Still Not Using A Managed DNS Provider?

  • January 12, 2012·
  • by Natalie Goguen·

Did you know that if you are not using a managed DNS provider, it can be detrimental to your website and eCommerce? Most people register their domain and then just use the DNS that is provided by the registrar.  This technique is okay if you are a running a small personal website, small blogs, etc, but if you are a business that relies heavily on the up time of your website, you should definitely reconsider.

What will you gain if you choose to use a managed DNS provider?

1. Reliability
2. Speed- With our 11 points of presence across the globe, your users will be connected to the server that is located closest to them. This makes connecting and loading webpages on your site faster.
3. DNS failover protection
4. Money- Less downtime= more money in your pocket. Even a few minutes of downtime can end up costing you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.
5. Redundancy- If your website is only hosted on two name servers (that are typically on the same network) when one goes down, they both will, bringing down your entire website.

But, why is a managed DNS provider better than your registrar? Typically, registrars do not have time to focus their energy on DNS, so this means that the servers they have available are are not as fast and have high TTLs (time to lives), which makes changing and updating values extremely slow.

Also, in most cases, your registrar will only give you two name servers to use and the name servers are usually on the same network, which means less redundancy (if one goes out, they both will, bringing down your entire site) and are usually hosted on over subscribed, overworked networks.

If website is your livelihood and money maker, why not have it running on premium fuel instead of regular? Check out our Plus DNS. No-IP Plus offers all of the above features for a small fraction of the cost that one outage to your website could cost. What are you waiting for?

The Anatomy of a DNS Zone File – Part Two: What are NS Records and Why Are They Important to DNS?

  • April 8, 2011·
  • by Natalie Goguen·

An NS record or (name server record) tells recursive name servers which name servers are authoritative for a zone.  Recursive name servers look at the NS records to work out who to ask next when resolving a name. You can have as many NS records as you would like in your zone file.   The

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Why Reliable DNS is Important To Your Business

  • March 23, 2011·
  • by Natalie Goguen·

Imagine, it’s 8:05am on a Monday morning. You log in to your computer and open up your email client, you read through a couple of emails that you received over the weekend and then you decide to reply to one of them, you hit send and…. NOTHING. The email won’t go out! You frantically pick up your phone and dial your IT department.

Across the country, a potential client who found your web URL on your Facebook page or some other type of advertisement wants to visit your site and see what you have to offer.  They try to type your web URL into their web browser, and…. NOTHING. So, they do a quick Google search and find one of your competitors.  Your competitor’s site is working fine, so they spend their money on that site.

Do these scenarios sound like something you don’t ever want to happen? Well, you better make sure that you have reliable DNS.

DNS is essential for many reasons. When a customer wants to visit your website, they type your Fully Qualified Domain Name, www.yourbusiness.com, into their web browser.  Without DNS, your customers would have to remember the specific IP address (i.e. XX.XX.XX.XX) that your website is listed at.  This could be very difficult, especially if your website has more than one IP address that points to that specific URL.  IP addresses can vary across the globe.  The DNS does all the work by redirecting the users to the correct web address, and making sure they are reaching the site that is hosted nearest to them, thereby ensuring that your customers are connected to your site the fastest way they can be and that traffic is balanced across all of the servers.

The location of DNS servers is important in ensuring 100% uptime. We deploy name servers across the globe at geographically unique datacenters using different tier 1 bandwidth providers to ensure a natural disaster or connectivity outage does not disrupt our robust DNS network.

DNS helps direct your emails to the proper servers, redirect customers to the proper domain and ensures that they reach your site the fastest and best way that they can at all times, even if mother nature decides to rear her ugly head.

How has having reliable DNS helped you in the past?