Jon, here's a simple test. open a command prompt and ping one of your subdomains. If it works, then DNS is taking care of things for you - probably a wildcard. If it doesn't, then DNS is failing. Either way, a ping has nothing to do with Apache. I just pinged fifo.linuxworldnet.com (my blog for anyone interested), and it worked fine. I also just pinged "bob.linuxworldnet.com" - which I'm reasonably sure does not exist - and got a response. A wildcard must be in play.
I also use ZoneEdit for my domain, and pinging bob.open2space.com fails, as I would expect it to as I don't have a subdomain called bob. But, I've been on ZoneEdit for about 4 years now, so suspect it might be a new "feature" there for newer accounts. hmmm... I'd like to know how you got the wildcard thing working - would make my life a little easier. :) Shawn Gustin Johnson wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > I have done this in the past and it fails. Since I manage my own DNS I > do not have wildcards. If you let someone else manage your DNS they may > very well utilize a wildcard which would explain the behavior that you > describe. > > It does not matter if we are using apache, ssh, and ftp server, some > weird daemon, they are independent. The client (user) needs to be able > to resolve the IP from the host name. Try http://clug.echostar.ca > > > > Jon wrote: >> William Astle wrote: >>> The DNS entry is required to direct requests for the particular >>> subdomain to the IP address where Apache (or other web server software) >>> is running. Without the DNS entry, Apache never has a chance to act on >>> the request because they never get to Apache. Instead, the user's >>> browser says "host cannot be found" or something similar. >> I agree that this is how DNS works, but a DNS record for a subdomain is >> not required in my experience. >> >> I don't have a server setup that I want to muck around with right now, >> but I invite anyone running Apache2 to create a site file; tell it to >> look for subdomain.yourmaindomain.com; run a2ensite and watch your >> subdomain resolve instantly to the directory that you created. >> >> I ran 10 blogs on Linux World Net using this technique. I only had a >> single DNS entry that pointed to the main domain linuxworldnet.com. All >> 9 subdomains were simply Apache site files - no DNS entries. >> >> At a guess, I would submit that since domains are read left to right, >> DNS queries run until they fail. Once the search fails (as it would at >> the subdomain part that has no DNS entry), the main domain IP is >> provided. As long as the server that picks up at that main IP knows to >> look for subdomain X, it will handle the redirection. >> > > Instead of guessing, start here: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_system > > The Orielly bind/dns book is really quite good as well. Of course this > assumes that one really wants to know and understand DNS. > >> I should point out that I'm talking strictly web here. At not time did i >> ever attempt to create email addresses or anything for these subdomains. >> I'm not sure what the impact of not having a DNS entry in that case >> might be. > > Does not matter what service, what port, what daemon we are using. > >>> There is absolutely no possible way to create a subdomain without having >>> a DNS entry for it. >> You, sir, are wrong :) > > No he is not. There is something else other than apache at work in your > case. > In your linuxworldnet.com case, you have a wildcard set up, unless you > went to the trouble of giving my own subdomain > > host gustin.linuxworldnet.com > gustin.linuxworldnet.com has address 69.65.105.227 > > A wildcard counts as having an explicit dns entry as William pointed out. > > Still don't believe me? > > host somerandomasdfkasjdf.linuxworldnet.com > somerandomasdfkasjdf.linuxworldnet.com has address 69.65.105.227 > > So of course you can create any vhost you want in apache, everything > resolves to your web server IP. > >> Try it. Someone must be running Apapche2 and willing to spend 2 minutes >> doing this. >> > > Just to humor you I did what you asked, here is the error: > > Reloading web server config...[Sun Sep 24 11:32:46 2006] [error] (EAI > 2)Name or service not known: Cannot resolve host name clug.echostar.ca > - --- ignoring! > [Sun Sep 24 11:32:46 2006] [error] (EAI 2)Name or service not known: > Cannot resolve host name clug.echostar.ca --- ignoring! > done. > > Of course I may add a dns entry for clug.echostar.ca, and this will work. > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.4.2.2 (GNU/Linux) > Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org > > iD8DBQFFFsK4wRXgH3rKGfMRAkC+AKCoC5noiNZPsjBpyYKNfDxK3CcqTwCfZrHI > qlCTB8yahFcqJXRp/tqKpxg= > =pE/S > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > > _______________________________________________ > clug-talk mailing list > [email protected] > http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) > **Please remove these lines when replying > > _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [email protected] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) **Please remove these lines when replying
