Newbie question about registering domains

https://www.namecoin.org/dot-bit/
barkingdoggy
Posts: 36
Joined: Thu Jul 23, 2015 7:58 pm
os: windows

Newbie question about registering domains

Post by barkingdoggy »

I've installed namecoin-qt and it is sync'd to the blockchain. I want to register one or more .bit domains, but I have no namecoins in my wallet. I assume I cannot register domains until I have some fractions of a coin in my wallet; is that right? How do I get the coin needed to register domains with namecoin-qt?

TIA

biolizard89
Posts: 2001
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2012 6:25 am
os: linux

Re: Newbie question about registering domains

Post by biolizard89 »

Hi,
barkingdoggy wrote:I've installed namecoin-qt and it is sync'd to the blockchain. I want to register one or more .bit domains, but I have no namecoins in my wallet. I assume I cannot register domains until I have some fractions of a coin in my wallet; is that right?
That is correct. The coins act as a rate-limiting mechanism to reduce spam and mass squatting (same principle as with ICANN domains).
barkingdoggy wrote:How do I get the coin needed to register domains with namecoin-qt?
You can find a list of exchanges here: https://namecoin.org/?p=exchanges. I've personally used Kraken, ShapeShift, and btc-e, although I'm unable to vouch for any particular exchange.
Jeremy Rand, Lead Namecoin Application Engineer
NameID: id/jeremy
DyName: Dynamic DNS update client for .bit domains.

Donations: BTC 1EcUWRa9H6ZuWPkF3BDj6k4k1vCgv41ab8 ; NMC NFqbaS7ReiQ9MBmsowwcDSmp4iDznjmEh5

barkingdoggy
Posts: 36
Joined: Thu Jul 23, 2015 7:58 pm
os: windows

Re: Newbie question about registering domains

Post by barkingdoggy »

Kraken does not let me deposit money based on the state where I live. I don't know what the minimum balance is but I assume it will be way more than I need to register a few domains.

biolizard89
Posts: 2001
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2012 6:25 am
os: linux

Re: Newbie question about registering domains

Post by biolizard89 »

barkingdoggy wrote:Kraken does not let me deposit money based on the state where I live. I don't know what the minimum balance is but I assume it will be way more than I need to register a few domains.
Do you already own some bitcoins? If so, ShapeShift might be a good choice -- no signup is needed and I think the minimum deposit is very low, you just send BTC and receive some NMC to your Namecoin-Qt wallet about 10 minutes later.
Jeremy Rand, Lead Namecoin Application Engineer
NameID: id/jeremy
DyName: Dynamic DNS update client for .bit domains.

Donations: BTC 1EcUWRa9H6ZuWPkF3BDj6k4k1vCgv41ab8 ; NMC NFqbaS7ReiQ9MBmsowwcDSmp4iDznjmEh5

barkingdoggy
Posts: 36
Joined: Thu Jul 23, 2015 7:58 pm
os: windows

Re: Newbie question about registering domains

Post by barkingdoggy »

I've got a SLOW miner (7 Gh/s) that's earned me about 1/2 mBTC, which is 2% of the way to a payout on Slushy's pool. I don't see a pool that mines (or pays) Namecoins outside merged mode. Should I try solo mining Namecoins with my miner? Thanks.

biolizard89
Posts: 2001
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2012 6:25 am
os: linux

Re: Newbie question about registering domains

Post by biolizard89 »

barkingdoggy wrote:I've got a SLOW miner (7 Gh/s) that's earned me about 1/2 mBTC, which is 2% of the way to a payout on Slushy's pool. I don't see a pool that mines (or pays) Namecoins outside merged mode. Should I try solo mining Namecoins with my miner? Thanks.
Namecoin's difficulty is quite high because a lot of Bitcoin miners mine Namecoin too. It's not likely to be useful to mine Namecoin without merged mining; you'll probably have more luck mining Bitcoin (maybe with NMC merge-mined) and converting the BTC to NMC with an exchange like ShapeShift.

If you're in the U.S., you could buy BTC from Coinbase for USD, and then use ShapeShift to get NMC. Coinbase's privacy policies are horrible, though, so if you're using Namecoin for something that needs privacy, Coinbase isn't really a good option.
Jeremy Rand, Lead Namecoin Application Engineer
NameID: id/jeremy
DyName: Dynamic DNS update client for .bit domains.

Donations: BTC 1EcUWRa9H6ZuWPkF3BDj6k4k1vCgv41ab8 ; NMC NFqbaS7ReiQ9MBmsowwcDSmp4iDznjmEh5

barkingdoggy
Posts: 36
Joined: Thu Jul 23, 2015 7:58 pm
os: windows

Re: Newbie question about registering domains

Post by barkingdoggy »

I got my namecoins and registered a new domain, isit.bit, using namecoin-qt. Thanks for your help.

