Posts tagged dns

Moving Away from PointDNS

Reviews 3 Comments

[ Rant Warning ^_^’ ] Since i have most of my domains on ResellerClub and from my tests on DNS performance, ResellerClub DNS is like me hosting my own DNS (it will be slow and probably only on one location), its kinda the bare minimum, so I’ve used other DNS services, but ended up going with PointDNS, it had the basic features and pretty good performance, but since they got bought/sold/merged into Copper, they have been changing more and more of their basic features!

I don’t mind adding new features and asking money for them, that’s perfectly reasonable, but going back on previously free features is where i draw the line, i feel cheated, well not in the sense that i have to pay (altought now i do!), but in the “you got me here with these features” cheated (ie i would never have used PointDNS if they didn’t have these features).

Taking back features is like going back on your word and so i have lost confidence, they decided to make their e-mail redirects paid, but since i only need hosted DNS for less important domains or 3rd party hosted domains (like hosted in Blogger, Tumblr…), that feature is pretty helpful for me, so I’m moving away, I still think they have a pretty good, clean and reliable DNS service, but at this point even using ResellerClub or hosting my own is a better alternative, as of now I’m moving to NameCheap DNS!

Positives of PointDNS

  • Clean Layout
  • All the Basic Features
  • Reliable DNS Service

Negatives of PointDNS

  • Inconsistent Layout
  • Inconsistent Pricing
  • Turning Standard Features into Paid
  • Lack of Support/Manual
Update: A Couple of days later they send a e-mail cutting from the 10 free domains i used to have to just 1, gawd, no respect for customers, they give 30 days to decide… extortionist much?

New ICANN Internet Extensions?

Tech

So the freaking “we rule the web” ICANN has decided to start launching custom TLD, encase you dont know what i mean, its simple, ICANN is the organization in charge of regulating the domain name space (like  most of the domains in the internet, .com .net ….), and they decided that anyone with money can have their very own .horny or .smartypants, so we can have a im.horny … gawd that beautiful!

So why do i think this another ICANN farce!

ICANN is a Bullshit Organization – When you sell the .com and .net business to Verisign without any kind of oversight, that says everything, ICANN is a business not a organization, they dont care about the internet, they care about their bottom line, the real cost of a domain registration is negligible, its cents, but they charge everyone 10$ for any domain!

Custom TLD’s are a basic Shake-Down – The same way when new TLDs launch or new TLDs are de-regulated there is always a landgrab from thousands of companies that simply want to protect their brand/identity by having every single domain, so any new TLD will always have a couple of thousands sales guaranteed.

The are already vanity TLDs – Opennic has .geek, .free, .bbs, .parody, .oss, .indy, .fur, .ing, .micro, .dyn, .neo for free? yeah fucking free! why? cause it doesnt cost anything to add a TLD despite what ICANN keeps saying! Go to your hosts file on the computer and change google.com to 127.0.0.1 and sudenly when your write google.com on your browser you get nothing (cause you are bypassing your DNS and telling your computer that google.com is in your computer instead of the web) thats what DNS is! poiting a number to a name, that is ALL.

There are pleanty of TLD’s already – Yes and un-used, there is plenty to choose (.info .us .eu .me .biz .xxx .asia .mobi …. besides all the country domains), adding more will just make everything even more confusing, whats the point? how will it help any internet user? it wont, nowadays we are already getting stuck on the… its confusing.com? nooo its confusing.org or maybe confusing.de, cant remember the site, but with these TLD’s you will have such gems as .lol or .youtube … so its www.youtube.com or www.youtube what? where?

What am i supossed to do with this – Cause only rich people and corporations can get their very own TLD’s what is everyone supposed to do about it? Go and buy domains under these idiotic TLD’s? Fuck that shit…

Free Hosted DNS Review YAY… I think…

Reviews

So i got an e-mail from EveryDNS warning that they are moving on from the freemium model into the dyndns paid DNS (they were merged or acquired some time ago), that’s cool, i guess, i was only using them as backup DNS for Hostcult, since that domain runs pretty much all our hosting (so if it fails 90% of my sites start failing), before i was just using my domain registar DNS ( ResellerClub ) and they pretty much failed a lot on me over time (with glitches, maintenance, performance issues), so having a backup DNS was a pretty good idea, so with this e-mail from the now defunct EveryDNS, i think i have a opportunity to check my options (and in the process share them with you all).

