Free Name Servers Blog - Find Free DNS servers online

Reverse DNS lookup using nslookup

2011-04-08T04:05:00.000-07:00

It's easy to get the IP address from a domain name, just ping it.

C:\Users\Administrator>ping s15243155.onlinehome-server.info

Pinging s15243155.onlinehome-server.info [212.227.102.68] with 32 bytes of data

Or use nsLookup to get the A record, which does the same

C:\Users\Administrator>nslookup -q=a s15243155.onlinehome-server.info
Server: my.router
Address: 192.168.1.1

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: s15243155.onlinehome-server.info
Address: 212.227.102.68

To reverse the lookup, then you use the special "in-arpa.arpa" domain with the IP address backwards... like this

C:\Users\Administrator>nslookup -q=ptr 68.102.227.212.in-addr.arpa
Server: my.router
Address: 192.168.1.1

Non-authoritative answer:
68.102.227.212.in-addr.arpa name = s15243155.onlinehome-server.info

102.227.212.in-addr.arpa nameserver = nsa2.schlund.de
102.227.212.in-addr.arpa nameserver = nsa.schlund.de
nsa.schlund.de internet address = 195.20.224.98
nsa2.schlund.de internet address = 195.20.244.5

This really comes into play when fixing this error in ZoneCheck:

Reverse for the nameserver IP address doesn't match

ns1.xyz.net/86.xx.xx.194

To Fix this, click Start>Run>dnsmgmt.msc

Select Reverse Lookup zones, select the .in-addr.arpa.

Right Click, Select "New Pointer (PTR)", enter the first 3 digits of the IP into the "Host IP Address" and enter the nameserver domain into "Host name", then press OK

xn--j6w193g The new Hong Kong IDN (香港)

2011-02-24T08:13:00.000-08:00

The HKDNR is releasing the new Chinese IDN top level domain for Hong Kong (香港) on the 10 March, 2011.

The punycode version of this domain is xn--j6w193g with the following DNS infrastructure:

xn--j6w193g nameserver = NS2.CUHK.EDU.HK
xn--j6w193g nameserver = NS1.HKIRC.NET.HK
xn--j6w193g nameserver = ADNS1.BERKELEY.EDU
xn--j6w193g nameserver = HK-NS.PCH.NET
xn--j6w193g nameserver = SEC3.APNIC.NET
xn--j6w193g nameserver = NS3.CUHK.EDU.HK
xn--j6w193g nameserver = ADNS2.BERKELEY.EDU
xn--j6w193g nameserver = NS2.HKIRC.NET.HK
xn--j6w193g nameserver = B.DNS.TW

B.DNS.TW internet address = 210.201.138.58
B.DNS.TW AAAA IPv6 address = 2404:0:10a0::58
NS2.CUHK.EDU.HK internet address = 137.189.6.21
NS2.CUHK.EDU.HK AAAA IPv6 address = 2405:3000:3:60::21
NS3.CUHK.EDU.HK internet address = 202.45.188.39
SEC3.APNIC.NET internet address = 202.12.28.140
SEC3.APNIC.NET AAAA IPv6 address = 2001:dc0:1:0:4777::140
ADNS1.BERKELEY.EDU internet address = 128.32.136.3
ADNS2.BERKELEY.EDU internet address = 128.32.136.14
ADNS2.BERKELEY.EDU AAAA IPv6 address = 2607:f140:ffff:fffe::e
HK-NS.PCH.NET internet address = 204.61.216.46
HK-NS.PCH.NET AAAA IPv6 address = 2001:500:14:6046:ad::1

DNS EventID 5502

2011-02-18T08:02:00.000-08:00

Ever seen EventID 5502 in the windows DNS event log, here is some investigation into them:

The DNS server received a bad TCP-based DNS message from 78.251.84.232. The packet was rejected or ignored. The event data contains the DNS packet.

0000: 49 54 4f 4e 20 53 69 73 ITON Sis
0008: 3a 70 6d 6e 20 53 49 50 :pmn SIP
0010: 2f 32 2e 30 0d 0a 56 69 /2.0..Vi
0018: 61 3a 20 53 49 50 2f 32 a: SIP/2
0020: 2e 30 2f 54 43 50 20 6e .0/TCP n
0028: 6d 3b 62 72 61 6e 63 68 m;branch
0030: 3d 66 6f 6f 0d 0a 46 72 =foo..Fr
0038: 6f 6d 3a 20 3c 73 69 70 om:
0048: 74 61 67 3d 72 6f 6f 74 tag=root
0050: 0d 0a 54 6f 3a 20 3c 73 ..To: ..C
0068: 6c 2d 49 44 3a 20 35 30 l-ID: 50
0070: 30 30 30 0d 0a 43 53 65 000..CSe
0078: 71 3a 20 34 32 20 4f 50 q: 42 OP

Which, read as a block is:
ITON Sis:pmn SIP/2.0..Via: SIP/2.0/TCP n m;branch=foo..From: ;tag=root..To: ..Call-ID: 50000..CSeq: 42 OP

As far as I can make out that SIP is a VOIP system (Voice over IP), where someone has attempted to connect via VOIP to the DNS port of the nameserver.

Another request was;

0000: 20 54 2f 6e 63 69 25 65 T/nci%e
0008: 30 32 6f 70 72 74 73 25 02oprts%
0010: 32 43 2f 54 72 69 25 36 2C/Tri%6
0018: 45 69 74 79 2e 74 78 74 Eity.txt
0020: 25 32 65 62 61 6b 20 48 %2ebak H
0028: 54 54 50 2f 31 2e 30 0d TTP/1.0.
0030: 0a 0d 0a 00 00 00 00 00 ........

Which reads as €rts%2C/Tri%6Eity.txt%2ebak - €rts,/Trinity.txt.bak

As a quote from "http://www.uusikaupunki.fi/~bgt/blog/bgt_mindscape_0805.php"

GET /nice%20ports%2C/Tri%6Eity.txt%2ebak HTTP/1.0

[...] Trinity.txt.bak, which is a file name chosen as one that the software developers are sure enough that can't be found on server and does provide with a 404 error message. Apparently this string in the logs suggests a probe by a piece of software calles Nmap ...

Ironically enough, the character "Trinity" from the Matrix uses NMap to hack into
a powerstation "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TJuipCrjZQ", and possibly my DNS server also! :)

Adding a DNS TXT record on a Windows DNS server

2010-12-16T05:04:00.000-08:00

Google now offers DNS TXT records as a form of site verification, this can be done via a Windows DNS server as follows:

1. Open dnsmgmt.msc
2. Select your domain
3. Right click, select new domain
4. Enter the name & select the folder icon
5. Right click Other new records
6. Select TXT - you'll see:

Text (TXT) record. Holds a string of characters that serves as descriptive text to be associated with a specific DNS domain name. The semantics of the actual descriptive text used as data with this record type depends on the DNS domain where these records are located. (RFC 1035)

7. Press Create Record.
8. Leave the top box blank and copy the value listed in "Other" in Google's verficiation

Google uses DNS to verify domain ownership

2010-12-13T02:25:00.000-08:00

In Google webmaster tools, you can now verify your domain using a DNS TXT record,

"Add a DNS record to your domain's configuration You can use this option if you can sign in to your domain registrar or hosting provider and add a new DNS record."

It provides the following tips for how to set up a DNS TXT record with major domain registrars:

'eNom.com':'

Select My Domains from the Domains drop-down menu in the top navigation bar.

Select Host Records from the Manage Domain drop-down in the middle of the page.

On the Edit Host Records page, if there's not already a blank row, click the + new row button to add a new host record row.

In the new row, leave the Host Name field blank.

Select TXT from the Record Type drop-down menu.

In the Address field, copy and paste the following unique security token:

google-site-verification=SZbLFW5cn6o-N_9k0bzkc4UAhMQEotpvjt52pJtsTEI

Click the save button.

When you've done saving the TXT record, click the Verify button below on this page.

Congratulations! Your new DNS TXT record now contains your security token. Keep in mind that changes to your DNS settings can take up to 24 hours to propagate through the Internet, but depending on your host, this can happen faster.

If you have trouble adding your TXT record, contact your domain host directly for further assistance. If you're not sure what to say, here's a sample explanation that you can email to your host or read over the phone.

','GoDaddy.com':'

Under the Domains header, click (Advanced Details) to the right of reflector.webtropy.com.

Under the DNS Manager header, click Launch.

In the TXT (Text) section, click Quick Add.

In the Host field, enter @.

In the TXT Value field, copy and paste the following unique security token:

google-site-verification=SZbLFW5cn6o-N_9k0bzkc4UAhMQEotpvjt52pJtsTEI

Leave the TTL drop-down as the default selection.
At the top or the bottom of the page, click the Save Zone File button.
Click OK in the pop-up.

','MelbourneIT.com.au':'

MelbourneIT doesn't support the TXT method of verification. Please select another verification method from the above list.

','Name.com':'

Click the Account icon in the top navigation bar.

Click the domain you're using.

At the right of the page, under Control Panel, click Domain Management to expand the menu.

Click DNS Record Management.

On the DNS Management page, select TXT from the Add a Record drop-down.

Your cursor will automatically move to the Record Host field (to the left of your domain name). Leave this field blank.

In the Record Answer field (to the right of your domain name), copy and paste the following unique security token:

google-site-verification=SZbLFW5cn6o-N_9k0bzkc4UAhMQEotpvjt52pJtsTEI

Leave the TTL field set to the default.

Click submit.

When you've done saving the TXT record, click the Verify button below on this page.

