Zoneedit.com uses a web based format to edit your zone file unlike granitecanyon.com which uses a text file.  Updates to the zone information happens within hours rather than days.

Here is the front page which lists a variety of services they provide.  We want the service that is listed first.

Click on "Free Sign Up" to create an account.

Fill out the information completely with the same information that you entered when you registered your domain name.  This way they can see if you have the authority to manage the specified domain name.  Make sure at the bottom of the page, you select in the drop down box "Free Trial - 5 zones".  I like free!

After you submit the information, you'll see:

Go grab a bite to eat, wait an hour, and then check your email.  You'll get an email with your user name, password, and other pertinent information.

Use this information to login to Zoneedit.com.  You will see this first message:

Click on "Add Zones".

Enter the domain name you want to create a zone for or use the bulk loader to enter multiple domain names.

I just want one - dslwebserver.com.  Hit "Add Zone".

You get a warning that "you must contact your registrar (the people from whom you purchased this domain name) and tell them to change its nameservers to:" two ZoneEdit.com nameservers.

This is the message that appears at the top of all pages until the ZoneEdit.com detects that you have in fact changed your registers nameserver settings.  When the changes have been detected, the message will disappear - wow, magic!

Your site won't be accessible until you go to your register and make the changes, but until then, we can still work until the zone file by clicking on "Start editing your domain before it goes live" at the bottom of the page.

This is the main page where you can customize your zone file to your liking.

The first thing we'll do is enter our IP address of your server.  Click on "IP Addresses"

In the first box, type in "www" and in the second box, your IP number.  Click "Add new IP Address".

This message gives you the choice of allowing access to your domain with or without the "www".  I click on "Yes" and unless you have some reason not to, you should too.

Next we are going to setup the mail options.  Here you have two options:

1. You can have all email directed to your server
2. You can have all email forwarded to a current working email address.

In this example, I'm going to choose option 1.

First we need to disable the email forwarding which is setup by default.

Click on "MailForward", check the "Delete" box and then click "Delete Selected".

You are prompted with an confirmation.  Click "Yes"

Now click on "Mail Servers (MX)".

Type in the name of your mail server which in my case is the same as the webserver.  Click "Add New Mail Server".

Click "Yes" at the confirmation.

Now the zone file is setup to accept web request and direct email to the proper server.

If you want to add ftp service to your site, then you can use the Alias function.

Click on "Aliases (CNAME)".

In the first box type in "ftp.yourdomain.com" and in the second box "yourdomain.com".  For me it's "ftp.dslwebserver.com" and "dslwebserver.com".  Click "Add New Alias".

Click "Yes" at the confirmation page.

Click on "View" to see the complete zone file.

Now we're done!
 

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