1and1.com to Heroku

Question

Edit: Just to be clear, actually I only want to use a different webserver, not mail server. It has to stay the same.

I've got a 1and1 plan including webspace and email service. As 1and1 doesn't support Ruby, I created my website at Heroku.

I'm now trying to point my www.example.de url to my example.herokuapp.com domain. As this is the very first time I'm doing this, please alert me if I'm missing something important.

The website uses the 1and1 mail server. I found out that, due to that fact, I can't go the cname way but need a A Record (or ANAME Record?). I already pointed heroku to the right urls and now need to set up 1and1 and a dns service.

I registered at dnsmadeeasy.com and created an ANAME Record:

Name: [left blank]
FQDN or IP: myapp.herokuapp.com
TTL: 1800 (I've got no idea what that is)

After creating that, dnsmadeeasy.com shows me several "System NS Records" which look like nameservers?

ns0.dnsmadeeasy.com

upto

ns4.dnsmadeeasy.com

As far as I understand I now have to enter the nameservers above at 1and1.

My question now is, does this disable the by default working mail server connection? If yes, how would I point back to it from dnsmadeeasy.com? Or is there a better way to do this?

Answer 1

The problem was solved by just adding a A-record at 1and1 pointing at Heroku. No nameservers or any extra service needed.

Here is a more detailed update: First you have to go to the Heroku app settings. There you can add domains for your app, like www.mydomain.com.

Then you use a service to get the IP address of the server where your Heroku app instance is running. (Just get the IP address of your instance of yourapp@herokuapp.com.) Then you add this IP address as a A-record to the 1and1 app settings. Now you have to wait for the settings to propagate over the DNS servers.

Basically you point your 1and1 app to the server on which your Heroku app runs and inform your Heroku app that there probably is some app trying to reach through to it, which has a specific address, like www.mydomain.com. That's how they find each other.

Answer 2

It seems the easy way to do it now is with Point DNS. They have a free developer plan: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/pointdns

Enter the Point DNS servers into the 1and1 Domain Manager.