','NetworkSolutions.com':'

Log in to your account for reflector.webtropy.com at www.networksolutions.com by clicking the Manage Account icon.

In the left navigation bar, open the nsWebAddress (Domains) menu by clicking the + icon.

Click Manage Domain Names.

On the Domain Details page for the domain you're using, select the Designated DNS radio button (to the right of Change domain to point to) and click the Apply Changes button.

If you've previously modified your advanced DNS settings, click Edit (to the right of Domain currently points to).

Under the Advanced DNS Manager heading, click Manage Advanced DNS Records.

Under the Text (TXT Records) heading, click Add/Edit.

In the Host field, enter @.

Leave the TTL field set to the default value.

In the Text field, copy and paste the following unique security token:

google-site-verification=SZbLFW5cn6o-N_9k0bzkc4UAhMQEotpvjt52pJtsTEI

Click Continue.

Review your changes and click Save Changes.

When you've done saving the TXT record, click the Verify button below on this page.

','Register.com':'

Under the blue My Accounts tab, click the domain that you're using.

Scroll down to the Advanced Technical Settings heading and click Edit TXT Records (SPF).

Leave the Host Name field blank.

In the TXT Record field, copy and paste the following unique security token:

google-site-verification=SZbLFW5cn6o-N_9k0bzkc4UAhMQEotpvjt52pJtsTEI

Click Continue.

Review your changes and click Continue.

When you've done saving the TXT record, click the Verify button below on this page.

','Yahoo.com':'

At this time, Yahoo DNS hosting doesn't support TXT records. If you bought your domain through Yahoo, please use the HTML file method of verification above.

','1and1.com':'

1and1.com doesn't support the TXT method of verification. Please select another verification method from the above list.

'};

Restarting Bind

2010-12-12T09:40:00.001-08:00

This gave me a heart attack today (not literally)

root@vps /etc/init.d # rndc stop
root@vps /etc/init.d # rndc start
rndc: connect failed: 127.0.0.1#953: connection refused

But after a few seconds, it appears to be just a case of saying "named" and it starts again.

Amazon DNS service

2010-12-06T11:57:00.000-08:00

Dear Amazon Web Services Customer,

We're excited to introduce today a highly available and scalable Domain Name System (DNS) service - Amazon Route 53. It is designed to give developers and businesses a reliable and cost effective way to route end users to Internet applications by translating human readable names like www.example.com into the numeric IP addresses like 192.0.2.1 that computers use to connect to each other. Route 53 effectively connects user requests to infrastructure running in Amazon Web Services (AWS) -- such as an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instance, an Amazon Elastic Load Balancer, or an Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) bucket -- and can also be used to route users to infrastructure outside of AWS.

A reliable, cloud-based DNS service has been one of the most requested offerings by our customers. With Route 53, you can create a "hosted zone" to add DNS records for a new domain or transfer DNS records for a domain you currently own. Route 53 is also designed to work well with other AWS offerings, such as AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). By using AWS IAM with Route 53, you can control who in your organization can make changes to your DNS records. In the future, we plan to add additional integration features such as the ability to automatically tie your Amazon Elastic Load Balancer instances to a DNS name, and the ability to route your customers to the closest EC2 region.

Route 53 is also designed to be fast and simple. It uses a global network of DNS servers to respond to end users with low latency and has an easy-to-use, self-service API. There are no long-term contracts or minimum usage commitments for using Route 53 - you pay $1.00 per month for the hosted zones you manage, $0.50 per million queries for the first billion queries, and $0.25 per million queries above a billion.

Smart Team Networks Sdn Bhd disowned by .MY registry

2010-12-06T01:48:00.000-08:00

.my DOMAIN REGISTRY is pleased to update you on the status of our Resellers.

We currently have 61 Resellers. These Resellers are authorized by .my DOMAIN REGISTRY to provide services in relation to ".my" domain names which include acting as payment outlet for ".my" domain names.

Please note that Smart Team Networks Sdn Bhd (R044) (Business Registration No: 646967-W). ("Smart Team") is no longer the authorized Reseller of .my DOMAIN REGISTRY.

Due to the cessation of Smart Team as Reseller, this entity is no longer authorized payment outlet for ".my" domain names.

Please contact us at domreg@domainregistry.my or call +603-8991 7272 should you have any inquiries at all.

Free FTP Account

2010-12-04T09:03:00.001-08:00

Here is a free FTP account, anyone can use it to upload anything...

FTP Username: free@wikiencyclopedia.net
Password: nniyadiloh
FTP Server: ftp.wikiencyclopedia.net
FTP Server Port: 21

FAQ:
Why?
- I've got ample space on this server, I'm willing to share with others.

Is it private?
- Nope, anyone can access it, delete your files that you uploaded, rename them, download them, whatever

Can I access this over a browser?
- http://www.wikiencyclopedia.net/free is the root.

Can you help me install Wordpress / Joomla / Whatever?
- Nope.

Can I upload dodgy stuff?
- It will be deleted, and your IP blocked, all uploads are moderated.

Wikileaks DNS Mirror

2010-12-03T04:09:00.000-08:00

Today, everydns pulled the plug on WikiLeaks' DNS, so voila, here's a DNS mirror:

wikileaks.blazingaces.co.za

Pointing at [88.80.13.160]

Unlimited webspace offer

2010-11-29T09:43:00.000-08:00

To my mind, this undermines the Amazon / Rackspace / Azure business model, where they charge as you grow, a flat-rate offer that provides unlimited disk space:

And hey, look for the "{Secret link}" at the foot of the page to get the 20% off the £1.95 per month offer.

List of all top level DNS servers

2010-11-19T09:52:00.001-08:00

Here is a complete list of all top level DNS servers, for every country in the world,
it gives an interesting top-down look on how DNS on the Internet is organised.

https://sites.google.com/site/appanalyzecomponent/list-of-all-top-level-dns-servers

This is useful for tracing from the DNS root down to your site, to help diagnose DNS problems.

A better way to completely clear your client DNS cache

2010-11-19T08:50:00.000-08:00

I found that this is a better technique for completely clearing your client DNS cache:

C:\Windows\system32>ipconfig -registerdns

Windows IP Configuration

Registration of the DNS resource records for all adapters of this computer has b
een initiated. Any errors will be reported in the Event Viewer in 15 minutes.

C:\Windows\system32>ipconfig -flushdns

Windows IP Configuration

Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.

Namecheap in Euro

2010-10-27T00:59:00.000-07:00

I asked namecheap if they could bill in currencies other than USD, and this was their reply

 Sorry, we do not plan to introduce billing in currencies other than USD. Domain trade is done is this currency and *even if* we billed you in another one, it would include all bank charges that might be greater than those of your bank. Thus, there's no real need for billing in multiple currencies.

You might request our developers to add the rates in other currencies as well, but these would be nothing more than values for your information that do not include any bank charges, etc.

Chinese registry is verifying every email address for .CN holders.

2010-10-24T08:45:00.001-07:00

The .CN Registry is conducting a drastic verification of the details provided by .CN holders for their domain name registrations.

In order to operate this verification, CNNIC will soon send an email containing a verification link to the email address appointed to the holder of every .CN domain name.

This being, you/your customer will need to read and click on the verification link provided in the Chinese Registry email.

Please be informed that failing to comply with this verification process will automatically conduct to the deletion of your/ your customer(s) domain name(s).

Find other sites on the same webserver

2010-10-07T01:30:00.000-07:00

If you are worried that you may be sharing some hosting with unsavoury websites, you can check what other sites are on ther same server in Bing by using the "IP:" search

http://www.bing.com/search?q=ip%3A64.120.212.91

This can also be used to keep track of what's on each of your servers.

Indian DNS registry down

2010-09-22T00:59:00.000-07:00

.IN registry is down at the moment. The issue is at Registry end. We are waiting for confirmation from registry. It should be live in 1 - 2 hrs.

Free £50 Google Adwords Voucher

2010-09-17T02:47:00.000-07:00

free_sms_online

£50 Google Adwords Voucher expires 21/09 - 4RE2-54LX-A3FS-MBEF-W72S

Get a free CZ or SK second level domain name

2010-09-14T02:26:00.001-07:00

.CZ and .SK (Czech and Slovak) domain names are normally quite expensive, 50 euros annually at eurodns. However, if all you need is a short second level domain name for SEO purposes, then ic.cz is a Czech service that gives away these domains for free.

The webhosting is advertising supported, which is a downside though. Otherwise EU.SK offers a cheap Slovak 2nd level domain name

Price comparison for Hungarian domain names

2010-08-08T08:21:00.000-07:00

I was looking to buy a .co.Hu domain name, a second level hungarian domain.My first check was EuroDNS which offered .co.HU at 28 euro per year. However, swapping to Google.hu and searching for "domain regisztráció" comes up with alot of offers much cheaper, but mainly sites with no english translation.

The first possibility was AlphaHosting.hu offering .HU domains at 3,500 HUF or 12 Euros. Much cheaper than EuroDNS, but no option for .co.hu. The next I looked at weas Webs.hu, offering 34 euros for 2 years for a .co.hu. Working out at 17 euros per year, or 11 euros cheaper than eurodns.

WebSAS was similar to AlphaHosting.hu, offering .HU domains at 3,500 HUF (12 euro), but no .co.hu. DotRoll offered even cheaper at 9 euros per year, with a 2 year minimum. But no .co.hu either.

Macaria, offered .co.hu at 21 GBP (25 Euro) for two years, making it the cheapest for .co.hu, but I missed the point that it takes 4 weeks to register, which is awful.

