What is a virtual nameserver and what is the most direct and least
expensive way to set them up and assign their masked nameservers?
Do I have to buy this from a vendor or can I simply enter the request
to the icann registry myself?

Hi,

A virtual name server gives you the option to create multiple domain
names on the same servers. The result is multiple URL’s which use the
same IP address.
The difference between those virtual domains is only in the first bit
of the URL. The second bit is the same.
For example:

www.ns1.your-domain.com
www.n2.your-domain.com

Unfortunately, you can't simply enter a new virtual domain at ICANN
website. You have to do this through a reseller.
With some resellers, registering a new virtual domain will cost you
money, others provide a maximum number of extra virtual domains at no
cost. It simply depends on which web hosting provider or other ISP you
have.

Since registering a virtual domain is linked to the web hosting
provider you have, I can't give you an advice on a good reseller
through you which you'll be able to register a virtual domain. In
order for me to give you a good advice, I would need to know the
requirements of your website like web space and traffic.

You could however, create a separate and unique account with a cheap
ISP or web hosting provider just for a new domain. You could then
automatically redirect that URL to your existing website. The downside
to this option is that the original and the new URL are completely
different: they don’t have first and second bits which are the same.
For example:

www.yourdomain1.com
www.yourdomain2.com


At the following site you can register a .com (or other) domain for
just $8,95 a year:

Go Daddy Software
http://registrar.godaddy.com/default.asp

You can find the total list of resellers through which you will be
able to register a new (virtual) domain here:

"The Accredited Registrar Directory". Internic.net
http://www.internic.net/regist.html


In answering this question I have solely used my own knowledge so no
search strategy can be given.

If you need any help on finding a good server, give me some
requirements and ask for a clarification.


I hope this answer is to your satisfaction!

Kind regards,
paul_b_18-ga

---

Request for Answer Clarification by andrewthomson-ga on 22 Jun 2002 16:33 PDT

please see "tikus is correct" comment below. I already know how to
register and host a domain, i have several virtual ip's (www.name.com)
pointing around to different folders on one of my domains.  I believe
this answer confuses two issues as tikus has said.

---

Clarification of Answer by paul_b_18-ga on 23 Jun 2002 14:58 PDT

Hi,

I'm sorry you are not satisfied with my answer. You are the first
person who gives me a bad rating.
I can assure you, my knowledge about this subject is plenty but
apparently I didn't explain myself correctly. I am sorry for this.

Anyway, I will give a further and better explanation in a day or so.
In the meantime, I would like to express that I was a bit disappointed
that you gave me a bad rating before giving me a proper opportunity to
clarify my answer. It seems to me there are only a few hours maximum
between your request for clarification and your bad rating.
I am sure that I can give you a satisfying answer hence the bad rating
would not have been necessary.
Of course, customer is always king so it is up to you how you give
your ratings. I would like to ask you though, that in the future you
give a researcher a proper opportunity to give a clarification. It
makes this service that much better.

Again I'm sorry and I will give you a good answer although I am
disappointed that you gave me bad rating before giving me a proper
opportunity to respond to your clarification request.

Kind regards,
paul_b_18-ga

---

Clarification of Answer by paul_b_18-ga on 25 Jun 2002 03:13 PDT

Hi,

Virtual Nameservers are indeed ideal for resellers.
Usually, the reason why a person wants a virtual nameserver is because
he wants to hide the identity of his hosting provider when his
customers do a WHOIS query.
For example, if you are a reseller and your web hosting company is
called Hoster than normally, when a customer which buys one of your
reseller packages does a WHOIS query on _your_ domain (i.e.
yourdomain.com), he will get the following result:
ns1.hoster.com
ns2.hoster.com
Instead of:
ns1.yourdomain.com
ns2.yourdomain.com

(ns1 and ns2 are just examples, they might also be ns3 or ns4 for that
matter).
As you mentioned, a virtual nameserver can be used to further
strengthen brand image and continuity as when using a virtual
nameserver the result of the WHOIS query _will_ be:
ns1.yourdomain.com
ns2.yourdomain.com

You have to get a virtual nameserver through a vendor. There are
multiple companies on the web which offer virtual nameservers. Some
good and cheap ones are:

Oneworldhosting: http://oneworldhosting.com
HKIS: http://www.hkis.com/vdns.html
Knight Web Services: http://www.kwsonline.com/vserver/servern.htm

A problem might be that these companies will not give you the option
to buy virtual nameservers as a standalone package: they are always in
combination with reseller (hosting) packages.

It is important to know that virtual nameservers have to be registered
through the same company which you have used to register your original
domain. If you don't do this, your virtual nameserver will not appear
when a WHOIS query is done on your original domain.

Some pieces which (further) explain virtual nameservers:

"During registration for a domain name, you need 2 DNS nameservers
which translate your domain and IP address. Normally, HKIS will
provide the DNS nameservers which are HK.HKIS.COM,
INTERNATIONAL.HKIS.COM, NS1.HKIS.COM, NS2.HKIS.COM.

However, many of our resellers and agents had asked for how to hide
NS1.HKIS.COM and NS2.HKIS.COM when doing a "whois" query in the
InterNIC database or a "nslookup" query in the HKNIC database.
Therefore, upon numerous request, we lead the virtual server
technology once again by the emerge of HKIS Virtual DNS Nameserver."
http://www.hkis.com/vdns.html

"Name servers are usually identified in whois databases. For example,
if you were to search a whois database for oneworldhosting.com, you’d
find our name servers listed. They’ll be identified as
ns.oneworldhosting.com and ns2.oneworldhosting.com.

