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Author here. At the time the problem was that DNSimple stopped resolving DNS for customers AND their management interface for a long period of time (iirc it was

by zrail 10y ago

Author here. At the time the problem was that DNSimple stopped resolving DNS for customers AND their management interface for a long period of time (iirc it was like 12 hours), which was affecting people who had registered domains through DNSimple and used their DNS service. This affected a disproportionate number of my friends and several clients. You can't change your nameservers if your registrar's management interface isn't resolving.

manigandham 10y ago
These are separate issues: 1) DNS resolution stops working - use a different provider. 2) Registrar interface stops working - wait till it starts working. You were trying to solve problem 1 which required problem 2 to be solved first, but there's no way around that. This means that everyone has the same dependency issue with their registrar being a single point of failure. Hosting your actual DNS elsewhere doesn't change anything or prepare for this situation any better.
- zrail 10y ago
  The problems were happening at the same time. It's impossible to solve 1 if 2 is happening simultaneously. Using a registrar that is on separate infrastructure from your DNS host solves both problems.
  - manigandham 10y ago
    It doesn't matter if the DNS service is up or down - the point is that you cannot change your domain's DNS service without access to your registrar's console. So effectively, the registrar being up is the only thing that matters and there's nothing you can do about it. You're betting on the fact that by using 2 services, they won't be down at the same time which might add some reliability, although most registrars aren't hosting their console sites on the same network as their DNS servers anyway so the odds of it happening are about the same. You were just caught in a bad situation.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - zrail 10y ago
      > It doesn't matter if the DNS service is up or down - the point is that you cannot change your domain's DNS service without access to your registrar's console. True! > most registrars aren't hosting their console sites on the same network as their DNS servers. As a customer you have no ability to judge this. DNSimple was either hosting them on the same infrastructure or the DDoS was targeting both. I can't speak to what they do now, since this article is almost two years old. By using one service for both components you're betting on the fact that they're doing the right things behind the scenes. IMO that is not a safe bet. For zero added monetary cost and effectively zero added management cost you can double your ability to weather that specific type of storm.

by zrail 10y ago

manigandham 10y ago

These are separate issues: 1) DNS resolution stops working - use a different provider. 2) Registrar interface stops working - wait till it starts working. You were trying to solve problem 1 which required problem 2 to be solved first, but there's no way around that. This means that everyone has the same dependency issue with their registrar being a single point of failure. Hosting your actual DNS elsewhere doesn't change anything or prepare for this situation any better.

zrail 10y ago
The problems were happening at the same time. It's impossible to solve 1 if 2 is happening simultaneously. Using a registrar that is on separate infrastructure from your DNS host solves both problems.
- manigandham 10y ago
  It doesn't matter if the DNS service is up or down - the point is that you cannot change your domain's DNS service without access to your registrar's console. So effectively, the registrar being up is the only thing that matters and there's nothing you can do about it. You're betting on the fact that by using 2 services, they won't be down at the same time which might add some reliability, although most registrars aren't hosting their console sites on the same network as their DNS servers anyway so the odds of it happening are about the same. You were just caught in a bad situation.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - zrail 10y ago
    > It doesn't matter if the DNS service is up or down - the point is that you cannot change your domain's DNS service without access to your registrar's console. True! > most registrars aren't hosting their console sites on the same network as their DNS servers. As a customer you have no ability to judge this. DNSimple was either hosting them on the same infrastructure or the DDoS was targeting both. I can't speak to what they do now, since this article is almost two years old. By using one service for both components you're betting on the fact that they're doing the right things behind the scenes. IMO that is not a safe bet. For zero added monetary cost and effectively zero added management cost you can double your ability to weather that specific type of storm.