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Good article on How, pretty bad at describing why # It’s Cheap There are plenty of cheap & free DNS hosts out there. # More Control Every DNS host I've ever

Good article on How, pretty bad at describing why # It’s Cheap There are plenty of cheap & free DNS hosts out there. # More Control Every DNS host I've ever used has offered full control of DNS records. If all you've ever experienced is poor shared hosting maybe this looks is something new. A why not section would be good * High latency for people who do not live near one of your servers. * Time to set up * Cost (lots of cheaper alternatives) * Some overhead. Running any server that is public facing has some overhead even if it's just installing patches. Interestingly zwischenzugs.com isn't hosted on authors own DNS (maybe a restriction of wordpress.com?)

zwischenzug 9y ago
Yeah, wordpress. Also my home server is for from 5 9s (but it's good enough for my services).
upofadown 9y ago
We are missing the most important reason: >I’ve learned a lot by doing this, probably far more than any course would have taught me. It is quite obvious that the world needs more people with a deep knowledge of how DNS works. Doing something like this is a quick and effective way to make the world a better place.
- ksk 9y ago
  >It is quite obvious that the world needs more people with a deep knowledge of how DNS works. Doing something like this is a quick and effective way to make the world a better place. I think you're overstating your case here. I found it interesting too, and us geeks like to dabble in many things, but you can never achieve specialized knowledge and expertise through mere tinkering. Using C++ didn't make me a language designer or even an expert on C++.
  - ryandrake 9y ago
    The point is there's now one more person in the world who knows C++, which is better than there being one less person in the world who knows it. The fewer people who learn these systems, the fewer people there will be available to innovate/maintain these things going forward. Entire trades are facing slow extinction for lack of people who bothered to learn. Almost 3/4 of electrical or electronics repairmen are over 45 years old, and 30% of them are over 55 years old [1]. It would be a shame to wake up one day in 2030 and realize there are only a handful of (presumably very well paid) people on earth who know how DNS works. 1: https://www.lincolntech.edu/news/skilled-trades/baby-boomers-skilled-trades-opps https://www.lincolntech.edu/news/skilled-trades/baby-boomers...
    - melq 9y ago
      How many repairable electronics are being made now a days though? Seems like a function of the market, to me.
zzzcpan 9y ago
> Every DNS host I've ever used has offered full control of DNS records. That's not true. Typically most dns hosting solutions offer so little control and it is so primitive, that they only treat records as static values, you can't have something like a view{} in bind letting you serve different people by different servers reducing latency and improving availability, say you have one server in America and one in Europe. > High latency for people who do not live near one of your servers. See my point above. Dynamically chosen records are fundamental to cheap good latency. And no, anycast is not a silver bullet, you can do pretty good with just dynamic records, you can use them for nameservers too, you know.
- Torgo 9y ago
  I guess he did say full, but views are a pretty specialized function (I say, as I am using them internally where I work.)
- jrcii 9y ago
  RIP granite canyon :(
scbrg 9y ago
> Every DNS host I've ever used has offered full control of DNS records. The other day I asked my client to change the negative result TTL of their domain (down from, IMO, very high 86400). Answer: Can't do. Our DNS host won't allow that. That is easily the most popular host in my country, btw.
sliken 9y ago
> Every DNS host I've ever used has offered full control of DNS records Every tried to publish SSHFP records? Infoblox doesn't, seems like many of the wrapped DNS service with a cute website for customers doesn't allow publishing SSHFP records.

zwischenzug 9y ago

Yeah, wordpress. Also my home server is for from 5 9s (but it's good enough for my services).

upofadown 9y ago

We are missing the most important reason: >I’ve learned a lot by doing this, probably far more than any course would have taught me. It is quite obvious that the world needs more people with a deep knowledge of how DNS works. Doing something like this is a quick and effective way to make the world a better place.

ksk 9y ago
>It is quite obvious that the world needs more people with a deep knowledge of how DNS works. Doing something like this is a quick and effective way to make the world a better place. I think you're overstating your case here. I found it interesting too, and us geeks like to dabble in many things, but you can never achieve specialized knowledge and expertise through mere tinkering. Using C++ didn't make me a language designer or even an expert on C++.
- ryandrake 9y ago
  The point is there's now one more person in the world who knows C++, which is better than there being one less person in the world who knows it. The fewer people who learn these systems, the fewer people there will be available to innovate/maintain these things going forward. Entire trades are facing slow extinction for lack of people who bothered to learn. Almost 3/4 of electrical or electronics repairmen are over 45 years old, and 30% of them are over 55 years old [1]. It would be a shame to wake up one day in 2030 and realize there are only a handful of (presumably very well paid) people on earth who know how DNS works. 1: https://www.lincolntech.edu/news/skilled-trades/baby-boomers-skilled-trades-opps https://www.lincolntech.edu/news/skilled-trades/baby-boomers...
  - melq 9y ago
    How many repairable electronics are being made now a days though? Seems like a function of the market, to me.

zzzcpan 9y ago

> Every DNS host I've ever used has offered full control of DNS records. That's not true. Typically most dns hosting solutions offer so little control and it is so primitive, that they only treat records as static values, you can't have something like a view{} in bind letting you serve different people by different servers reducing latency and improving availability, say you have one server in America and one in Europe. > High latency for people who do not live near one of your servers. See my point above. Dynamically chosen records are fundamental to cheap good latency. And no, anycast is not a silver bullet, you can do pretty good with just dynamic records, you can use them for nameservers too, you know.

Torgo 9y ago
I guess he did say full, but views are a pretty specialized function (I say, as I am using them internally where I work.)
jrcii 9y ago
RIP granite canyon :(

scbrg 9y ago

> Every DNS host I've ever used has offered full control of DNS records. The other day I asked my client to change the negative result TTL of their domain (down from, IMO, very high 86400). Answer: Can't do. Our DNS host won't allow that. That is easily the most popular host in my country, btw.

sliken 9y ago

> Every DNS host I've ever used has offered full control of DNS records Every tried to publish SSHFP records? Infoblox doesn't, seems like many of the wrapped DNS service with a cute website for customers doesn't allow publishing SSHFP records.