DNS
Without the Domain Name System (DNS) no one would be able to find your website or send you email, at least not easily. In its simplest form it maps human readable domain names to IP addresses (e.g. www.netgate.net -> 204.145.147.1). It’s fundamental to everything else you do on the Internet. For the fastest page load times, for the most reliable email, you want a distributed well managed DNS infrastructure hosting your domain names.
TTL – CNAME – SPF
The devil is in the details.
DNS is fundamental to everything. And because it’s so important it needs to be professionally managed. It’s too easy for a simple mistake to cause you to disappear from the Internet. No email. No website. We don’t want that to happen. Both Site Shared and Site Dedicated include professionally managed DNS for your domain names.
ONE SIMPLE MISTAKE
Can take you offline for days. How would that impact your life? It can happen.
DNS Hosting isn’t the same as Domain Name Registration
Domain name registration used to be simple. Your Web Hosting Provider would purchase the name from Network Solutions Inc., who at the time was the only Domain Name Registrar, add the domain name to their DNS servers and within a couple of days you were up and running. Simple. Then the Registration business was opened up to anyone and things became complicated.
Today domain names (e.g. netgate.net) are still purchased through a Domain Name Registrar. Although a Domain Name Registrar may also offer Web, Email and DNS Hosting, its primary role is (or was) the sale and registration of domain names. Web Hosting Providers usually offer domain name registration services as well as DNS Hosting services. You might pay for your domain name as part of a Hosting package, or you might have a completely separate relationship with a Domain Registrar.
DNS Hosting – Architecture
The very first thing that happens when someone visits your website or sends you an email is a DNS lookup. For resilience and speed we deploy our DNS servers in various geographically distributed availability zones. We measure and monitor our DNS infrastructure to ensure fast response times. Fast reliable DNS is important to everything else you do on the Internet.
Inspired? Ready to sign up? Need more?