[semi-OT] configuring DNS, virtual hosting on dreamhost (?)

[Ben Scott]

On Thu, Dec 24, 2009 at 7:07 PM, Michael ODonnell
<michael.odonnell at comcast.net> wrote:
> What I don't understand is how the kid could arrange all that without
> involving me, the nominal owner of the domain in question.

  You told the registrar to delegate to the DreamHost nameservers.
You're basically relinquishing all control of the domain to DreamHost,
until and unless you change the delegation to nameservers you control.
 Your involvement -- and control -- is now nil.  Presumably you're
okay with that, or you wouldn't have done it.

> Since I was never contacted after setting the nameserver entries ...

  Why would you be?  Goodness, imagine the chaos that would ensue if
every hosting company tried to determine and contact the registrant of
every domain before letting you configure web hosting!  Yikes, indeed.

  To put it another way: I can configure a virtual hosting section in
the Apache httpd.conf on my home PC here, for a site named
"microsoft.com", just in case Microsoft someday decides to change
<www.microsoft.com> to be a CNAME with a RHS of
<dragonhawk.dnsalias.org>.  But until and unless they do so, that
virtual hosting section is going to do precisely nothing.  And I don't
think Microsoft is going to be much concerned about what I do on my
Apache server.

> ... it appears to me that those tools give him the power to mess with *any*
> such domain, as long as dreamhost.com is specified as the nameserver in
> the DNS record.  Could that be?  Yikes...

  I don't get your concern.  Why would you be delegating to DreamHost
if you *weren't* planning on using them?

  The only danger here would be if you delegated to DreamHost but *did
not* configure the domain on their system.  Of course, your domain
would now be completely non-functional, since there was no config for
it at DreamHost (a "lame delegation", in DNS lingo).  Then someone
else could come along and create the new config for your domain name,
and put whatever they want there, until you noticed and did something
about it.  But this seems like a rather contrived scenario, akin to
voicing the concern, "But if I give someone else my house keys, they
can get into my house!"

-- Ben