Websites & DNS
Skip | 24 January, 2005 16:40
Often times people don't see their website in their browser and panic sets in. Have you ever had your website go down? Or where you THOUGHT it went down?
Many newbie and intermediate webmasters don't fully understand the concept, nor the practical workings of domain name services, or DNS.
I'm not going to get into an entire tutorial here, as that has been done many times over.
However, what you need to know is that DNS can be hosted anywhere - not just at your 'native' web hosting company.
Often times when you cannot view your website in your browser, your website may not be 'down'. Separate from the spate of typical issues of ISP's, networks, routers, hubs and every piece of hardware and software between you and your web host, down DNS servers may be the cause of your outage.
There is one easy way to create some redundancy with your DNS - that is to move it to a DNS provider separate from your web hosting firm.
Since we own our own linux web hosting firm, we have plenty of redundancy and our DNS servers cannot impact clients as they can at many web hosting firms.
But if you want to ensure that your DNS is separate from your web hosting firm, thereby providing some great redundancy and failover options, you should search on Google, MSN or Yahoo for "dns provider". The prices are very reasonable for most providers.
One added benefit you get is that if you switch web hosts often, or if you want to have a mirrored host, having your DNS managed by a third party can permit you to switch your IP address to the mirror very quickly. That is really helpful in the event you do have a down webserver or have needs for reliable backups, otherwise known as "hot backups".
Good luck!
Skip
Many newbie and intermediate webmasters don't fully understand the concept, nor the practical workings of domain name services, or DNS.
I'm not going to get into an entire tutorial here, as that has been done many times over.
However, what you need to know is that DNS can be hosted anywhere - not just at your 'native' web hosting company.
Often times when you cannot view your website in your browser, your website may not be 'down'. Separate from the spate of typical issues of ISP's, networks, routers, hubs and every piece of hardware and software between you and your web host, down DNS servers may be the cause of your outage.
There is one easy way to create some redundancy with your DNS - that is to move it to a DNS provider separate from your web hosting firm.
Since we own our own linux web hosting firm, we have plenty of redundancy and our DNS servers cannot impact clients as they can at many web hosting firms.
But if you want to ensure that your DNS is separate from your web hosting firm, thereby providing some great redundancy and failover options, you should search on Google, MSN or Yahoo for "dns provider". The prices are very reasonable for most providers.
One added benefit you get is that if you switch web hosts often, or if you want to have a mirrored host, having your DNS managed by a third party can permit you to switch your IP address to the mirror very quickly. That is really helpful in the event you do have a down webserver or have needs for reliable backups, otherwise known as "hot backups".
Good luck!
Skip
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