I’m helping a small organization separate its public website from its existing Crossbar site, and I want to make sure I’m understanding the DNS side correctly before changing anything.
Using a made-up domain:
examplehockeyclub.org
The domain is registered at Network Solutions, but the authoritative nameservers are AWS Route 53 nameservers:
ns-xxx.awsdns-xx.net
ns-xxx.awsdns-xx.org
ns-xxx.awsdns-xx.com
ns-xxx.awsdns-xx.co.uk
Crossbar confirmed that those nameservers point to them and that they manage the DNS zone.
Current setup is roughly:
examplehockeyclub.org
→ Crossbar website
members.examplehockeyclub.org
→ separate member billing system
We are building a new public-facing site on Wix and want the end result to be:
examplehockeyclub.org
→ Wix
www.examplehockeyclub.org
→ Wix
portal.examplehockeyclub.org
→ existing Crossbar site
members.examplehockeyclub.org
→ existing billing system, unchanged
Crossbar has already configured portal.examplehockeyclub.org on their side and told us to add these records:
portal NS ns1.crossbar.org
portal NS ns2.crossbar.org
portal NS ns3.crossbar.org
portal NS ns4.crossbar.org
They told us to add those at Network Solutions.
The problem is that when I log into Network Solutions, I cannot edit individual DNS records because the domain is using the AWS Route 53 nameservers managed by Crossbar. Network Solutions only gives me the option to change the authoritative nameservers for the entire domain.
Crossbar also told me that they manage the zone and can add TXT, CNAME, MX, and other DNS records when needed, but that they normally “don’t input any subdomain records” and expect the customer to add those.
This is the part I’m confused about.
Since Crossbar’s Route 53 nameservers are currently authoritative for examplehockeyclub.org, wouldn’t these:
portal NS ns1.crossbar.org
portal NS ns2.crossbar.org
portal NS ns3.crossbar.org
portal NS ns4.crossbar.org
need to be added to the existing parent examplehockeyclub.org Route 53 hosted zone?
And if Crossbar controls that hosted zone, wouldn’t they currently be the only party that can actually add those delegation records?
I definitely do not want to change the domain-level nameservers in Network Solutions just to accomplish this, since that could affect the existing website, email, billing subdomain, and other DNS records.
My main questions are:
- Am I correct that the
portal NS delegation records need to be added to the current authoritative parent zone in Route 53?
- Since Crossbar controls that zone, should Crossbar be the one adding those four records?
- Longer term, once the root domain moves to Wix, would you leave authoritative DNS with Crossbar and have them point the root/www records to Wix, or would it be better to move the main DNS zone somewhere we control and delegate only
portal.examplehockeyclub.org to Crossbar?
Main priority is avoiding downtime or accidentally breaking email, billing, or the existing site during the transition.
I inherited this setup and don’t have access to the AWS account, so I just want to make sure I’m not misunderstanding how the subdomain delegation should work.