Basic setup problem

[Bruce]

<snip>

> >> To the OP: Is your registrar hosting www.example.org and simply forwarding
> >> requests to your static IP address?
> > 
> > I think there must be a gap in my understanding of the role of
> > registrars in this process.
> > 
> > I registered my domain name with internic.ca. I went to their setup
> > pages, and after hunting around quite a bit (I find their site very
> > awkward to navigate) the only place where I could tell them to use my
> > static IP for my domain was in the option "Domain forwarding". I
> > assumed this is just how it is done (or surely they would have
> > provided another option?), though I did think it seemed a bit odd. I
> > thought I would just tell them to associate my IP address with my
> > domain name.
> > 
> > Is there some other way that my ip address and domain name should be
> > connected? If so, what should I be asking my registrar to do?
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > 
> > B.
> > 
> > 
> 
> Many registars offer to host websites and provide basic e-mail services, in
> addition to registering the domain name. My thought was that perhaps they
> are hosting the website (and DNS records) and are simply redirecting http
> queries to the static address you provided. This would explain the behavior
> you're seeing, with the domain name being replaced by the static address in
> the address bar. The original webserver is simply redirecting the request to
> the website at the static address.
> 
> What exactly is the domain name and static address? Providing those may go a
> long way towards others finding out what's wrong.

(I was sure I had answered yesterday, but the posting doesn't seem to
have made it. Apologies if this ends up being a duplicate. As I don't
have what I typed yesterday either, I also may end up contradicting
myself ;)

After hunting around a bit more, it turns out that ps' guess was
right; my registrar does not provide user-defined DNS, i.e., they
don't set up what I now know is called an IP Address (A) Record. They
had it set up so that the domain I registered with them was connected
to their IP, and the only thing I could do through them was forward
it. They suggested registering with zonedit.com, which I have now
done, so that my address and IP are working properly together:
www.leslieville.ca == 216.138.221.201

I also suggested to my registrar that they might have put on their
site a helpful hint/warning, something like 'Thank you for registering
with us: Please note that in order to use your new domain, you will
need to register it with a DNS service.' Their response was: 'What you
are doing with your domain is not common. Most of our clients host
with us, or have another hosting company. Others have there own DNS
severs. Adding a statement as you suggested would be confusing to many
of our clients.'

Is it really that unusual to register a domain and want to use it on
your own server? Or would anyone else who might want to do that, other
than me, already know what they are doing?

Thanks for your suggestions; I've learned quite a bit, 

Bruce