Solid DNS Service

Portal Home > Knowledgebase > Articles Database > Solid DNS Service

Posted by zahirw, 09-27-2011, 02:21 AM
I'm looking for a solid 3rd party dns service to host ns,a,cname & other records for our servers. We use google for email and since our servers run bind, if the server is down so is the mail. Need a service with a 100% uptime. Eventually, we'd like to use the service to handle failovers. For the time being, a 'we'll be back soon' page would be great. Each server has atleast 10 sites so need a solution that will handle dns for multiple domains. Any suggestions for a reasonable solution besides cloudflare?
Posted by Orien, 09-27-2011, 02:30 AM
Take a look at dnsmadeeasy.com.
Posted by Yujin, 09-27-2011, 02:51 AM
dnsmadeeasy, zerigo and pointhq are my recommendations.
Posted by Dave Parish, 09-27-2011, 02:54 AM
not to go off topic but, has anyone tried cloudflare? I hear it's good for both dns service and cdn.
Posted by mkc, 09-27-2011, 04:07 AM
dnsmadeeasy.com is good. They support all record types, short TTLs, and have an automatic failover feature. They have only had one instance of downtime -- 2 hours during a 50 Gbps DDOS attack. Given the scale of the attack, it actually speaks pretty well of them that they were able to resolve the issue as quickly as they did.
Posted by Visbits, 09-27-2011, 10:57 AM
tzo and ultradns are premium services, support load balancing and failover features to.
Posted by Vinayak_Sharma, 09-28-2011, 06:38 PM
Using a control panel? cPanel has got DNSonly which you can cluster, using cheap VPSs across the globe.
Posted by MannDude, 09-28-2011, 06:58 PM
Been using it for about a week now on a small VPS for a little project i'm working on. No complaints.
Posted by flam316, 09-28-2011, 11:13 PM
Yep, it's great. Control panel has a great UI as well.
Posted by MetaCDN-JamesB, 09-29-2011, 08:55 PM
Dynect are a great crew - we use them for MetaCDN. Rock solid, impressive anycast DNS system. They have some nice higher end features also (which cost naturally). For a cheaper/payg option you could always consider Amazon Route 53.
Posted by zahirw, 10-02-2011, 04:32 AM
Which off the 2 is the best? DnsMadeEasy - 30 USD/yr + 5USD per failover record Dyn.com - 30USD/yr - No fialover support What I need is 100% uptime Hosted DNS for mulitple domains and subdomains Support to host Google Business Apps records Auto Failover > Either redirect to 2nd host or show 'Be back up soon' page. Seems DNS made easy has a Small Business package at 30USD + 5USD per failover record. Dyn Standard DNS is 30
Posted by Vinayak_Sharma, 10-02-2011, 04:42 AM
That is per domain. And since you need failover, hence this is the only choice you have. If I remember correctly they have some limits on number of queries too, so do read and research them thoroughly. Or you can make your own setup.
Posted by BuffaloBill, 10-02-2011, 09:38 AM
Are you comparing the similar services? Dyn has non-enterprise services and enterprise services. DnsMadeEasy is 30 USD/yr for 10 domains. Dyn.com is $30 USD/yr for one domain for non-enterprise and $360 USD/yr for one domain for enterprise services. DNSMadeEasy is IP anycast only. Dyn has IP Anycast and non-IP anycast based on if you are paying $30 or $360 per year for one domain. Which is ridiculous expensive. DNSMadeEasy failover pricing is $5 per record per year. Dyn appears to be $200 per record per year.
Posted by CH-Shaun, 10-02-2011, 09:40 AM
I've used DNSMadeEasy in the past and I've had no complaints using their DNS Hosting service.
Posted by zahirw, 10-02-2011, 10:29 AM
Well from what everyones saying, dnsmade easy @ 30/yr seems obvious. We'll be using it for some very important projects so my only concern is the uptime & easy of use. Currently all our server host their dns via bind. So all of the sites have private nameservers.
Posted by XDF4u, 10-02-2011, 02:41 PM