So, in short, if you're looking for a .HU domain, go to DotRoll, if you're looking for a .co.hu in a hurry, go to Webs.hu, and if you can wait 4 weeks, go to macaria.

Malaysian NIC downtime

2010-07-13T10:17:00.001-07:00

Please be informed that .my DOMAIN REGISTRY will be conducting planned maintenance works as below:

Date/Time Start : 18th July 2010 (Sunday) / 11.00 PM
Date/Time End : 19th July 2010 (Monday) / 5.00 AM

Please note that the .my DOMAIN REGISTRY website and Whois service will be not available during the maintenance time. However, please note that all domain names registered with .my DOMAIN REGISTRY will not be affected by this maintenance work.

CO.CC sites can be geotargetted in Google!

2010-07-11T06:12:00.001-07:00

In Google webmaster tools, you can choose a country to target your .com, .net or .org domain, where there is no particular country associated with the TLD.

This means, if you have a .com domain selling Pizzas in prestwick, you don't want Terry from Arkansas asking if you can deliver to his house. So, you can say, my .com is for UK visitors. Giving you a boost in the UK, where you need it, and a drop everywhere else where you don't

You can't do this with a .ie or .fr domain, since google says, that if you buy a .ie, you must be targetting ireland, and you can't change that.

However, it doesn't have the same view on .co.cc domains (Cocos Islands), and actually lets you say that my .co.cc is not for residents of the Cocos islands, but I'd like to sell to america, or india or whatever.

Best bit is, that .co.cc domains are free for the most part, and you can set them up on our nameservers for free too!

Romanian NIC Nameserver Migration

2010-07-09T05:59:00.000-07:00

Interesting news that the Romanian NIC are migrating their DNS infrastructure

Additional secondaries are not currently supported.

They will shortly move name servers and already included your request manually to the new nameserver (which will go live in the next couple of days):

dig @85.88.6.76 smsgratis.co.ro NS

; <<>> DiG 9.6.0-APPLE-P2 <<>> @85.88.6.76 smsgratis.co.ro NS
; (1 server found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 53223
;; flags: qr rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;smsgratis.co.ro. IN NS

;; ANSWER SECTION:
smsgratis.co.ro. 2400 IN NS ns4.openmerchantaccount.com.
smsgratis.co.ro. 2400 IN NS ns3.openmerchantaccount.com.
smsgratis.co.ro. 2400 IN NS ns5.openmerchantaccount.com.

;; Query time: 40 msec
;; SERVER: 85.88.6.76#53(85.88.6.76)
;; WHEN: Fri Jul 9 14:33:33 2010
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 110

In the near future also offer this option as a user-configurable feature.

How to check if a DNS change is propagating

2010-07-08T12:15:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, you make a change to the DNS at your registrar, and nothing happens for a day. You could be forgiven for wondering if anything has changed, or if the change is just propagating.

Simple way to check this is, find out a name server responsible for the top level domain, or in the case that you bought a second level domain, a level above your domain.

For example, with BesplatnoSMS.co.rs, the level above my domain is co.rs, I can find the responsible Name servers for co.rs with:

C:\Windows\system32>nslookup -q=ns co.rs
Server: dir-615
Address: 192.168.0.1

Non-authoritative answer:
co.rs nameserver = odisej.telekom.rs
co.rs nameserver = ns1.nic.rs

odisej.telekom.rs internet address = 195.178.32.2

Then, I can check the record held by this DNS server with a specific NSLookup request

C:\Windows\system32>nslookup -q=ns besplatnosms.co.rs ns1.nic.rs
Server: ns.etf.rs
Address: 147.91.8.6

besplatnosms.co.rs nameserver = ns3.openmerchantaccount.com
besplatnosms.co.rs nameserver = ns4.openmerchantaccount.com
besplatnosms.co.rs nameserver = ns5.openmerchantaccount.com

Even though at the time of writing, the change (the addition of a third nameserver) hadn't propagated to my laptop.

Redundant DNS servers

2010-07-07T13:56:00.000-07:00

A domain name normally has 2 DNS servers, but it is possible to increase this to ensure more redundancy, i.e. ensuring that a full datacenter failure doesn't bring down your domain.

I've added ns5.openmerchantaccount.com, as a new DNS server, on the same machine as my webserver - A windows 2003 box. This is what I did.

Started the DNS server service (Services> DNS Server > Right click properties > Automatic > start). Start > Run > DNSMgmt.msc > Refresh.

Click on Forward lookup zone > Primary Zone.

Now add Three NS records, for Ns3.openmerchantaccount.com, Ns4.openmerchantaccount.com, and Ns5.openmerchantaccount.com. And an Three A records, one for @, * and www, the * being my preference.

Importantly, go to the registrar of your domain and enter the three Nameservers as above.

Now, to test this, I waited until the NS records had delegated from the registrar, by checking

NSLookup -q=ns freesms.org.il during the day until all three nameservers appeared.

I then momentarilly stopped the two other nameservers, NS3 and Ns4 using

rndc stop

After the cache timeout period of about a minute, I tried pinging domains on the ne NS3/NS4 nameservers, and as expected, they failed to return.

But happily, the domain with the third nameserver did respond!

So I restarted the DNS server again by using named in /etc/init.d.

Failure: has no DNSKEY

2010-06-23T03:30:00.000-07:00

ZoneCheck has updated their software to support DNSSec, which is enabled as one of their checks by default.

This results in the following error, if DNSSEC is not enabled on your DNS server

---- fatal ----

has no DNSKEY

ns.xxx.net/xxx.xxx.xxx.xx

The trick is to disable this check here: DNSSEC tests

Another change to Zonecheck, is that it now requires IP addresses of Nameservers to
be provided, otherwise it gives this error:

ERROR: Address () is not an IP address

All in all, I'd prefer if they had left it as it was!

How to buy an Israel (.co.il / .org.il) domain name

2010-06-23T01:08:00.001-07:00

Israel has two public use second level domains, .co.il and .org.il. It does not yet support IDN, so latin letters only, which is quite an annoyance in a country that speaks hebrew.

According to the Israeli NIC, there are only 7 registrars allowed to sell .IL domain names, and of these only five supported english, of these, this were the prices for one year registrations

Communigal - $17
DomainTheNet - $18
IPMirror - $38
Internic - $49
Safenames - $129

So, the cheapest is this https://secure.communigal.net/

24 Hour Domain Renewal Promotion at Namecheap

2010-06-11T01:08:00.001-07:00

24 Hour Domain Renewal Promotion

You asked for it, we listened. Now, for 24 hours only, we're offering discounted prices on domain renewals: $8.99. This pricing will only be available on June 15, 2010 (12:00 AM until 11:59PM Eastern Standard Time), so don't miss the opportunity!

Upcoming Price Increase for Select Domain Name Extensions

Earlier this year, VeriSign, the registry of .com and .net domains, announced that on July 1, 2010 they would be increasing prices for select domain name extensions by 7%. As a result, we will have to adjust our prices accordingly. Detailed pricing will be sent to you shortly.

June Coupon Codes for Domains

Buy a new domain for $8.81 by using coupon code SUMMERTIME.

Transfer any domain to NameCheap.com for even cheaper with coupon code SWITCH2NC.

NameCheap Web Hosting Promotion

Do you host your website with NameCheap? If not, now's the time to do it and get the benefits of high performance, low-cost web hosting that you can trust!

Use the coupon codes below for a discount. These coupons are only valid until July 1st, so act fast!

SUN&FUN offers 10% off for shared and reseller hosting plans.

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Join the SSL Certificates Forum Discussion

Did you know that NameCheap is offering an SSL certificate bonus -- a $49.95 SSL certificate, absolutely free -- with the purchase of any domain, domain name transfer, web hosting signup, or WhoisGuard purchase? We are.

Renewing a swiss (CH) domain name

2010-06-08T12:19:00.000-07:00

This is the banking details for SWITCH.CH the Swiss NIC

BANKING REFERENCE:
Bank: CREDIT SUISSE, 8070 ZUERICH
Clearing number: 4835
BIC / SWIFT: CRESCHZZ80L
Account Number: 798321-61-1
Member: SWITCH - Teleinformatikd.f.Lehre, & Forschung
Address: Werdstrasse 2, P. O. Box, CH-8021 Zuerich
IBAN: CH88 0483 5079 8321 6100 1

SOA and ANY request disagree

2010-06-04T07:48:00.000-07:00

I got this error on ZoneCheck

---- fatal ----

SOA and ANY request disagree

Easy solution, I had entered www.domain.com as the zone rather than domain.com

IPv6 Country Allocations

2010-06-04T01:43:00.000-07:00

IP version 6 allocations on a country levels have already taken place, and these are as follows:

The following countries have Ipv6 Allocations

Austria
Australia
Belgium
Canada
Switzerland
China
Germany
Denmark
Spain
Finland
France
United Kingdom
Greece
Ireland
Italy
Netherlands
Norway
Russian Federation
United States
South Africa

