control own domain/zonefile ?

[Kevin Darcy]

Steve K. wrote:
> Ok, say I register foo.com, and I have my own linux box with bind 
> installed, and I want to use that to control my own domain, instead of 
> using zoneedit.com or whatever DNS applet a registrar might provide. In 
> other words, I can setup a zonefile easily enough, but that only works 
> so long as one manually points nslookup or dig to said linux box.
>
> How do I make it world accessible, so to speak? I know I can change the 
> name servers for the domain via the registrar control panel? Is this all 
> there is to it? I get the feeling there is more. And what if the 
> registrar doesn't have such an applet?
>
> P.S.
> I doubt this is possible, but is there any way to manually "register" a 
> domain myself withotu going through one of those registrars? I mean, 
> most cost only $10 USD, which makes me think that it doesn't really cost 
> them anything, thus making profit on all those $10 registrations. 
> Basically, eliminate the middle man. I mean, how EXACTLY does a 
> registrar register the domain you pick via their website?
>   
You've already been given pointers to the internal protocols that the 
registrars use for this, and you've been told that the only way to deal 
with the TLDs directly is to become a registrar *yourself* (which costs 
tens if not hundreds of 1,000's of $$, not to mention proving a certain 
level of infrastructure capability) but I'd just like to take issue with 
your implication that maintaining databases, providing customer service, 
etc. "doesn't cost [...] anything". Do you understand the basis of the 
whole IT industry? Even small databases for, say, keeping track of 
address and other contact information, take some time to set up and 
maintain. Take a significantly more complex database, multiply the 
volume by thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, deal with 
the scaling issues, the availability issues, buy the hardware, the 
software, the support. I don't know exactly what industry you work in, 
but in the IT industry, none of this stuff is *free*. It costs money, 
and someone needs to pay the piper.

Not to mention, I believe ICANN mandates a certain minimum per-domain 
fee that needs to be paid between registrars and TLD operators 
*regardless* of their real costs in operating the infrastructure. The 
registrars only make money from the small difference between that fee, 
which they have to pay out, and the fee that they charge their 
customers. When you start getting down into the $10/yr range, they're 
really not making that much money at all, on a per-domain basis.

                                                                         
                           - Kevin