So I just made my first actual server with windows server 2008 and i am having trouble with the domain name i have tried my fav method youtube but come up blank and advice?
So what exactly are you trying to do? Setup Active Directory?
Yes so my website will have a ex:mywebsite.com instead of my ip ex:00.000.000.0
Have you registered the domain with a domain register?
you have to have one of thos? i was under the assumption windows server did that for me sorry new to the public website thing!
Well If you are running internal domain services and ONLY internal domain services. You do not need to register one. (By internal I mean something like Active Directory).
If you are just wanting a website, you don't actually need any AD services. Just a domain name, pointing at your IP with firewall rules that allow access to the web server.
If Windows did everything and you didn't register a domain. You could technically hi-jack a website like google very easily.
A brief lesson in DNS (will help you understand the needs to register one).
So DNS (Domain Name Server) is a machine (or cluster) you query to find out where another machine is.
A URL is actually resolved backwards. For this example we will use www.teksyndicate.com as an example.
Firstly there's actually an invisible . after the com. So the full address would be www.teksyndicate.com.
So going backwards through the URL, the machine querys the . server and asks where the com server is. Once it responds, your computer then queries the com server for teksyndicate. Your computer will then know where teksyndicate.com is (and will likely cache it).
Say you go on to query www. the teksyndicate server will respond with an IP of that machine. Same as if you were asking for the minecraft server, teksyndicate would be queried for that.
If you haven't registered a domain. For example (videohubnub.com) when it comes to querying the com server. If will just go.... WHAAAAA? I don't know this, stop wasting my time.
So although you may have the domain setup on your network, if the com server (or any high tier domain server) doesn't know you exist. It won't know where to redirect.
Zanginator has hit on the head. Props for setting up 2008 server though. Best thing to have running