Top 50 ISP's Pop3 Mailservers

2010-06-03T01:01:00.000-07:00

Top 50 ISP's Pop3 Mailservers

BlueYonder pop3.blueyonder.co.uk
BTClick mail.btinternet.com
BT.Com mail.btinternet.com
BT Connect pop3.btinternet.com
BT Internet mail.btinternet.com
Cableinet pop3.blueyonder.co.uk
CWCom pop.ntlworld.com
Demon pop3.demon.co.uk
Direct Connection popmail.dircon.co.uk
Eircom mail.eircom.net
Freeserve pop.freeserve.co.uk
Freeserve pop.freeserve.net
FSnet pop.freeserve.co.uk
Genie mail.genie.co.uk
ic24 pop3.ic24.net
Lycos pop.lycos.co.uk
Madasafish pop.madasafish.com
Netscapeonline 1 pophost1.netscapeonline.co.uk
Netscapeonline 2 pophost2.netscapeonline.co.uk
NTLWorld pop.ntlworld.com
Purplenet pop3.purplenet.co.uk
Supanet pop.supanet.com
Tesconet mail.tesco.net
UKGateway pop.ukgateway.net
Yahoo pop.mail.yahoo.co.uk
mail.eircom.net mail.eircom.net
mail.tesco.net mail.tesco.net
mail.mts.net mail.mts.net
mail.peoplepc.com mail.peoplepc.com
mail.telus.net mail.telus.net
mail.telus.net mail.telus.net
mail.mts.net mail.mts.net
mail.ny.com mail.ny.com
mail.millerks.com mail.millerks.com
mail.mohaas.co.uk mail.mohaas.co.uk
mail.earthlink.net mail.earthlink.net
mail.charter.net mail.charter.net
mail.mts.net mail.mts.net
mail.ic24.net mail.ic24.net
mail.btinternet.com mail.btinternet.com
mail.mts.net mail.mts.net
mail.earthlink.net mail.earthlink.net
mail.mts.net mail.mts.net
mail.mts.net mail.mts.net
mail.mailstation.com mail.mailstation.com
mail.surewest.net mail.surewest.net
mail.suscom.net mail.suscom.net
mail.btinternet.com mail.btinternet.com
mail.eircom.net mail.eircom.net
mail.surewest.net mail.surewest.net
mail.cfl.rr.com mail.cfl.rr.com
mail.eircom.net mail.eircom.net
mail.mts.net mail.mts.net
mail.btinternet.com mail.btinternet.com
mail.peoplepc.com mail.peoplepc.com

New Russian Second level domains (SLD) available

2010-05-27T13:56:00.000-07:00

Following the provisions of the Service Agreement please be informed
that on May 31, 2010 RU-CENTER launches registration of third-level
domain names in MSK.RU, SPB.RU, NOV.RU and other geographical domains.

Registration fee for such domains amounts to 450 rub (17.7 USD) per year.
Renewal fee is 360 rub (14.2 USD) per year.

This works out cheaper than the top level domains (19.6 USD), and gives another opportunity to get the name you want.

Russian
рф		1200 RUB		ru	600 RUB		su	600 RUB



Therefore, the Addenda to the Service Agreement will be changed accordingly:
nic.ru/news/en/2010/31.05.regl-ch.html

How to get a South African domain name (co.za)

2010-05-19T13:00:00.000-07:00

South Africa is one overlooked english speaking country, coming a distant fifth after UK, Ireland, US, and Australia. But with 87% mobile penetration, 27.4 internet hosts per 1,000 people, and 64.9% services orientated economy, they certainly buck the trend as far as African economies go.

How do you succeed with your brand in South Africa, buy a .co.za domain name for 99 ZAR (8.85 GBP), which is under most .com costs.

We got #1 in google south africa for "SMS" check us out at http://www.freebiesms.co.za just on the back of a .co.za domain alone!

When domain name offers are not offers

2010-05-12T04:18:00.001-07:00

Many domain name registrars offer an introductory price for domain name registration which goes up in year 2. Unless you intend to drop your domain after 1 year, then this is NEVER a good offer.

For example, namecheap offers .com for $9.69 per annum (£6.55), where 1&1 offers an introductory price of £5.99 rising to £8.99. So on year 1, you save 56p with 1&1, then loose £1.88 on year 2, and £4.32 on year 3.

DNS servers with 99.99% uptime

2010-05-01T04:44:00.000-07:00

Our Free DNS servers, at www.freenameservers.co.uk have 99.99% uptime, this is
an uptime report for March 2010

Monthly uptime:99.99% Downtime:3 min(s) 38 sec(s)
           Day 2010-04-30 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-29 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-28 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-27 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-26 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-25 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-24 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-23 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-22 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-21 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-20 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-19 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-18 Uptime:99.79% Downtime:3 min(s) 2 sec(s)
           Day 2010-04-16 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-15 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-14 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-13 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-12 Uptime:99.96% Downtime:36 sec(s)
           Day 2010-04-11 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-10 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-09 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-08 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-07 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-06 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-05 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-04 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-03 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-02 Uptime:100.00%
           Day 2010-04-01 Uptime:100.00%

AWS in Asia

2010-04-29T01:54:00.001-07:00

Amazon announces the immediate availability of Asia Pacific Region in Singapore.

Starting today, Asia Pacific-based businesses and global businesses with customers based in Asia Pacific can run their applications and workloads in AWS's Singapore Region to reduce latency to end-users in Asia and to avoid the undifferentiated heavy lifting associated with maintaining and operating their own infrastructure. The new Singapore Region launches with multiple availability zones and currently supports:

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2)
Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)
Amazon SimpleDB
Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS)
Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS)
Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS)
Amazon CloudWatch
Amazon CloudFront

Singapore Region pricing is available on the detail page of each service

Performance improvement for DNS lookups

2010-04-20T08:57:00.000-07:00

Wondered why companies like Google have their nameservers named like ns1.google.com ?, rather than ns1.SomeOtherCompany.com ? - its' a performance tweak, that I'll demonstrate with a detailed lookup as follows:

DNS speed check for www.google.com

Probing k.root-servers.net for 'A' record for www.google.com.

Refered to b.gtld-servers.net. [Time 426 ms]

Probing b.gtld-servers.net for 'A' record for www.google.com.

Refered to ns3.google.com. [Time 81 ms]

Probing ns3.google.com for 'A' record for www.google.com.

Found, 'A' record for www.google.com. [Time 111 ms]

See, three lookups, one for .com, the other for .google.com, and finally www.google.com

Now, compare that with freenameservers.co.uk, whose nameserver is not on the same domain

DNS speed check for www.freenameservers.co.uk

Probing k.root-servers.net for 'A' record for www.freenameservers.co.uk.

Refered to ns2.nic.uk. [Time 337 ms]

Probing ns2.nic.uk for 'A' record for www.freenameservers.co.uk.

Refered to ns1.telivo.com. [Time 84 ms]

Probing k.root-servers.net for 'A' record for ns1.telivo.com.

Refered to b.gtld-servers.net. [Time 366 ms]

Probing b.gtld-servers.net for 'A' record for ns1.telivo.com.

Refered to ns0.ai270.net. [Time 84 ms]

Probing ns0.ai270.net for 'A' record for ns1.telivo.com.

Found, 'A' record for ns1.telivo.com. [Time 97 ms]

Probing ns1.telivo.com for 'A' record for www.freenameservers.co.uk.

Found, 'A' record for www.freenameservers.co.uk. [Time 84 ms]

Six lookups in total, one for .uk, then .com then telvio.com, then ns1.telvio.com, then freenameservers.co.uk. then www.freenameservers.co.uk

So, in short, if you have the option, you should always have your nameservers named the same as your primary domain.

DNS in IPv6

2010-04-13T11:24:00.000-07:00

IPv6

In the introduction we would like to mention "the next generation Internet, or IPv6. You've probably already heard that the current IPv4 protocol is slow breath. Address space is nearly exhausted and, according to preliminary estimates, free IP addresses run out completely in 2012. Moving from zastarávajícího protocol to the new world is very slow and the content of IPv6 is still not much. Therefore, the users of this "news" too interested, though they will have many benefits. For example, with its huge address space of each device will have a so-called public address accessible from anywhere mobility, the automatic configuration and increased security through many mechanisms.

We would provide these benefits to you, our customers. We try to encourage and accelerate the transition to IPv6, and we are on the network to make available all our services. More information can be found at the end of this newsletter.

Overview of the occupied area

For hosting customers, we have prepared pie charts illustrating the use of their space in the purchased fare. In them it is apparent distribution space in the data to FTP, e-mails, databases and backups. At first glance, you may startle amount of space occupied on backup server. Security of data entrusted to you is our priority and therefore, all data is backed up regularly and carefully. We keep you for seven backups of all systems - the last five days and the last two months. So if you accidentally lose any data at your request, we can recover.

OnlineDNS - added support for SRV and AAAA records

In our application for managing DNS domains our management we have added support for SRV and AAAA records. AAAA record is used to translate domain names to IPv6 addresses and is similar to the IPv4 A record. SRV record specifies information about available services. Commonly used for SIP services (voice calls), XMPP (online communication and data exchange, typically Jabber), LDAP (directory server data), then records of this type requires such GoogleApps.

News in the Client section

If you have a large number of domains, you will appreciate the opportunity to sort by expiration date or title. All customers are also displays the icon "Pricelist domain" is hiding under the table is arranged with the prices of existing domain account for the client section.

Custom Windows Server only for 390,-CZK per month

In the event of the deployment radically reduces the cost per virtual serverhosting using the Microsoft Windows Web Server 2008 R2 with a dedicated 1 GB, 2 GHz processing power, 30 GB hard drive, a guaranteed 100 Mbps connectivity to the Internet and a full administrator access to Remote Desktop using RDP and IIS Manager for Remote Administration. Price of hosting fare is more than dvaapůlkrát higher and amounts to CZK 990 per month.

On the server you can install software for statistics, control panel, mail server or hMail popular CMS Kentico CMS Free Edition - We are the authorized hosting partner. Virtual serverhosting on the Microsoft Windows Web Server 2008 R2 is also ideal for beginning Web developers who can run it on my first application with minimal cost.

