HUGE problem with anyone new wanting to use darkcoin... and needs to be addressed.

flare said:
BTW: If you are in control of the DNS of your domain (qhor.net) you are free to join and run a dnsseeder - will strengthen the network :)
Click to expand...
can you explain this to the stupid (me?) I have a website, wonder if I can do this? It uses cpanel.
 
TanteStefana said:
can you explain this to the stupid (me?) I have a website, wonder if I can do this? It uses cpanel.
Click to expand...

Ok, will try :smile:

First for the technical background: Basically it's all about DNS (domain name service), the yellowbook of the internet if you like.

As you know a server can be adressed either via IP (eg. 23.23.186.131) or name (www.darkcoin.io) The mapping between these two is done by a special service, the DNS.

So if you use 'www.darkcoin.io' in your browser, there is a request going out to your ISPs' DNS, asking for infomation on this name. The DNS is returning a list of different DNS records from where your browser can derive - beside other things - the IP of the server hosting www.darkcoin.io website and can now get HTML content from.

Sample query for above scenario
Code: 
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.darkcoin.io.               IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.darkcoin.io.        1800    IN      A       23.23.186.131

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
darkcoin.io.            3672    IN      NS      dns5.registrar-servers.com.
[...]

Ok, i hope i didn't loose you so far. :smile:

Now comes the part where we use the DNS as 'dnsseed' for our darkcoin wallet. We have seen above that the DNS can the asked for and is returning 'A record type' entries for the hostname in question. But the DNS can not only return one entry, but many:

Code: 
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.           IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       94.156.77.169
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       95.85.12.25
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       108.61.159.81
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       108.61.198.88
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       108.81.241.74
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       115.29.10.32
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       128.199.199.215
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       128.199.214.79
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       176.31.117.210
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       184.164.184.219
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       188.226.135.128
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       188.226.233.211
[...]

So what we did here is ask your ISPs' DNS for A records for the hostname 'dnsseed.darkcoin.qa' and it returned a list of them - guess what the IPs can be used for in our wallet :wink:

Still with me? OK!

Now comes the part with the DNS-zones. You may have noticed that i wrote "your ISPs' DNS" - and now you may ask yourself: How does my ISPs' DNS know about darkcoin node IPs at all? Answer is: It doesn't. But it does know where to ask!

The DNS system is built up in a hierarchial manner, with servers delegating requests if they are not able to answer a request by themselves. Ever wondered about the dots '.' in a domain name - and terms like TLD (top level domain)?

The story goes like this: Our wallet wants to know the A record entries for dnsseed.darkcoin.qa and use it as bootstrap for blockchain download. At first it is splitting the name dnsseed.darkcoin.qa in its elements (levels)

Code: 
dnsseed  <-- n-level domain
darkcoin  <-- second level domain
qa    <-- top level domain (TLD)

DNS is working in reverse order, so at first we are asking our ISPs' DNS: "give me all A records for the 'qa' zone"

Code: 
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;qa.                            IN      A

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
qa.                     3600    IN      SOA     a.registry.qa. ofdul.at.ict.gov.qa. 2012060708 3600 7200 1816400 3600

Your ISPs' DNS answers: IDK, but ask server a.registry.qa, he knows. So we are asking this server next: "give me all A records for the 'darkcoin.qa' zone"

The DNS (a.registry.qa) answers:

Code: 
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;darkcoin.qa.                   IN      A

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
darkcoin.qa.            3600    IN      NS      t1.zoneedit.com.

Translated: IDK, but ask t1.zoneedit.com, he knows. So we will ask t1.zonedit.com "give me all A records for the 'dnsseed.darkcoin.qa' zone"

Answer:
Code: 
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.           IN      A

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    7200    IN      NS      seed1.darkcoin.qa.
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    7200    IN      NS      seed2.darkcoin.qa.
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    7200    IN      NS      seed3.darkcoin.qa.

Almost here - so one final request, now asking seed1.darkcoin.qa "give me all A records for the 'dnsseed.darkcoin.qa' zone"

Answer:
Code: 
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.           IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       54.185.33.144
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       188.134.81.196
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       54.185.33.168
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       129.194.41.128
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       47.20.207.76
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       92.222.177.173
[...]

Finally :smile: Still there? One more chapter :grin:

You may have noticed that each of the DNS above did not return A records, but NS records when they where not able to answer our request and are delegating us. That's were we can hook in for setting up our (your) own dnsseed.

So you need

- a domain which belongs to you
- a dns server that you are able to control

I don't know if your cPanel is sufficient, but i found this here http://docs.cpanel.net/twiki/bin/view/AllDocumentation/WHMDocs/EditZone

editdns.jpg

DNS_Zone_Edits_copy.png


So if you can access this tab in your cPanel, we are ready to go.

All you need is to make two entries. One NS-type, and one A-type - let me know if you have access to this panel and we can finalize this :grin:

And sorry if my elaboration was to exhaustive...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I just recently set my friend up with a DRK wallet and it worked fine. Just make sure your firewall allows it otherwise it won't get any connections.
 
flare said:
Ok, will try :smile:

First for the technical background: Basically it's all about DNS (domain name service), the yellowbook of the internet if you like.

