Hello, I need a server that i can just point a domain to via name servers and it will display a landing page, with no need for me to add the domain in cPanel. Thanks, Chris
Without adding the domain name in cPanel, what will be the use of pointing DNS? The landing page will be stored on the server. How will the DNS know where the landing page is? It must be added in cPanel. I don't think it would be possible to do this. I will still confirm and reply back to you.
In this case you don't even need cPanel, just use a VPS with Apache installed and listening to the specific IP, use that IP as A record in your domain's DNS.
cPanel is just a control panel that manage various aspects of hosting, which can also be done by hand. So if you need PHP/MySQL or any thing else you can install them by hand, or hire a server admin to do it for you, may be your VPS/server provider will do that for you. It will be better if you can provide complete details of your requirements here. Details like, will each domain need it's own landing page or a common landing page will be served? Landing page will be generated dynamically or is it going to be static? Are you planning to do this on shared hosting or dedicated server?
all domains will point to the same page and using php and mysql it will change text and images depending on the domain and it doesn't matter if its shared or dedicated
You have two options here both can be achieved in cPanel based shared hosting. 1) Since you will be editing DNS records of the those domains, you are going to to it manually so better use a simple shared hosting with lots of parked domain limit (or may be without limit). 2) If you are going to use third party DNS (may be of your registrar), use a cPanel based shared hosting with dedicated IP, in this scenario as long as domain is pointing to the correct IP, default site on that IP will be served. How you are going to program your PHP/MySql based index page to detect the domain name and serve the related content is something you will have to figure out.
Most Unix VPSes will have PHP and MySQL pre-installed for you. You can use Apache to do the redirect for you without using cPanel. cPanel license is kind of expensive.
Use Kloxo and it should be easy for you. For all the other installs of MySQL and PHP, ask your host about it and if you need more help about the host, let me know via PM and I will be glad to help you