More about virtual serverhosting for CZK 390 per month can be found here: http://www.web4u.cz/serverhosting/vs_windows

More information on IPv6 - deployment for customers and hosting serverhosting

IPv6 newly assign serverhosting customers on demand, or our Web hosting customers come in short. Our hosting services are also available via the new network. So if you want your website presentation on the IPv6 network, simply add the appropriate entries in DNS. Addresses 2001:1568:: 10 when using PHP4 respectively. 2001:1568:: 11 for PHP5. Our technical support will be happy to advise you where to make your application settings.

Your supports IPv6? Try a simple test: enter into the browser address http://ipv6.web4u.cz. If your page appears, then contact your Internet service provider asking for activation.

Google uses MarkMonitor to register it's domains...

2010-03-02T13:15:00.000-08:00

Interesting to see Google outsources it's domain name registration ...

Search on google (.co.za)
Match: One

Domain: google.co.za

Accounting info....
 Date    |Type|  Cost |Invoices are E-Mail to....|Paid Date |ICnt| TrkNo  |Billing Info
2001-06-25|  N | 200.00|dnsbilling@webafrica.co.za|2001-09-17|  4 |  164683|Diginet
2002-07-01|  R |  50.00|dnsbilling@webafrica.co.za|2002-08-07|  2 |  227053|Diginet
2003-06-06|  U |   0.00|dnbilling@alldomains.com  |2003-06-06|  0 |       0|Alldomains.com
2003-07-01|  R |  50.00|dnbilling@alldomains.com  |2003-07-09|  1 |  292974|Alldomains.com
2003-08-15|  U |   0.00|dnbilling@alldomains.com  |2003-08-15|  0 |       0|Alldomains.com
2004-07-01|  R |  50.00|dnbilling@alldomains.com  |2004-07-05|  1 |  369580|Alldomains.com
2005-07-01|  R |  50.00|dnbilling@alldomains.com  |2005-07-06|  1 |  463480|Alldomains.com
2006-07-03|  R |  50.00|dnbilling@alldomains.com  |2006-07-05|  1 |  607827|Alldomains.com
2006-07-08|  U |   0.00|ccops@markmonitor.com     |2006-07-08|  0 |       0|MarkMonitor
2006-07-15|  U |   0.00|ccops@markmonitor.com     |2006-07-15|  0 |       0|MarkMonitor
2007-07-02|  R |  50.00|ccops@markmonitor.com     |2007-07-02|  1 |  788199|MarkMonitor
2008-07-02|  R |  50.00|ccops@markmonitor.com     |2008-07-02|  1 | 1004899|MarkMonitor
2009-07-02|  R |  50.00|ccops@markmonitor.com     |2009-07-02|  1 | 1299609|MarkMonitor


Flashing RED indicates that payment has not been received - please
confirm with the UniForum SA accounting department, accounts@co.za, should this
not be according to your records. You have been sent 0 invoices/statements.



(Info:- Historical info exists - the oldest or 'original' is last) ...
         google       <-- The info shown below
        google.1
       google.2
       google.3
       google.4

0a. lastupdate             : 2006-07-15 19:16:14+02
0b. emailsource            : chris.fulgham@markmonitor.com
0c. emailposted            : Fri, 14 Jul 2006 11:03:17 -0600
0d. emailsubject           : Update google.co.za
0g. historycount           : 5
0h. invoiceno              : 0
0i. contracttype           : NEW
0j. rcsversion             : $Revision: 1.138 $ $Date: 2006/07/11 13:22:53 $
1a. domain                 : google.co.za
1b. action                 : U
2a. registrant             : Google Inc.
2b. registrantpostaladdress: 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View,
2c. registrantstreetaddress: 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View,
2d. amount                 : 0.00
2e. paymenttype            : I
2f. billingaccount         : MarkMonitor
2g. billingemail           : ccops@markmonitor.com
2i. invoiceaddress         : PMB 155, 10400 Overland Road, Boise, ID, 83709 US
2j. registrantphone        : +1 6503300100
2k. registrantfax          : +1 6506181499
2l. registrantemail        : dns-admin@google.com
2n. vat                    :
3a. operationaldate        : 2006/07/15 19:16:14
3b. cname                  :
3c. cnamesub1              :
3d. cnamesub2              :
4a. admin                  : Admin, DNS
4b. admintitle             : DNS Administrator
4c. admincompany           : Google Inc.
4d. adminpostaladdr        : 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 US
4e. adminphone             : +1 6503300100
4f. adminfax               : +1 6506181499
4g. adminemail             : dns-admin@google.com
4h. adminnic               :
5a. tec                    : Admin, DNS
5b. tectitle               : DNS Administrator
5c. teccompany             : Google Inc.
5d. tecpostaladdr          : 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 US
5e. tecphone               : +1 6503300100
5f. tecfax                 : +1 6506181499
5g. tecemail               : dns-admin@google.com
5h. tecnic                 :
6a. primnsfqdn             : ns1.google.com
6b. primnsip               : 216.239.32.10
6c. primnsipv6             :
6e. secns1fqdn             : ns2.google.com
6f. secns1ip               : 216.239.34.10
6g. secns1ipv6             :
6i. secns2fqdn             : ns3.google.com
6j. secns2ip               : 216.239.36.10
6k. secns2ipv6             :
6m. secns3fqdn             : ns4.google.com
6n. secns3ip               : 216.239.38.10
6o. secns3ipv6             :
6q. secns4fqdn             :
6r. secns4ip               :
6s. secns4ipv6             :
8a. netblock1start         :
8b. netblock1end           :
8c. netblock2start         :
8d. netblock2end           :
8e. netblock3start         :
8f. netblock3end           :
9a. description1           : Web portal doing business internationally
9b. description2           :
9c. description3           :
9d. description4           :
9e. description5           :
9f. description6           :

Price comparison of Slovenian (.si) domain names

2010-02-05T08:17:00.000-08:00

I compared a number of Slovenian domain registrars for prices for one year for a .si domain, with no hosting.

tld-registrar.com - €30 / year
101domain.com - $119 / year
slovenia-domain.com - €16.80 / year
domene.si - €19.96 / year
domovanje.si - €15.59 / year
domenar.net - €14.90
hitrost.com - €15.54
Gigaspark.com - €18.90

The cheapest of the providers that had an english option was slovenia-domain.com at 16.80 euro. They also had a paypal option, so this is the one I chose.

domenar.net also appeared to have a paypal option, but it didn't work when I tried it.

All the other providers required a bank transfer as a form of payment, and had no english option. their sales support spoke english, and were even happy to zero rate the purchase for VAT, meaning that it would have been possible to order the domain for €12.95 from HitTrost.com
(podpora@hitrost.com)

New Domain Registry System in Malaysia

2010-01-28T00:42:00.000-08:00

We are pleased to announce that .my DOMAIN REGISTRY will be launching a new .my DOMAIN REGISTRY System. We would like to thank our valued customers for all comments and opinions as the new system would not be possible without you.

With this new system,

a Registrant can apply for multiple domain names in one submission and the domain names can be registered up to 5 years
a Contact Person with the same Contact Code can perform multiple domain name transaction such as modification, deletion and transfer
a domain name to be transferred to a new Registrant, is required to make payment before it is registered.

The effective date of this new system is on Monday 1st February 2010, 9.00 A.M.

In conjunction with the launch, .my DOMAIN REGISTRY website and WHOIS service will not be available during the following planned maintenance works:

Start Date/Time : Saturday, 30th January 2010, 9:00 A.M.
Completion Date/Time : Monday, 1st February 2010, 9:00 A.M.

However, please note that all domain names registered with .my DOMAIN REGISTRY will not be affected by this.

Please do not hesitate to e-mail domreg@domainregistry.my or call us at 03-8991 7272 if you have any query at all.

Changes to the NameCheap DNS API

2010-01-27T00:50:00.000-08:00

The changes are primarily to namecheap.domains.create, namecheap.users.create methods and to the error numbers that were returned earlier. Error numbers returned for several API methods are changed and are now documented in the link below.

Changes to the API:
http://developer.namecheap.com/docs/doku.php?id=api-new-release:index

New error code documentation:
http://developer.namecheap.com/docs/doku.php?id=api-new-release:error-codes

Schedule for the update:
Jan 28, 2010 - To API sandbox (api.sandbox.namecheap.com)
Feb 15, 2010 - To production (api.namecheap.com)

NOTE: if you want to start making changes/ test today, new version of code is already available at http://test.api.sandbox.namecheap.com/. This end point will be removed after changes are moved to the proper sandbox URL.

WHMCS Plugin Customers:

Please note that the open source version of the plugin available at http://code.google.com/p/namecheap/ will not be updated anymore as WHMCS is providing their own official plugin for Namecheap. So, please pass this information on to WHMCS so that they can update the plugin.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused. Please post any question you may have in the new "Developer/ API Discussions" section of Namecheap Community Forums (http://community.namecheap.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=17)

Free DNS monitoring service

2010-01-15T07:00:00.000-08:00

http://websitemonitor.sms.eu.sk/en/signup.php

Got a problem with a DNS lookup that cuts out every so often, and you need to get SMS notification whenever the lookup fails.?

Try the link above, which will monitor your domain every 15 minutes, and email or text you whenever there's a problem.

Sunrise for Russian Federation top level domain .RF (.РФ )

2009-11-26T02:26:00.000-08:00

Today, November 25, 2009 starting 12.00 MSK trademark holders may
enjoy .РФ Domains Sunrise Registration.