I can easily recommend EasyDNS https://web.easydns.com/. I used it for years without issues or downtimes. It is not the cheapest but they give you robust service, clean management console and none of those "money saving code one time offer" emails.
Posted by arisythila, 10-02-2011, 10:28 PM
I would just suggest that you look for someone who has multiple DC's and nameservers in each. That way if a DC has downtime, the name servers remain up in another DC. Thanks,
Posted by tchen, 10-03-2011, 12:57 AM
I'd also point out easyDNS integrates with Amazon Route53, making it a slave DNS via their easyRoute53. Or even flip it around if you want, making Route53 the primary. In any case, the probability of both services going down is practically nil.
Posted by zahirw, 10-16-2011, 12:49 PM
I'm trying to finalize between dnsmadeeasy and dyndns, both starter packages @ 30/yr. Need to go with one that supports failovers
Posted by eva2000, 10-16-2011, 01:45 PM
I recently switched on of my new project sites' domain name (centminmod.com) over from namecheap free dns hosting to dnsmadeeasy.com and setup dns fail over without problems. I'm just using it for failover between 2 haproxy load balancers for now as my load balanced 4x VPS servers are openvz based and can't edit sysctl.conf to setup keepalived/heartbeat. DNS response time and latency tests show quite an improvement - dropped from average 70-90ms to 2-8ms. I also have Google App email setup in dmsmadeeasy.com. Control panel is in transition from v2 to v3 though. I opted for Business plan at US$59.95/yr for 25 domains and 3 fail over records, using 2 of them with 1 left over right now. Going to start moving my other domains over to dnsmadeeasy.com to fill up the remaining 24 domain slots I have Don't forget dnsmadeeasy.com has a free 30 day trial and if you sign up for their 12 month subscription, you basically get 13 months of service. HTH
Posted by plumsauce, 10-16-2011, 08:17 PM
You should re-run your tests. The 2-8ms is from cache. It is otherwise not possible unless you are right next door. Try it using the tests at just-dnslookup.com Be careful that you do not run the tests back to back because the second cycle will use cache until the TTL expires.
Posted by eva2000, 10-16-2011, 08:34 PM
yeah caching occurred with http://just-dnslook.com also tested https://www.ultratools.com/dnsTools but first or subsequent runs all resulted in same
Posted by plumsauce, 10-16-2011, 09:39 PM
Yep. It requires patience. Test, take screenshot. Wait for TTL to timeout. Test again. You also have to hope that there is not anyone else testing the same name on their system. Most of the time it works out. And, it is quite accurate. I stitched a couple of screenshots together for some anycast comparisons using WHT a couple of months ago that way. That's when I figured all this out.
Posted by x86brandon, 10-16-2011, 09:39 PM
Another thumbs up for DNS Made Easy.
Posted by BuffaloBill, 10-16-2011, 11:12 PM
Interesting tool. This tool also uses DNSMadeEasy for their own DNS (not sure if that is worth anything or not). I wish they tested all of the name servers at that location (doesn't really say which name server it is using). Overall is does show the difference in speed though from Unicast / IP Anycast... so it is still helpful a little.
Posted by BuffaloBill, 10-16-2011, 11:17 PM
That tool is created by UltraDNS which has a pretty vast network as well. But it seems like they are running all of their tests from networks that are where DNSMadeEasy also has networks. No matter what domain I put in their for DNSMadeEasy they are showing up a 4ms and 5ms avg response times (fastest of 2ms). In all likely hood.... the query will usually take about 20ms to 30ms in the United States if it is a really good IP anycast provider. 4 and 5 is just.... too fast.... and not possible unless you had routers, switches, and name servers every 10 miles.
Posted by zahirw, 10-17-2011, 01:05 AM
How many dcs does dnsmadeeasy have?

Add to Favourites Print this Article