Some resellers feel it is important to have their own name servers,
also know as virtual name servers (VNS), listed in the whois in order
to keep One World Hosting anonymous to their customers. So if someone
were to search a whois database on their domain name, for example
joesdomain.com, they would find the name servers listed as
ns.joesdomain.com and ns2.joesdomain.com instead of
ns.oneworldhosting.com and ns2.oneworldhosting.com.

You'll need to register your VNS through the domain registration
company that you used to register your master domain. Every domain
registration site is different, so you'll need to follow their
directions or contact them."
http://oneworldhosting.com/vns.html


Google Search Strategy:
Keywords: +"virtual name server" OR "virtual nameserver" +register
URL: ://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF8&q=%2B%22virtual+name+server%22+OR+%22virtual+nameserver%22+%2Bregister


I hope you are satisfied. I you have any more questions, don’t
hesitate to ask!

Regards,
Paul_b_18-ga


ns1.hoster.com
ns2.hoster.com
Instead of:
ns1.yourdomain.com
ns2.yourdomain.com

As you mentioned, a virtual nameserver can be used to further
strenghten brand image and continuity as when using a virtual
nameserver the result of the WHOIS querry _will_ be:
ns1.yourdomain.com
ns2.yourdomain.com

It is important to know that virtual nameservers have to be registered
through the same company which you have used to register your original
domain. If you don't do this, your virtual nameserver will not appear
when a WHOIS querry is done on your original domain.
This is the reason why I can't give you specific advice as to what is
the cheapest or easiest way to get a Virtual Nameserver because I
suspect you already have a domain so you are therefore bound to the
company through which you registered this domain when creating virtual
nameservers.
If you do not yet have a domain name, tell me and I will give some
good options on company's which have virtual nameserver options.

Some pieces which (further) explain virtual namesevers:

"During registration for a domain name, you need 2 DNS nameservers
which translate your domain and IP address. Normally, HKIS will
provide the DNS nameservers which are HK.HKIS.COM,
INTERNATIONAL.HKIS.COM, NS1.HKIS.COM, NS2.HKIS.COM.

However, many of our resellers and agents had asked for how to hide
NS1.HKIS.COM and NS2.HKIS.COM when doing a "whois" query in the
InterNIC database or a "nslookup" query in the HKNIC database.
Therefore, upon numerous request, we lead the virtual server
technology once again by the emerge of HKIS Virtual DNS Nameserver."
http://www.hkis.com/vdns.html

"Name servers are usually identified in whois databases. For example,
if you were to search a whois database for oneworldhosting.com, you’d
find our name servers listed. They’ll be identified as
ns.oneworldhosting.com and ns2.oneworldhosting.com.

Some resellers feel it is important to have their own name servers,
also know as virtual name servers (VNS), listed in the whois in order
to keep One World Hosting anonymous to their customers. So if someone
were to search a whois database on their domain name, for example
joesdomain.com, they would find the name servers listed as
ns.joesdomain.com and ns2.joesdomain.com instead of
ns.oneworldhosting.com and ns2.oneworldhosting.com.

You'll need to register your VNS through the domain registration
company that you used to register your master domain. Every domain
registration site is different, so you'll need to follow their
directions or contact them."
http://oneworldhosting.com/vns.html

---

Clarification of Answer by paul_b_18-ga on 25 Jun 2002 03:27 PDT

I see I mixed two answers up a bit when posting this answer: the part
after closing the first bit of the clarification (from Regards,
paul_b_18-ga) which starts with:

ns1.hoster.com 
ns2.hoster.com 
Instead of: 
ns1.yourdomain.com 
ns2.yourdomain.com 

needs to be ignored, sorry.

This answer was friendly and polite and while I appreciate the effort,
and it is not incomplete, it confuses 4 distinct concepts that i am
already farmilliar with without addressing the subject of my question.

1. Virtual IP's (names pointed to shared ip #'s)
2. Name registration and hosting (really two issues)
3. Virtual Name-servers -- this is what I really want info about.   
4. Subdomains
Also the first statement about "www.ns1(???).name.com" confuses me. I
have never seen this protocol, I think it is incorrect. Here he
appears to be confusing virtual ip's with subdomains ie
www.subdomain.domain.com and mixing that up with name servers ie
ns1.name.com
Also the answerer uses the term virtual name server to mean
alternately registrar and web-host. It means niether.
He says"In answering this question I have solely used my own knowledge
so no
search strategy can be given."
 It seems to me, this was not a successful approach to "researching"
this question, perhaps a simple google search for "virtual name
server" which i did before submitting my question to google answers,
might have avoided this confusion. Since the answerer clearly knows
less about the subject than I do, I wonder if I can open the question
to other people who may be more knowledgable about this subject or
more willing to research it.  I certainly regret paying $5 for this. I
doubt that any clarification from this person will be useful.

I'm not so sure that this answer is appropriate to the question asked - it
seems to confuse "virtual nameserver" with "virtual webserver".

tikus is correct. i am seeking info on virtual nameservers ie
ns1.domainname.com
 Not virtual ip's or "virtual web servers" such as www.domainname.com
pointed to an ip number that is primarily keyed to a different name. I
am a beginning isp/name reseller interested in creating a nameserver
in the name of one of my domains for the purpose of brand name
continuity with my clients