So why not choose a professional/paid DNS? well if i don’t find a good alternative, them ill probably pay for it, but DNS is such a thing that 95% of the time im running it myself on each server, i only really need dns for off server domains or for my main hosting domain, so checking the free alternatives seems like the place to start, so i’m doing a showdown between: Hosted VS ResellerClub VS InternetBS VS NameCheap VS CloudNS VS Hurricane Electric VS PointHQ VS XName VS CloudFlare.

Added info for the tables:
Europe Avg: A 24 hour average from my computer in Europe.
Monitoring Avg: A weekly average from Pingdom DNS (From 2 locations in Europe and USA), 5min intervals.
Monitoring Spike: The worst performance for that week from Pingdom DNS (From 2 locations in Europe and USA), 5min intervals.
Uptime: If it was online or not.
Location: where the DNS server is.

Local DNS

Europe Avg Monitoring Avg Monitoring Spike Uptime Location
ns3.hostcult.com 170 129 419 100% USA, TX
ns4.hostcult.com 166.5 109 325 100% USA, TX

Notes: Running on Cpanel, Complete DNS functions.
Restrictions: None.
Comments: Well running your own DNS isn’t perfect but its simple and doable, the client when doing a DNS query will have a quicker time, connecting again to the site (since both are in the same place), also changes to DNS are done quicker, overall good if you are hosting the sites on the same place as the DNS, and not that important the reliability, since if the server is down, the DNS being up or down is irrelevant.

Branded ResellerClub DNS

Europe Avg Monitoring Avg Monitoring Spike Uptime Location
ns11.hostcult.com FAIL 112 301 100% USA, TX
ns12.hostcult.com FAIL 98 293 100% USA, TX
ns13.hostcult.com FAIL 105 283 100% USA, TX
ns14.hostcult.com FAIL 82 258 100% USA, TX

Notes: Didn’t get any response from my own tests >_<, Average Control Panel, Complete DNS functions.
Restrictions: Its only available for domains hosted there.
Comments: Humm ResellerClub is my main domain registrar, and my current main dns host, but like i said above and as you can see on the tests, ResellerClub leaves a lot to be desired, its average at best, normally not so good, it also doesn’t help that all of their servers are in the same place.

Un-Branded ResellerClub DNS

Europe Avg Monitoring Avg Monitoring Spike Uptime Location
mercury.orderbox-dns.com FAIL 93 275 100% USA, TX
venus.orderbox-dns.com FAIL 77 219 100% USA, TX
earth.orderbox-dns.com FAIL 88 212 100% USA, TX
mars.orderbox-dns.com FAIL 118 363 100% USA, TX

Notes: Didnt get any response from my own tests >_<, Average Control Panel, Complete DNS functions.
Restrictions: Its only available for domains hosted there.
Comments: Much like the Branded, the Un-Branded DNS is kinda slightly better, that makes it even more disappointing since i use the branded, ResellerClub is average at best, normally not so good, it doesn’t help as well that all their servers are in the same place.

InternetBS DNS

Europe Avg Monitoring Avg Monitoring Spike Uptime Location
ns-canada.topdns.com 175 88 245 100% Canada, QC
ns-usa.topdns.com 133.5 91 205 100% USA, NJ
ns-uk.topdns.com 109 74 176 100% USA, TX

Notes: Average control panel, Complete DNS Functions, although ns-uk has uk in the name, its actually hosted in USA, weird…
Restrictions: Its only available for domains hosted there.
Comments: Well InternetBS is also one of my domain registrars, and i can say im pleasantly surprised, even though my own test weren’t awesome, the weekly average shows that they perform pretty well, so kudos to InternetBS for a solid DNS Service.

Namecheap DNS

Europe Avg Monitoring Avg Monitoring Spike Uptime Location
freedns1.registrar-servers.com 95.5 78 200 100% FAIL
freedns2.registrar-servers.com 95.5 82 188 100% FAIL
freedns3.registrar-servers.com 178 72 187 100% Germany

Notes: Good Control Panel, Complete DNS Functions.
Restrictions: None.
Comments: My last and least used domain registrar was surprising, not only do they provide DNS services for free to anyone, but the performance was outstanding, they clearly know what they are doing, this is one of the best candidates to this point, excellent job.

CloudNS DNS

Europe Avg Monitoring Avg Monitoring Spike Uptime Location
ns1.cloudns.net 60 86 190 100% FAIL
ns2.cloudns.net 160.5 88 242 100% USA, TX
ns3.cloudns.net 112.5 72 233 100% Bulgaria

Notes: Good Control Panel, Complete DNS Functions.
Restrictions: Free for only 3 Domains.
Comments: Cloudns has a good panel and a pretty good DNS performance, even tough a bit weird, clearly their ns1 performs awesomely well, while the other 2 are a bit more weak, also hosting DNS in Bulgaria is just plain weird, you should keep DNS near major backbone transit facilities, that’s what i think.