As you know a server can be adressed either via IP (eg. 23.23.186.131) or name (www.darkcoin.io) The mapping between these two is done by a special service, the DNS.

So if you use 'www.darkcoin.io' in your browser, there is a request going out to your ISPs' DNS, asking for infomation on this name. The DNS is returning a list of different DNS records from where your browser can derive - beside other things - the IP of the server hosting www.darkcoin.io website and can now get HTML content from.

Sample query for above scenario
Code: 
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.darkcoin.io.               IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.darkcoin.io.        1800    IN      A       23.23.186.131

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
darkcoin.io.            3672    IN      NS      dns5.registrar-servers.com.
[...]

Ok, i hope i didn't loose you so far. :smile:

Now comes the part where we use the DNS as 'dnsseed' for our darkcoin wallet. We have seen above that the DNS can the asked for and is returning 'A record type' entries for the hostname in question. But the DNS can not only return one entry, but many:

Code: 
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.           IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       94.156.77.169
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       95.85.12.25
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       108.61.159.81
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       108.61.198.88
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       108.81.241.74
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       115.29.10.32
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       128.199.199.215
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       128.199.214.79
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       176.31.117.210
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       184.164.184.219
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       188.226.135.128
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       188.226.233.211
[...]

So what we did here is ask your ISPs' DNS for A records for the hostname 'dnsseed.darkcoin.qa' and it returned a list of them - guess what the IPs can be used for in our wallet :wink:

Still with me? OK!

Now comes the part with the DNS-zones. You may have noticed that i wrote "your ISPs' DNS" - and now you may ask yourself: How does my ISPs' DNS know about darkcoin node IPs at all? Answer is: It doesn't. But it does know where to ask!

The DNS system is built up in a hierarchial manner, with servers delegating requests if they are not able to answer a request by themselves. Ever wondered about the dots '.' in a domain name - and terms like TLD (top level domain)?

The story goes like this: Our wallet wants to know the A record entries for dnsseed.darkcoin.qa and use it as bootstrap for blockchain download. At first it is splitting the name dnsseed.darkcoin.qa in its elements (levels)

Code: 
dnsseed  <-- n-level domain
darkcoin  <-- second level domain
qa    <-- top level domain (TLD)

DNS is working in reverse order, so at first we are asking our ISPs' DNS: "give me all A records for the 'qa' zone"

Code: 
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;qa.                            IN      A

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
qa.                     3600    IN      SOA     a.registry.qa. ofdul.at.ict.gov.qa. 2012060708 3600 7200 1816400 3600

Your ISPs' DNS answers: IDK, but ask server a.registry.qa, he knows. So we are asking this server next: "give me all A records for the 'darkcoin.qa' zone"

The DNS (a.registry.qa) answers:

Code: 
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;darkcoin.qa.                   IN      A

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
darkcoin.qa.            3600    IN      NS      t1.zoneedit.com.

Translated: IDK, but ask t1.zoneedit.com, he knows. So we will ask t1.zonedit.com "give me all A records for the 'dnsseed.darkcoin.qa' zone"

Answer:
Code: 
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.           IN      A

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    7200    IN      NS      seed1.darkcoin.qa.
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    7200    IN      NS      seed2.darkcoin.qa.
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    7200    IN      NS      seed3.darkcoin.qa.

Almost here - so one final request, now asking seed1.darkcoin.qa "give me all A records for the 'dnsseed.darkcoin.qa' zone"

Answer:
Code: 
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.           IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       54.185.33.144
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       188.134.81.196
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       54.185.33.168
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       129.194.41.128
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       47.20.207.76
dnsseed.darkcoin.qa.    60      IN      A       92.222.177.173
[...]

Finally :smile: Still there? One more chapter :grin:

You may have noticed that each of the DNS above did not return A records, but NS records when they where not able to answer our request and are delegating us. That's were we can hook in for setting up our (your) own dnsseed.

So you need

- a domain which belongs to you
- a dns server that you are able to control

I don't know if your cPanel is sufficient, but i found this here http://docs.cpanel.net/twiki/bin/view/AllDocumentation/WHMDocs/EditZone

editdns.jpg

DNS_Zone_Edits_copy.png


So if you can access this tab in your cPanel, we are ready to go.

All you need is to make two entries. One NS-type, and one A-type - let me know if you have access to this panel and we can finalize this :grin:

And sorry if my elaboration was to exhaustive...
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'm gonna do this as soon as I have the time! Maybe later tonight?
 
Thanks again flare, I have something similar. The "types" I can choose are different though. I have "A", then "CNAME" then "TXT". Would the CNAME equate to "NS" ?
Add a Record
Name:
TTL:
Type:A CNAME TXT
Address:
CNAME:
TXT Data:
 
TanteStefana said:
Thanks again flare, I have something similar. The "types" I can choose are different though. I have "A", then "CNAME" then "TXT". Would the CNAME equate to "NS" ?
Add a Record
Name:
TTL:
Type:A CNAME TXT
Address:
CNAME:
TXT Data:
Click to expand...
No, CNAME is for aliasing a A record.

Since you are not able to create a NS type record, you can't run a dnsseeder on your domain either. Never mind.
 
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