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If you want a startup/side-project idea, here it is. I can tell you from 10+ years in website hosting and maintenance that most laypeople, designers, marketers,

If you want a startup/side-project idea, here it is. I can tell you from 10+ years in website hosting and maintenance that most laypeople, designers, marketers, and even some technical people will never understand DNS. (and they shouldn't have to) A small business wants a website at SquareSpace, cloudflare CDN, email at Google Apps, landing pages on a subdomain with Unbounce, their blog on yet another subdomain, and DKIM/SPF records for the email newsletter system. Setting this up is not easy for most people. Most people aren't even sure where to do it–let alone how to do it. (is your registrar handling your DNS? sometimes ...) If you had a 1 or 2-click tool that setup these for people, maybe wrapped it around some domain search/affiliate tools, I think you could make some money. My 2¢

_RPM 10y ago
I actually enjoy setting up that kind of stuff. It is easy and kind of relaxing compared to the stress of developing software sometimes. I'm not trying to be a system admin, but setting up routine services is relaxing sometimes after a hard day. All those services you mentioned have no unified API to automate the process, so it seems like there would need to be a specific script for each provider.
overcast 10y ago
Do it!
brandon272 10y ago
I agree that domain registrars should make it easier for people to simply specify what services they are signed up for and provide the option of one-click auto configuration/population of DNS records. Some registrars do this to the extent that they will fill in Google's MX and other CNAME records if you specify you are a Google apps user. I disagree that technical people should not have to understand DNS. DNS isn't that complicated in most scenarios, and having a basic understanding of it can help alleviate many of the headaches that are introduced when people don't understand the relationship between the ownership of their domain, their domain registrar and DNS records that point to various services, basic concepts around TTLs and caching, etc.
- developer2 10y ago
  >> I disagree that technical people should not have to understand DNS I think that any good technical developer/sysadmin has at some point set up their own BIND server or similar, if only to play with it for a few hours before uninstalling. This is something that is often missing from developers who went through a CS program just to get a degree in an industry that pays well, without really having an interest in the field. Good developers/sysadmins, who actually have an interest in the work they do, have an innate curiosity that leads them to try their hand at things like a DNS server. For no reason other than to learn something new and understand a topic they didn't knowing anything about before the experimentation. Of course, you can learn about DNS without actually configuring a DNS server from scratch - but the real "aha" moments come from working with the server itself rather than only understanding the difference between A/CNAME/MX et al. Learning about FQDN syntax, how DNS master syncs to slaves, SOA serial numbers, etc. - so many interesting things to discover.
  - manyxcxi 10y ago
    Although I have repeatedly in my life set up and configured BIND servers, and manage DNS zones monthly if not weekly, I disagree that a could developer should have to know these things very well if at all. As a developer you should know the basics of networking and the protocols you will be using to communicate, as well as their drawbacks but DNS as far as a developer is concerned, generally is a means to an end. They just need to know where to send a message to. I feel like you could be a great developer and not have a freaking clue how to configure a BIND server or manage a zone file- they're fairly unrelated to creating, maintaining, or deploying code (unless you're getting into containers and auto-provisioning).
    - daurnimator 10y ago
      > they're fairly unrelated to creating, maintaining, or deploying code Actually it's very useful to know and understand potential misconfigurations. e.g. if your 3rd party integration starts failing, it's useful to know the signals that imply their sysadmin messed up a zone transfer. This sort of 'hands-on' knowledge that you only really get from messing around with the daemons yourself reduces downtime and emergency maintenance from hours to minutes.
michaelbuckbee 10y ago
This is pretty much what DNSimple is doing (great service btw).

_RPM 10y ago

I actually enjoy setting up that kind of stuff. It is easy and kind of relaxing compared to the stress of developing software sometimes. I'm not trying to be a system admin, but setting up routine services is relaxing sometimes after a hard day. All those services you mentioned have no unified API to automate the process, so it seems like there would need to be a specific script for each provider.

overcast 10y ago

Do it!

brandon272 10y ago

I agree that domain registrars should make it easier for people to simply specify what services they are signed up for and provide the option of one-click auto configuration/population of DNS records. Some registrars do this to the extent that they will fill in Google's MX and other CNAME records if you specify you are a Google apps user. I disagree that technical people should not have to understand DNS. DNS isn't that complicated in most scenarios, and having a basic understanding of it can help alleviate many of the headaches that are introduced when people don't understand the relationship between the ownership of their domain, their domain registrar and DNS records that point to various services, basic concepts around TTLs and caching, etc.

developer2 10y ago
>> I disagree that technical people should not have to understand DNS I think that any good technical developer/sysadmin has at some point set up their own BIND server or similar, if only to play with it for a few hours before uninstalling. This is something that is often missing from developers who went through a CS program just to get a degree in an industry that pays well, without really having an interest in the field. Good developers/sysadmins, who actually have an interest in the work they do, have an innate curiosity that leads them to try their hand at things like a DNS server. For no reason other than to learn something new and understand a topic they didn't knowing anything about before the experimentation. Of course, you can learn about DNS without actually configuring a DNS server from scratch - but the real "aha" moments come from working with the server itself rather than only understanding the difference between A/CNAME/MX et al. Learning about FQDN syntax, how DNS master syncs to slaves, SOA serial numbers, etc. - so many interesting things to discover.
- manyxcxi 10y ago
  Although I have repeatedly in my life set up and configured BIND servers, and manage DNS zones monthly if not weekly, I disagree that a could developer should have to know these things very well if at all. As a developer you should know the basics of networking and the protocols you will be using to communicate, as well as their drawbacks but DNS as far as a developer is concerned, generally is a means to an end. They just need to know where to send a message to. I feel like you could be a great developer and not have a freaking clue how to configure a BIND server or manage a zone file- they're fairly unrelated to creating, maintaining, or deploying code (unless you're getting into containers and auto-provisioning).
  - daurnimator 10y ago
    > they're fairly unrelated to creating, maintaining, or deploying code Actually it's very useful to know and understand potential misconfigurations. e.g. if your 3rd party integration starts failing, it's useful to know the signals that imply their sysadmin messed up a zone transfer. This sort of 'hands-on' knowledge that you only really get from messing around with the daemons yourself reduces downtime and emergency maintenance from hours to minutes.

michaelbuckbee 10y ago

This is pretty much what DNSimple is doing (great service btw).