The .РФ Top level domain stands for "R.F." or Russian Federation.

Before March 25, 2010 RU-CENTER clients - Russian-named trademark
holders may register .РФ domains at 1200 rub.

Before submitting an application for .РФ domain registration we recommend
that you study "Sunrise Registration Schedule in РФ TLD".

Further details about .РФ domains sunrise registration are given at nic.ru

To learn more about РФ TLD please refer to za-rf.ru

IP address change of main Nameservers

2009-11-20T02:33:00.001-08:00

IMPORTANT

IP Addresses of the nameservers on freenameservers.co.uk are changing from:

ns3.openmerchantaccount.com, from 78.110.167.104 to 85.234.144.8
ns4.openmerchantaccount.com, from 78.110.165.153 to 92.48.88.241

This change will be finalized on the 18th of December 2009, when the old IP address will
fail to work.

Into DNS, a free DNS checking service

2009-11-18T01:06:00.000-08:00

Category	Test name	Information
Parent	Domain NS records	Nameserver records returned by the parent servers are: ns3.openmerchantaccount.com. ['78.110.167.104'] (NO GLUE) [TTL=14400] ns4.openmerchantaccount.com. ['78.110.165.153'] (NO GLUE) [TTL=14400] udns2.ausregistry.net.au was kind enough to give us that information.
	TLD Parent Check	Good. udns2.ausregistry.net.au, the parent server I interogated, has information for your TLD. This is a good thing as there are some other domain extensions like "co.us" for example that are missing a direct check.
	Your nameservers are listed	Good. The parent server udns2.ausregistry.net.au has your nameservers listed. This is a must if you want to be found as anyone that does not know your DNS servers will first ask the parent nameservers.
	DNS Parent sent Glue	The parent nameserver udns2.ausregistry.net.au is not sending out GLUE for every nameservers listed, meaning he is sending out your nameservers host names without sending the A records of those nameservers. It's ok but you have to know that this will require an extra A lookup that can delay a little the connections to your site. This happends a lot if you have nameservers on different TLD (domain.com for example with nameserver ns.domain.org.)
	Nameservers A records	Good. Every nameserver listed has A records. This is a must if you want to be found.
NS	NS records from your nameservers	NS records got from your nameservers listed at the parent NS are: ns4.openmerchantaccount.com ['212.227.102.68'] [TTL=7200] ns3.openmerchantaccount.com ['78.110.167.104'] [TTL=7200]
	Recursive Queries	I could use the nameservers listed below to performe recursive queries. It may be that I am wrong but the chances of that are low. You should not have nameservers that allow recursive queries as this will allow almost anyone to use your nameservers and can cause problems. Problem record(s) are: 78.110.167.104 78.110.165.153
	Same Glue	Looks like the A records (the GLUE) got from the parent zone check are different than the ones got from your nameservers. You have to make sure your parent server has the same NS records for your zone as you do.I detected some problems as follows: For ns4.openmerchantaccount.com the parent reported: ['78.110.165.153'] and your nameservers reported: ['212.227.102.68'] For ns3.openmerchantaccount.com the parent reported: ['78.110.165.153'] and your nameservers reported: ['78.110.167.104']
	Glue for NS records	OK. When I asked your nameservers for your NS records they also returned the A records for the NS records. This is a good thing as it will spare an extra A lookup needed to find those A records.
	Mismatched NS records	OK. The NS records at all your nameservers are identical.
	DNS servers responded	Good. All nameservers listed at the parent server responded.
	Name of nameservers are valid	OK. All of the NS records that your nameservers report seem valid.
	Multiple Nameservers	Good. You have multiple nameservers. According to RFC2182 section 5 you must have at least 3 nameservers, and no more than 7. Having 2 nameservers is also ok by me.
	Nameservers are lame	OK. All the nameservers listed at the parent servers answer authoritatively for your domain.
	Missing nameservers reported by parent	OK. All NS records are the same at the parent and at your nameservers.
	Missing nameservers reported by your nameservers	OK. All nameservers returned by the parent server udns2.ausregistry.net.au are the same as the ones reported by your nameservers.
	Domain CNAMEs	OK. RFC1912 2.4 and RFC2181 10.3 state that there should be no CNAMEs if an NS (or any other) record is present.
	NSs CNAME check	OK. RFC1912 2.4 and RFC2181 10.3 state that there should be no CNAMEs if an NS (or any other) record is present.
	Different subnets	OK. Looks like you have nameservers on different subnets!
	IPs of nameservers are public	Ok. Looks like the IP addresses of your nameservers are public. This is a good thing because it will prevent DNS delays and other problems like
	DNS servers allow TCP connection	OK. Seems all your DNS servers allow TCP connections. This is a good thing and usefull even if UDP connections are used by default.
	Different autonomous systems	OK. It seems you are safe from a single point of failure. You must be carefull about this and try to have nameservers on different locations as it can prevent a lot of problems if one nameserver goes down.
	Stealth NS records sent	Ok. No stealth ns records are sent
SOA	SOA record	The SOA record is: Primary nameserver: ns3.openmerchantaccount.com Hostmaster E-mail address: ns3.openmerchantaccount.com Serial #: 1256841781 Refresh: 28800 Retry: 7200 Expire: 2419200 4 weeks Default TTL: 7200
	NSs have same SOA serial	OK. All your nameservers agree that your SOA serial number is 1256841781.
	SOA MNAME entry	OK. ns3.openmerchantaccount.com That server is listed at the parent servers.
	SOA Serial	Your SOA serial number is: 1256841781. This can be ok if you know what you are doing.
	SOA REFRESH	OK. Your SOA REFRESH interval is: 28800. That is OK
	SOA RETRY	Your SOA RETRY value is: 7200. Looks ok
	SOA EXPIRE	Your SOA EXPIRE number is: 2419200.Looks ok
	SOA MINIMUM TTL	Your SOA MINIMUM TTL is: 7200. This value was used to serve as a default TTL for records without a given TTL value and now is used for negative caching (indicates how long a resolver may cache the negative answer). RFC2308 recommands a value of 1-3 hours. Your value of 7200 is OK.
MX	MX Records	Your MX records that were reported by your nameservers are: 10 mail.freebiesms.com.au 212.227.102.68 [These are all the MX records that I found. If there are some non common MX records at your nameservers you should see them below. ]
	Different MX records at nameservers	Good. Looks like all your nameservers have the same set of MX records. This tests to see if there are any MX records not reported by all your nameservers and also MX records that have the same hostname but different IPs
	MX name validity	Good. I did not detect any invalid hostnames for your MX records.
	MX IPs are public	OK. All of your MX records appear to use public IPs.
	MX CNAME Check	OK. No problems here.
	MX A request returns CNAME	OK. No CNAMEs returned for A records lookups.
	MX is not IP	OK. All of your MX records are host names.
	Number of MX records	OK. Looks like you only have one MX record at your nameservers. You should be carefull about what you are doing since you have a single point of failure that can lead to mail being lost if the server is down for a long time.
	Mismatched MX A	OK. I did not detect differing IPs for your MX records.
	Duplicate MX A records	OK. I have not found duplicate IP(s) for your MX records. This is a good thing.
	Reverse MX A records (PTR)	Your reverse (PTR) record: 68.102.227.212.in-addr.arpa -> s15243155.onlinehome-server.info You have reverse (PTR) records for all your IPs, that is a good thing.
WWW	WWW A Record	Your www.freebiesms.com.au A record is: www.freebiesms.com.au [212.227.102.68]
	IPs are public	OK. All of your WWW IPs appear to be public IPs.
	WWW CNAME	OK. No CNAME

Processed in 0.214 seconds.

This is a sample domain set up on FreeNameServers.co.uk, and the report is from IntoDNS

Attract new customers with a free £75.00 voucher

2009-11-05T08:36:00.000-08:00

Redeem your AdWords voucher in just minutes:

Visit Google Adwords and click "Try AdWords now" to create your account.
Log into your new AdWords account, and we'll help you create your first campaign, step by step.
In your AdWords account, fill out your “Billing Preferences”.
In the 'Promotional Code' field, enter the following exactly as given: HHMZ-2A52-NN2P-82MG-VTW
Click “Save and Activate.” Now you’re ready to go live and start acquiring new customers.

(Offer is limited to one per customer)

Expired domain auction for Russian domains

2009-10-26T11:47:00.000-07:00

Effective November 9 RU-CENTER'S fee for a domain sold at an auction will
reduce down to 7% and now
minimum and maximum fee limits are thereby abolished. This makes the domains
sale process at auction.nic.ru more profitable!

Furthermore, the users may specify the dedicated rubrics, for which the sold
domain may be attributed to.
This will ease the domain search for the buyers and enhance the chance of
its successful sale.

Rubrics and descriptions of the domains sold may be changed at any auction
stage.

With a view to the above, effective November 9, 2009 the "Domain Name
Auction Schedule" will be modified accordingly.

---

RU-NIC Administrative Group
e-mail: auction@nic.ru
phones: +7 495 737-0601
fax: +7 495 737-0602

Registering a Slovenian (.si) domain name

2009-10-26T09:51:00.000-07:00

When setting up a Slovenian (.si) domain name, you can check the DNS setup with this tool on
zrd.arnes.si/dnstool/index-en.html , the slovenian NIC.

When working correctly, the results should be:

DNS PREDELEGATION PROCEDURE:

-------------------------
Automatically is being checked:

domain name registration
number of NS records
values in SOA record
consistency of SOA and NS records
authority of given nameservers
activity of email address in SOA record

DNS checking is based on following standards and recommendations:

Lines in report that start with:

OK: are messages about successful tests
INFO: are informative messages
WARN: are messages about potentially problematic settings
ERROR: are error messages

ERROR: line is usually followed by a group of INFO: lines that describe possible reasons for errors.

