[Mailman-Users] what is a virtual domain?

[Lindsay Haisley]

On Sun, 2012-11-18 at 22:41 -0800, Thufir wrote:
> On Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:56:50 -0600, Lindsay Haisley wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, 2012-11-15 at 19:38 -0800, Thufir wrote:
> >> How does a virtual domain differ from a domain?
> >
> > To add to what Mark said, technically a "virtual domain" is a domain
> > name that resolves in the domain name system to the same IP address as
> > the primary ("real") domain name for your host.  A server host can have
> > many domain names, all pointing to the same IP address, and this is
> > common for web and mail servers these days.
>
> It's not totally clear.  I suppose it's a somewhat unusual situation 
> because I'm only using my computer and not an intranet or anything along 
> those lines.  This configuration is down to postfix?

It's not unusual at all.  From the point of view of DNS, there's no
difference between a virtual domain and a real one.  They're just
different names which resolve to the same IP address.  My server has
dozens of them.

> I don't think I'm using a virtual domain but only a local domain.  (And 
> only a local domain, nothing should go out to the internet.)
> 
> I'm going with using my vanity domain:

If you're using a name which is resolved by a local name server, or from
a hosts file, you can use any names you want, and of course they don't
have to be registered.  They don't even have to comply with standard
naming conventions, although using names such as "my.mailserver.local"
may confuse some software.  I'm not sure what's meant by the term
"vanity domain" but I'm sure it'll do just fine, as long as it resolves
to a proper local IP address and if necessary there's a MX (mail
exchange) record associated with it.

-- 
Lindsay Haisley       | "Never expect the people who caused a problem
FMP Computer Services |  to solve it." - Albert Einstein
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