Hurricane Electric DNS

Europe Avg Monitoring Avg Monitoring Spike Uptime Location
ns1.he.net 232.5 119 265 100% USA, CA
ns2.he.net 229 196 740 100% USA, CA
ns3.he.net 234 194 712 100% USA, CA

Notes: Average Control Panel, Complete DNS Functions.
Restrictions: None.
Comments: Hurricane is kinda horrible in everything, clearly putting all their DNS servers in their facilities in California, doesn’t help little old me half way across the world or anybody else for that matter.

PointHQ DNS (No Longer Recomended!)

Europe Avg Monitoring Avg Monitoring Spike Uptime Location
dns1.pointhq.com 63 111 242 100% FAIL
dns2.pointhq.com 133.5 110 238 100% FAIL
dns3.pointhq.com 228.5 92 210 100% FAIL
dns4.pointhq.com 63.5 96 225 100% FAIL
dns5.pointhq.com 67 73 186 100% FAIL

Notes: Good Control Panel, Complete DNS Functions.
Restrictions: Free for only 10 zones.
Comments: PointHQ has some servers closer, some server further away, still pretty good performance overall, but i wonder, normally a browser checks the first nameserver or it just chooses randomly, so you want a excellent first nameserver performance and then good performance from all the secondary ones, with PointHQ we don’t have that, if my browser checks dns3 im gonna have to wait 3 times more than if i was lucky and it choose dns4, so yeah, its ok i guess.
Update: Yeah its now fully paid! And they kinda screwed their users, so i would skip this one!

XName DNS

Europe Avg Monitoring Avg Monitoring Spike Uptime Location
ns0.xname.org 83 79 302 100% France, Paris
ns1.xname.org 69 106 336 100% France, Roubaix
ns2.xname.org 109.5 118 311 100% France, Villeneuve

Notes: Good Control Panel, Complete DNS functions.
Restrictions: None.
Comments: Xname has been around for some time, and it shows, in a good way, they have some great performance, and i find it even more remarkable because all their DNS is in France, but USA monitoring still was quick, that just shows that you don’t need to put DNS servers across the world to give good performance, good job.

CloudFlare DNS

Europe Avg Monitoring Avg Monitoring Spike Uptime Location
carl.ns.cloudflare.com 175.5 70 235 100% FAIL
sue.ns.cloudflare.com 178.5 65 173 100% FAIL
lady.ns.cloudflare.com 178 71 203 100% FAIL
todd.ns.cloudflare.com 176.5 93 245 100% FAIL

Notes: Basic Options, Lacks DNS Functions.
Restrictions: None.
Comments: What is cloudflare doing here? well cloudflare can also host you DNS, you can disable their CDN system, so basically you can use it as a pure DNS host, that’s why its here, so i have to say its weird, on my personal tests it goes from blazing fast 62 to 284 that’s why it has that average, also their system is probably a distributed one, as it doesn’t matter what dns server i point to, it will always reach the same place, probably they are leveraging their own CDN for their DNS hosting, and that’s a good thing, check the weekly average, that’s some impressive performance, with cloudns and namecheap with close results, probably cause all 3 are leveraging some sort of CDN cloud system as well, still it seems inconsistent at times and the lack of full DNS features, kinda kills it from the start, but still something to watch out for the future.


Conclusion
So what am i going to use, well most likely ill go with Namecheap and maybe Xname or Cloudns as backups, Namecheap clearly has a combination of full features and outstanding DNS performance, and also a namebrand you can trust with something as important as DNS.

As a sidenote, good job everyone, 100% UPTIME!!! YAY!!! (i include myself on this, so *pat pat* on the back) also i know this review is a bit unfair, DNS is more than these checks, and everyone can have a bad day, you just need a DDOS on one of the nameservers and bye bye average, also there are tons of providers missing, but i choose these ones according to popularity and namebrand, since that makes this choice of providers a bit more trustworthy, still i think this is a good broad view of them and good enough for me to make my choice.

List of Fast Free DNS Servers

Tech

DNS (Domain Name System) Server is used to lookout domain names to ip address, it has more purposes, but for the most part thats their function, public DNS providers are free to use DNS servers that provide that function to anyone that needs it.

So since you are online the DNS service was probably provided by you ISP as part of their system to get you online, so why would you like to change your DNS provider from your ISP to a public one?