Note: Messages describing errors can be repeated in predelegation process
if checkings are performed in different phases of the process.

If you notice domain name repeatedly in error messages, for example:

INFO: Primary MX record for domain.si: 10 mail.domain.si.domain.si

this means you forgot to put an '.' at the end of the record, which results in default addition of local domain.

Whole procedure and possible error reasons can be found below.

For additional information about domain delegation, please contact your registrar.

WARN: Domain name xxxx.si already has following DNS records:



xxx.si.   86400   IN   NS   ns1.xxx.com.
xxx.si.   86400   IN   NS   ns2.xxx.com.

INFO: Testing if domain name pocenileti.si is registered
OK: Domain pocenileti.si is registered

INFO: Checking SOA record for pocenileti.si on ns3.vuelosbaratos.net
INFO: SOA record for pocenileti.si on ns3.vuelosbaratos.net:
xxx.si ; domain
xxx.xxx.ie ; email
604800 ; expire
10800 ; minimum
ns1.xxx.net ; origin
10800 ; refresh
3600 ; retry
2009102601 ; serial
OK: SOA zapis za pocenileti.si na domenskem strežniku xxx.si obstaja

INFO: Checking NS records for pocenileti.si on ns3.xxx.net

INFO: NS records for xxx.si on ns3.xxx.net are:
ns1.xxx.net, ns3.xx.net
INFO: Computer ns3.xxx.net has IP numbers: 85.xxx.3.133
INFO: Computer ns1.xxx.net has IP numbers: 86.xxx.98.194
OK: NS records are OK

INFO: Checking values in SOA record

INFO: Primary nameserver change ns3.xxx.net -> ns1.xxx.net
WARN: Refresh time (10800) is not in the zone of recommended values [28800-86400]
WARN: Minimum TTL time (10800) is not in the zone of recommended values [86400-432000]
OK: SOA record is OK

INFO: Checking if email in SOA record is active

INFO: MX record xxx.ie with preference 20 on fallback001.xxx-concepts.nl
INFO: MX record xxx.ie with preference 10 on mail.xxxx.ie
INFO: MX record xxx.ie with preference 30 on fallback002.xxx-concepts.nl
INFO: Primary MX record for xxx.ie: 10 mail.xxx.ie
OK: Email address xxx@xxx.ie on 65.182.xxx.78 is probably active.

INFO: Checking consistency of NS and SOA records

OK: NS records for xxx.si on 85.xxx.3.133(ns3.xxx.net) and ns1.xxx.net(86.109.98.194) are the same
OK: SOA records for xxx.si on 85.xxx.3.133(ns3.xxx.net) and ns1.xxx.net(86.109.98.194) are the same
OK: NS and SOA records are the same on all nameservers
OK: Nameservers for xxx.si on 86.xxx.98.194 are the same as nameservers in registry.

THE END OF PREDELEGATION DNS CHECK FOR DOMAIN NAME pocenileti.si

OK: Domena xxx.si ustreza kriterijem za vpis v DNS.

Namecheap downtime

2009-10-22T01:51:00.000-07:00

During the maintenance communication with the registry will be unavailable affecting new registrations, renewals, and transfers.

Starting at 6 PM PT on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 until Saturday, October 24th at 2 AM PT, namecheap will be conducting maintenance on our database and datacenter. As a result communication with the registry will be unavailable affecting new registrations, renewals, and transfers.

The following services will not be affected and will continue to be fully operational:

- DNS will resolve normally - although operational through this downtime, any changes to DNS settings may be delayed intermittently for a period of up to 24 hours from the start of the maintenance period
- All web hosting services will work normally
- Email will send and receive normally
- Email and URL forwarding will operate normally

Namecheap anticipate the maintenance will only last up to eight hours.

Calculating Pagerank with matricies

2009-09-16T05:19:00.000-07:00

Google pagerank is calculated as a function of how many pages link to you, and how many pages link to the pages that link to the pages that link to you, and so on.

Evidence suggests that this pagerank is calculated by google using Matrix calculations, not least, because it would be much faster to calculate.

Here is how it is done.

Imagine six web pages, that interlink as shown
(See image Left)

From this, we create a 6x6 matrix, where the rows represent pages, and the columns represent links to other pages.

A "Link" is a Matrix cell in the format 1/x where x is the total number of out-links from that page. So 1/2 means that there are 2 out-links.

This is the Matrix shown in Fractions (above). This needs to be converted to decimals, so I can feed it into Wolfram alpha for the calculations:
{{0,0.5,0.5,0,0,0},
{0,0,0,0,0,0},
{0.33,0.33,0,0,0.33,0},
{0,0,0,0,0.5,0.5},
{0,0,0,0.5,0,0.5},
{0,0,0,1,0,0}}

To calculate the pagerank, we need to pre-multiply it by a matrix {1,1,1,1,1,1} known as the Pagerank Vector.

This then yields the result:

Which shows, in relative importance, which page would be deemed most important, in this case "1.5" which is Page 4.

Namecheap affiliate program

2009-09-02T12:57:00.000-07:00

Namecheap's new affiliate program

And here's their prices:

biz $9.69/yr
bz $28.88/yr
ca $15.95/yr
cc $28.88/yr
cm $104.99/yr
cn $28.88/yr
co.uk $8.88/yr
com $9.69/yr
com.cn $28.88/yr
de $17.88/yr
eu $11.44/yr
in $21.00/yr
info $2.98/yr
me $21.98/yr
mobi $7.99/yr
net $9.69/yr
net.cn $28.88/yr
nu $28.88/yr
org $9.69/yr
org.cn $28.88/yr
org.uk $8.88/yr
tv $17.99/yr
us $8.88/yr
ws $28.88/yr

Price comparison for .gr (Greek) domain names

2009-08-04T02:15:00.000-07:00

Shopping around for a .GR (Greek) domain name, I came up with the following prices

Papaki.gr - 20 Euros / 2 Years
Pointer.gr - 17 euros / 2 years
dnhost.gr - 17.85 euros / 2 years
domains.gr - 23.68 euros / 2 years
hyperhosting.gr - 19.04 euros / 2 years
aws.gr - 20 euros / 2 years
EuroDNS - 35 Euros / 2 years

The two cheapest, Pointer.gr and dnhost.gr don't have an english version, however, many common words are in english, but to be honest, I prefer to pay an extra 2 euros, to be more comfortable that I don't have to rely on Google Translate to deal with tech. Support.

A few second level domains are emerging in Greece, such as the common .com.gr, .net.gr, .org.gr, and the less common .co.gr, and the newly promoted .aws.gr

In Greece, the Greek alphabet is used rather than the latin alphabet, so IDN domains are rising in popularity, but it is still possible to transliterate words from Greek to Latin.

Free SMS to the Isle of Man

2009-07-23T17:14:00.000-07:00

FreebieSMS.IM
Free SMS to the Isle of Man

This site allows people to send free SMS messages to the Isle of Man's Manx Telecom network, and every other UK network, for Irish mobile phone networks please click the link above.

If you want to want to put this on your own website, we also have an Affiliate Program

Supporting React OS

2009-07-23T12:20:00.000-07:00

React OS, is a alpha-stage Operating System designed to become an open-source equivalent of the Windows Operating system.

Open Merchant Account Ltd, the company behind Free Name Servers, is a proud sponsor of their development efforts.

Currently FreeNameServers.co.uk is hosted on a Windows Machine with a Linux DNS back-end. But it would be hoped to move the entire platform to Linux, to save on hosting Fees. Since the platform relies heavily on the .NET platform, and other Microsoft only technologies, such as SQL server.

It is hoped, that in the future ReactOS will be the solution to our hosting platform, and provide the cheap scalability that is required for today's websites.

We urge other companies to follow suit, and provide similar donations to React OS.

Free domain name registration

2009-06-09T02:32:00.000-07:00

https://www.dns.pl/english/principles-n.html

The Polish Domain Registry (DNS.PL) allows free direct registration of .com.pl domain names, and possibly others.

All you need are two DNS servers, which you can use our free dns servers
and, you need to sign and fax an agreement to them.

To think, Uniweb have the cheek to charge 54 euros for a free service!.

Russian NIC Renewal Policy

2009-06-05T01:40:00.000-07:00

Effective June 16, 2009 RU-CENTER provides for its clients an updated
procedure for domains delegation suspension caused by non-payment
in RU, SU, NET, COM, ORG, BIZ, INFO, TEL, CC, TV, ME TLDs. If a Registrant,

for some reason, failed to renew in time the domain registration due
to expire on a day off or a legal holiday, RU-CENTER will postpone domain
deletion to the second business day following a day off or legal holiday.

Domain deletion procedure in NET, COM, ORG, BIZ, INFO, TEL, CC, TV, ME
TLDs, for which RU-CENTER is a Registrar, will also be launched only on
business days.