According to dot-bit.me, Raw value: {"ip":"70.88.234.69","map":{"*":{"ip":"70.88.234.69"}}}. Using opennic dns I can resolve isit.bit, but nothing else. e.g, not www.isit.bit or what.isit.bit. Subsequently, I updated the name so the Raw value now is {"ip":"70.88.234.69","map":{"www":{"ip":"70.88.234.69"}},"map":{"what":{"ip":"70.88.234.69"}}}. Still no luck with the subdomains.

Is this a shortcoming of opennic dns or is the Raw value incorrect? Do I need to get/use NMcontrol and local DNS?

phelix
Posts: 1634
Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2011 6:59 am

Re: Newbie question about registering domains

Post by phelix »

barkingdoggy wrote:I got my namecoins and registered a new domain, isit.bit, using namecoin-qt. Thanks for your help.

According to dot-bit.me, Raw value: {"ip":"70.88.234.69","map":{"*":{"ip":"70.88.234.69"}}}. Using opennic dns I can resolve isit.bit, but nothing else. e.g, not http://www.isit.bit or what.isit.bit. Subsequently, I updated the name so the Raw value now is {"ip":"70.88.234.69","map":{"www":{"ip":"70.88.234.69"}},"map":{"what":{"ip":"70.88.234.69"}}}. Still no luck with the subdomains.

Is this a shortcoming of opennic dns or is the Raw value incorrect? Do I need to get/use NMcontrol and local DNS?
Are you sure you have your server set up properly? Can you check whether you get an IP address with "nslookup" (Windows) or something like that?
nx.bit - some namecoin stats
nf.bit - shortcut to this forum

biolizard89
Posts: 2001
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2012 6:25 am
os: linux

Re: Newbie question about registering domains

Post by biolizard89 »

barkingdoggy wrote:I got my namecoins and registered a new domain, isit.bit, using namecoin-qt. Thanks for your help.

According to dot-bit.me, Raw value: {"ip":"70.88.234.69","map":{"*":{"ip":"70.88.234.69"}}}. Using opennic dns I can resolve isit.bit, but nothing else. e.g, not http://www.isit.bit or what.isit.bit. Subsequently, I updated the name so the Raw value now is {"ip":"70.88.234.69","map":{"www":{"ip":"70.88.234.69"}},"map":{"what":{"ip":"70.88.234.69"}}}. Still no luck with the subdomains.

Is this a shortcoming of opennic dns or is the Raw value incorrect? Do I need to get/use NMcontrol and local DNS?
I don't have the current public release of NMControl handy to test with, but the first raw value you gave works fine in my private beta (which has some changes from the public release); all subdomains resolve to the IPv4 address of 70.88.234.69.

The second raw value you gave has an error; you defined the "map" field twice with different values. As a result, my NMControl private beta only sees the second subdomain ("what"), but that subdomain does have the correct IP. I have no idea what exactly the JSON spec says about duplicate keys, so I'm not sure whether the behavior I observe is exactly what all compliant implementations will do in this case.

You can also try using the "dig" command in Linux (I think Phelix's suggestion of "nslookup" on Windows is comparable) to test whether the domain resolves. Something like:

Code: Select all

dig www.isit.bit
If that returns the correct IP but it doesn't work in your web browser, then maybe your web server is misconfigured.

If the first value you used doesn't work with the resolver service you're using, then the resolver service is, in my opinion, not returning the correct results. Note that I'm not fond of third-party resolver services for anything other than occasional testing, because using such services gives them the ability to censor, hijack, or surveil some or all of your traffic.
Jeremy Rand, Lead Namecoin Application Engineer
NameID: id/jeremy
DyName: Dynamic DNS update client for .bit domains.

Donations: BTC 1EcUWRa9H6ZuWPkF3BDj6k4k1vCgv41ab8 ; NMC NFqbaS7ReiQ9MBmsowwcDSmp4iDznjmEh5

barkingdoggy
Posts: 36
Joined: Thu Jul 23, 2015 7:58 pm
os: windows

Re: Newbie question about registering domains

Post by barkingdoggy »

Opennic is now resolving what.isit.bit. Perhaps there is some sort of latency issue in Opennic's handling of .bit subdomains? I didn't do anything to the registration info. It is still bad JSON. I'll fix that.

IMO, 3-rd party DNS providers are the easiest way for "non-technical" people to access .bit domains. They don't know and/or care about security and privacy.

Thanks for your work/help!

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