3 ms·

Serious question? People build them all the time. They don't tend to stay simple or they eventually start demanding payment. It seems like this is a low cost th

Serious question? People build them all the time. They don't tend to stay simple or they eventually start demanding payment. It seems like this is a low cost thing to run, but if it takes off it gets very expensive.

stevekemp 12y ago
I'm hosting the actual records on Amazons Route53 so it is very low cost to run. That said I am looking at monetizing, via additions which require either a low yearly fee, or a lifetime membership price (low). The hard part is seeing what people will consider useful enough. One name for free, without monthly logins being required must always be true. But I could imagine raising the standard TTL to 600 seconds, and keeping 60s for the premium users, adding MX record support, etc.
- dsl 12y ago
  I've been involved with a number of DNS related companies and projects. Your biggest cost sink will be abuse. Some peddler of illicit images or terror group will set up camp, Amazon will take down all of your records. You'll realize you need to run your own infrastructure. You setup a few boxes. Someone starts selling fake rolexes and your boxes get taken offline. You move them to a friendlier host. A HYIP gets setup under your domain and they don't pay someone, which results in a 150 Gbps DDoS attack. The FBI shows up. You get cynical dealing with the lowest scum of the internet on a regular basis. People are constantly asking for new features and unwilling to pay. You're funding the whole thing out of pocket. Eventually Dyn shows up and offers to take the whole thing off your hands. A year later they shut it down. Some guy on Hacker News announces some Dynamic DNS or free DNS hosting provider, and you smirk to yourself.
  - stormbrew 12y ago
    Yep, this is basically what I meant. I mean, I applaud the good intentions and I sure would love for there to be a good and stable public dyndns solution, but history is not on side with that outcome unfortunately. :(
  - stevekemp 12y ago
    You paint a scary picture. I did evaluate a couple of potentially negative outcomes, but they largely boiled down to Amazon dropping the domain, or having a sudden influx of faked traffic resulting in large bills. I will keep a more cautious eye out ..
    - msisk6 12y ago
      I can't emphasis enough for you to pay attention to what the folks above have said. I also have some experience with a large DNS service and you just wouldn't believe the amount of time and resources that get allocated to dealing with abuse.
  - robalfonso 12y ago
    This. Abuse causes a huge headache and will drain resources. If you are sincerely interested in offering this, provide a great value and feature set but charge enough to keep the garbage out..its a catch 22 in that having a higher price keeps the service profitable but having a higher price also means possibly never gaining traction. If you ever figure out how to solve that problem scrap this and open up a business selling that solution :)
fiatjaf 12y ago
Yes, it was a serious question. Because I was suspecting there was some problem behind this (I just didn't know it was serious as you and the other people explained).

stevekemp 12y ago

I'm hosting the actual records on Amazons Route53 so it is very low cost to run. That said I am looking at monetizing, via additions which require either a low yearly fee, or a lifetime membership price (low). The hard part is seeing what people will consider useful enough. One name for free, without monthly logins being required must always be true. But I could imagine raising the standard TTL to 600 seconds, and keeping 60s for the premium users, adding MX record support, etc.

dsl 12y ago
I've been involved with a number of DNS related companies and projects. Your biggest cost sink will be abuse. Some peddler of illicit images or terror group will set up camp, Amazon will take down all of your records. You'll realize you need to run your own infrastructure. You setup a few boxes. Someone starts selling fake rolexes and your boxes get taken offline. You move them to a friendlier host. A HYIP gets setup under your domain and they don't pay someone, which results in a 150 Gbps DDoS attack. The FBI shows up. You get cynical dealing with the lowest scum of the internet on a regular basis. People are constantly asking for new features and unwilling to pay. You're funding the whole thing out of pocket. Eventually Dyn shows up and offers to take the whole thing off your hands. A year later they shut it down. Some guy on Hacker News announces some Dynamic DNS or free DNS hosting provider, and you smirk to yourself.
- stormbrew 12y ago
  Yep, this is basically what I meant. I mean, I applaud the good intentions and I sure would love for there to be a good and stable public dyndns solution, but history is not on side with that outcome unfortunately. :(
- stevekemp 12y ago
  You paint a scary picture. I did evaluate a couple of potentially negative outcomes, but they largely boiled down to Amazon dropping the domain, or having a sudden influx of faked traffic resulting in large bills. I will keep a more cautious eye out ..
  - msisk6 12y ago
    I can't emphasis enough for you to pay attention to what the folks above have said. I also have some experience with a large DNS service and you just wouldn't believe the amount of time and resources that get allocated to dealing with abuse.
- robalfonso 12y ago
  This. Abuse causes a huge headache and will drain resources. If you are sincerely interested in offering this, provide a great value and feature set but charge enough to keep the garbage out..its a catch 22 in that having a higher price keeps the service profitable but having a higher price also means possibly never gaining traction. If you ever figure out how to solve that problem scrap this and open up a business selling that solution :)

fiatjaf 12y ago

Yes, it was a serious question. Because I was suspecting there was some problem behind this (I just didn't know it was serious as you and the other people explained).