The main reasons, in degree of importance, in my view are:

1) Security, your ISP probably uses standard off-the-shelf dns software, also DNS although important is not a priority, security tend to suffer first, especially when new tricks and flaws are found, things like dns cache poisoning (injecting dns records that are not from a authoritative dns server), also phishing or malware or other kinds of security risks can be averted by using a stronger more secure dns provider.
2) Performance, every single time you put a new domain name, that name has to be resolved on a dns server for the domain to show up, that means performance is essential, especially comparing to your ISP dns server that is extremely close to you.
3) Control and Customise, the ability to take control of your dns, of using it to make your browsing faster or check it domains are there, if you mistyped, if there is malware on the page you want to visit, or blocking kids from accessing certain kinds of sites.


So the list here follows a different pattern since im going to check the speed of it (from 3 different locations) as well as my personal preference depending on features and overall performance:

1) Google Public DNS (Like: Speed and Standards / Dislike: None)

  • 8.8.8.8
  • 8.8.4.4

2) OpenDNS (Like: Speed and Security / Dislike: DNS Hijacking)

  • 208.67.222.222
  • 208.67.220.220
  • 208.67.222.220
  • 208.67.220.222

5) Level 3 (Like: Speed and Standards / Dislike: None)

  • 4.2.2.1
  • 4.2.2.2
  • 4.2.2.3
  • 4.2.2.4
  • 4.2.2.5
  • 4.2.2.6

4) Comodo Secure DNS (Like: Security / Dislike: None)

  • 156.154.70.22
  • 156.154.71.22

Notes:
1) the checks were made from California (USA), London (UK) and Faro (Portugal) using namebench http://code.google.com/p/namebench/.
2) i could have made a huge list, but i prefer to provide the cleanest most objective one, than a random copy paste list, so i removed lots of other good public dns providers, just cause at the time they were giving me errors and not performing normally, like scrubit dns, cisco or norton safe dns.
3) opendns would have won (just about the same performance as google public dns), but i personally prefer a dns that gives an error when it fails and doesn’t hijack or disrupt sessions by pushing their search when a server is having a glitch or dns issues, but that’s just me.

How to Change Hosts Files

Tech

The hosts file is a computer file used to store information on where to find a node on a computer network. This file maps hostnames to IP addresses (like 10.0.0.1 points to www.google.com). The hosts file is used as a supplement to (or a replacement of) the Domain Name System (DNS) on networks of varying sizes. Unlike DNS, the hosts file is under the control of the local computer’s administrator (as in you). The hosts file has no extension and can be edited using most text editors.

The hosts file is loaded into memory (cache) at startup, then Windows checks the Hosts file before it queries any DNS servers, which enables it to override addresses in the DNS. This prevents access to the listed sites by redirecting any connection attempts back to the local (your) machine (ip address 127.0.0.1). Another feature of the HOSTS file is its ability to block other applications from connecting to the Internet, providing the entry exists.

So you can use a HOSTS file to block ads, banners, 3rd party Cookies, 3rd party page counters, web bugs, and even most hijackers, so here are some instructions to do so and some sites with already made hosts files (you just overwrite your own hosts file):

The host files location is:
Windows XP at c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc
Windows Vista at c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc
Windows 2000 at c:\Winnt\System32\Drivers\etc

There you will find a file named hosts (no extension), like we said above you can edit it with any text editor, and function is simple, you map ip addresses to hostnames, so the files will be mostly like this…

127.0.0.1    localhost
127.0.0.1    www.bad-spyware-site.com
127.0.0.1    www.site-with-virus.com
127.0.0.1    www.publicity-ads-site.com

if you want to add any domain, just add a new line right 127.0.0.1 for the localhost (this way when that domain comes up in the browser the browser will search for it on your computer and not online, because the hosts file told him that), so for example:

127.0.0.1    localhost
127.0.0.1    www.bad-spyware-site.com
127.0.0.1    www.site-with-virus.com
127.0.0.1    www.publicity-ads-site.com
127.0.0.1    google.com

so now if i put google.com on the address bar of the browser it will give me a blank page and google.com wont work anymore, if you want to delete a entry, just delete the line or put a # in front

127.0.0.1    localhost
127.0.0.1    www.bad-spyware-site.com
127.0.0.1    www.site-with-virus.com
127.0.0.1    www.publicity-ads-site.com
#127.0.0.1    google.com (google.com will work now)

so the idea is to use the hosts file to block unwanted or bad sites ^-^ clean and easy hehehe

Here are some sites that provide awesome host files ^_^ .oO (choose one of them)

Hostman : Its an automated hosts file updating software
Host File : Pretty cool and clean hosts file
Someone Who Cares : A compreensive hosts file
MVPS : A hosts towards blocking unwanted stuff