Is it possible to link a domain to my server without a DNS?

I have a local server that I'd like to link to a domain without setting it up through DNS.

Is this possible?

Sorry if I sound dumb, but what does a DNS server do exactly? Why not just link the domain directly to my IP address, even if it's static?

Solution 1:

To answer your questions:

1. You can do that, by modifying the hosts file on every computer you're going to use to access your local server from, by adding the correspondence ip <-> domain-name. It can be a perfectly valid solution if you plan to access your server from your laptop, for instance.

2. What a DNS brings is a world-wide registration of this correspondence, so that you'll be able to access your local server from any computer without having to manually change your host file.

3. I don't really understand what you mean by that, and how you would "link the domain directly to your ip". What do you have in mind, technically, to do that? I think you could get a better understanding of the problem by reading how DNS work in general.

Solution 2:

https://serverfault.com/questions/325765/what-protocols-are-used-when-a-machine-joins-to-a-windows-domain

The Windows join domain process from sysdm.cpl uses DNS then WINS to find an Active Directory domain controller and you can't change that. If the domain controller you want is using WINS, then I guess it'll work without DNS.

In researching this I found this utility though:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/offline-domain-join-djoin-step-by-step(v=ws.10).aspx

Looks like in Windows 7 there's a command called djoin.exe that can configure a system to be joined to a domain without contacting a AD domain controller first. Not terribly familiar with this tool. I'm under the impression you still have to make changes on the server end for it to be really joined.