdomain". Enter the name, and select which of your domains (if you have multiple) to put it under. Click "Create".

Having an externally hosted subdomain

You may wish to have someone else (other than Cornerhost) host a subdomain of your Cornerhost-hosted domain. (Example scenario: you are paying someone for some sort of service that Cornerhost doesn't provide.) Once you have set up your subdomain at this other entity, to make its name resolve (e.g. in URLs), do the following. You will need to know the IP number of the external host at which your subdomain lives:

Click on "add subdomain".
On the "add subdomain" page, enter the name of the subdomain you want. For subdomain of name "mysubdomain", you have two choices. If all you need to do is set up mysubdomain.mydomain.tld, then you just enter "mysubdomain". However, the system takes wildcards, so if you need to also support www.mysubdomain.mydomain.tld and ftp.mysubdomain.mydomain.tld and whatevertheheckelse.mysubdomain.mydomain.tld, you can enter "*.mysubdomain".
UNCLICK "create site for this subdomain".
Click "create".
On the result page, if successful, click the link "Advanced dns options for this domain."
At the very bottom, under "DNS settings", choose the radio button for "Use cornerhost nameservers to point to the following", and choose from the associated pulldown "IP Number" and enter your target servers' IP number.
Click "save domain". Page doesn't change. You're done.