DNS Confusion re “A” Records and Nameservers

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The Hostgator web hosting thread below was started by pauldsc on 2009-10-24 17:21:24:

I have various domains registered (and parked) with GoDaddy. I’m thinking of hosting websites for these domains at Hostgator (mostly for Wordpress blogs).

Before I sign up with Hostgator with a “baby” webhosting package I’m checking that I can easily achieve the following:

• I want to leave my domains hosted at GoDaddy and I want to continue to manage DNS for these domains at GoDaddy (through their Total DNS Control).

• I just want my websites/blogs hosted at Hostgator.

• My internet mail for all the domains will continue to be hosted at Tuffmail. (My MX DNS entries point to Tuffmail servers)

As a relative “newbie” in DNS terms my first stab at a “logical” solution would involve setting up relevant “A” Type records in GoDaddy’s Total DNS Control to point to a relevant webserver IP address at Hostgator. This could theoretically include “A” Type records for www, @, blank, wildcard, ftp etc. To keep my domains hosted at GoDaddy and keep DNS control at GoDaddy I would leave the Nameserver entries unchanged.

It seems life may not be that simple. Checking what others have done in an extensive Google search (results include posts and tutorials on both Hostgator and GoDaddy forums) reveals much confusion for the novice here. At first sight I’m getting what appears to be conflicting advice on the DNS changes required with 3 different solutions.

SOLUTION 1

Some posts (including posts on Hostgator forums) insist that the two published Hostgator Nameservers MUST replace the existing Nameservers in GoDaddy Total DNS Control. I’m not too keen on having the same domain and website host and I’d clearly lose some flexibility here (I accept that I’d need to go back to GoDaddy to change any DNS entries rather than use relevant CPanel functionality)..

SOLUTION 2

Some posts say that, in addition to Solution 1 above, the A record(s) (e.g. for www, @ or blank) need pointing to a static (shared) IP address at Hostgator.

SOLUTION 3

Some posts (including registered Hostgator users) say that the Nameserver entries at the domain host (in my case GoDaddy) need NOT be changed to point to Hostgator Nameservers at all, as long as the “A” records are pointed to the correct Hostgator IP address (but that this solution will sometimes only work with direct assistance and tweaking from Hostgator support staff). This would be my preferred scenario if someone will confirm it works.

My requirement is clearly not that unusual, so I’d be really grateful for any clarification on what works and what doesn’t.

Paul

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