Due to updates in domain delegation, deletion and registration renewal
procedure, the following documents will be updated to take effect
since June 16, 2009:

- Addendum 1: List of services
- Addendum 2: Pricing

- Schedule 1/1: Domains Registration Schedule in RU TLD
- Schedule 1/3: Domains Maintenance Schedule
- Schedule 1/4: Domains Registration Schedule in NET, COM, ORG, BIZ,
INFO TLDs
- Schedule 1/5: Domains Registration Schedule in SU TLD
- Schedule 1/7: Domains Registration Schedule in NET, COM, ORG, BIZ,
INFO, CC, TV, ME TLDs
- Domains Registration Agreement in NET, COM, ORG, BIZ, INFO, CC,
TV, ME TLDs
- Schedule 1/10: Hosting Schedule
- Schedule 1/12: TEL Domain Name Registration Schedule
- TEL Domain Registration Agreement

Comparing Amazon EC2 to standard Windows hosting

2009-06-04T05:05:00.000-07:00

I know the benifits of Cloud computing, are that your resources scale with your needs, so if nobody visits your website at 5am, you don't have to pay for it, and if a million users visit your site on christmas eve, then you can handle them.

But, Imagine a normal website, that gets a few hundred hits an hour. Pretty modest, but normal.

Compare amazon's pricing with a similar package:

United States

Europe

Standard Instances	Windows	Windows with Authentication Services
Small (Default)	$0.125 per hour	$0.25 per hour

Working that our, is 720 hours per month @ 0.0125 USD per hour is $90 per month, or 54 GBP.

A typical dedicated windows server (Core 2 Duo, 1G RAM) would be £49, so pretty similar.

On top of that, I guess you get the complexity of EC2, which is not as point and click as a simple rented server.

Special offer from Ukrainian NIC

2009-06-04T01:46:00.000-07:00

Service NIC.UA turned 2 years!

We grew by 250% for the second year working with us have to work on more than 20 thousand users!
We zanymaem lydyruyuschye position in nearly all Ukrainian domains!
Most cost domain registration low in Ukraine, acting nakopytelnaya off.

In honor of his birthday the day we Darima you gifts and discounts from our
friends and partners:

1. The first 50 users that since obtaining this
zarehystryruyut writing any new domain. COM.UA or. UA on
site nic.ua, receive as a gift "Небесный fonaryk" from our
partner - the online store www.podaro4ek.com.ua.

"Небесный fonaryk" - a beautiful zrelysche, which udyvyt and
poraduet you and your friends, they are not only beautiful, but also play
role небесных pochtalonov, delivered «on appointment» our
Wish, Dreams and unosya horesty and nepryyatnosty.

2. On gifts allocated only 50 Небесных fonarykov "but if you do not
will be able to get it as a gift - not ohorchaytes!
Vospolzuytes unique proposal - Order any gift
at the site of our partner www.podaro4ek.com.ua with special
10% discount on any product and 20% for "Небесные fonaryky.

To obtain discount you report enough about the manager,
client that you nic.ua.

3. You have the opportunity to register unykalnuyu Any domain
second level of UA even if you're still not brand!
Our partner www.vlasnyk.ua makes unique offer of 20%
discount on the registration of trademark registration + free
UA domain for 2 years.
Yes, only for 800 USD (with discount 20%)
You get:
- Trademark registration for 3 months
- UA domain Registration deadline for 2 years
- Any additional services, with 20% discount

To obtain discounts and the registration of domain UA 2 years, you
report enough about the manager that you client nic.ua!

4. MORE 15% discount when ordering any domain nic.ua:
When ordering the domain, using the code: HB2009
Code operates on unbounded number of zakazov all summer!
You can pass friends.

5. 25% discount on hosting services on the site hosted.in.ua:
When ordering, using the code: HB2009
Code operates on unbounded number of zakazov to 30.06.09!
You can pass friends.

This is still not all!
We invite you to register on the site www.webmaster.com.ua
to ensure that you do not miss unykalnuyu international
conference. At the conference we most Tell you a little later.

What ozhydat of service in the near future?
- We are not ready prekraschaem grow and new features and services, which still has no analog in the world.
- In the near future will be added polnotsennaya support service entities.
- Plans to redesign the site to improve navigation.
- We do everything possible, that prices are not growing and not nykakoy crisis pomeshal you polzovatsya most advantageous tariffs nic.ua!

We Thank you for of confidence and do everything possible in order to make service better, and dostupnee udobnee.
Brand and Internet service NIC.UA prynadlezhyt of Service Online, which deals with registration of domain names in Ukraine since 2001.

This letter sent to you as zarehystryrovannomu users.
Your login for nic.ua: fiach

This letter was sent from the address yspolzuemoho only for uvedomlenyy,
on which not adopted vhodyaschaya mail. Not responding to him. If you raise
what-or questions, please page form obratnoy connection: https: / / nic.ua / rus / support / ask.html

--
Sincerely, team project NIC.UA
(c) 2001-2009, LLC "Service Online

£10 Gift voucher from Namesco (Simply Names)

2009-05-27T14:01:00.000-07:00

Their 'Refer a Friend' scheme allows us both to receive a gift of High Street Vouchers simply by you placing an order through recommendation from an existing Namesco customer (that's me).

If your order online totals over £25 we'll both receive a £10 gift, or for slightly larger orders over £50 we'll receive a £25 gift each!

Visit their website today:

http://www.names.co.uk/referral/?code=BEHLMOPVW5

And take a look at their fantastic range of products and services!

Twitter switches from TinyURL to Bit..Ly

2009-05-21T01:05:00.000-07:00

I just spotted this morning, that Twitter is now using Bit.Ly as it's URL shortner, rather than TinyUrl.com, I wonder does the extra 5 letters make all the difference, or is there some other reason?

For those interested, ly is Lybia. which runs off the following name servers:

ly nameserver = ns-ly.ripe.net
ly nameserver = auth02.ns.uu.net
ly nameserver = dns1.lttnet.net
ly nameserver = phloem.uoregon.edu
ly nameserver = dns.lttnet.net

auth02.ns.uu.net internet address = 198.6.1.82
dns1.lttnet.net internet address = 62.68.42.9
phloem.uoregon.edu internet address = 128.223.32.35
dns.lttnet.net internet address = 62.240.36.9

Indian Domain Names, price comparison

2009-05-07T08:03:00.000-07:00


.		.in	.co.in	.net.in	.org.in
.	EuroDNS	24 €
.	webcomindia.net/	Rs. 800	Rs. 500
.	http://www.cheapdomainnames.co.u	£39.99
.	indomains.net	$19.95	$9.95	$9.95
.	http://www.domainz.in	Rs. 453	Rs. 362	Rs. 453	Rs. 453
.	indialinks.com/	RS 275	RS 250	RS 250
.	.netlynx.in	$4.99 [1]	$4.99[2]

[1] USD 12.49 after 1st Year
[2] USD 7.49 after 1st Year

250 Indian rupees = 5.09475 U.S. dollars

Therefore, for a single year registration, NetLynx is cheapest, for 2 or more years,
then use IndiaLinks.com.

.co.at domains price comparison

2009-05-02T14:08:00.000-07:00

A few prices for .co.at domains

101domain $49
https://www.sachsenprovider.eu 21.99 EUR
http://www.easyname.eu € 14.9
http://www.united-domains.de 49 eur
http://www.chillydomains.at 23.88 €
http://www.world4you.com € 29,00
innter.net 13.47 Euro

So, at the moment, innter.net is the cheapest. They claim the domain is for free, but
you have to 'buy' a DNS server package for 13.47 euros per year, the year after they charge 15.47 euros.

But still, I guess after 3 years, easyname.eu might be cheaper by a few cents though.

IDN domains in Ireland (.ie)

2009-04-30T08:56:00.000-07:00

> I wonder does the IEDR domain registry have any plans to support IDN
> names in Ireland?

IEDR are technically in a position to offer IDN domain registrations
already.  Widespread deployment would require policy development and
some minor systems development work.  This work is not scheduled into
our short term work plans.

Demand for IDN domains in Ireland has been very very low thus far. 
Accordingly, this level of demand has been reflected in our
prioritisation of the IDN work.
--

Kind regards

______________________________________________
Billy Glynn
Head of Application Support and Development
Technical Services
IE Domain Registry Ltd

Tel:  +353 (0)1 2365404
Mobile: +353 (0)87 9188317
Email:  billy.glynn@domainregistry.ie
Web:    http://iedr.ie

españa.es

2009-04-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

I couldn't believe my luck for a moment, I thought españa.es was still available.

I Checked the IDN, xn--espaa-rta.es, and saw no DNS information, so went to Eurodns,
but got this link

"Whois information for this extension is only available at the registry's website. Use the following link to open the registry's website.

Take me to the registry's website"

then

xn--espaa-rta.es	Dominio no permitido	Seleccionar agente registrador	Consultar normativa

on Red.es.

So close :)

Free domain names, .org.ua and .pp.ua

2009-04-20T02:40:00.000-07:00

The Ukrainian NIC are giving away .pp.ua domain names for free, they also say they are giving away .org.ua, but I wasn't able to figure out how to get one.

.com.ua costs buttons at 4.75 USD, but still free is always better :)

(http://nic.ua/eng/index.html)

DNS hosting for .su (Soviet Union) IDN domains

2009-04-18T04:48:00.000-07:00

I've just put the first IDN domain on FreeNameServers.co.uk, a mere 600 Rubles (£12) from NIC.RU/EN.

The domain is бесплатныесмс.su, ("Besplatnye SMS") which resolves via puny code to http://www.xn--80abmb2aifnrfbh2j.su/ - The .su TLD actually refers to the Soviet Union, which is a TLD that ICANN is trying to revoke at the moment, at the behest of the Russian NIC.

The official TLD of Russia is .ru, but Google still recognises .su as a official domain name, and my personal feeling that trying to uproot 17 Million websites (search site:.su in Google), would be something that the Russian NIC wouldn't do lightly.

Furthermore, NIC.ru is only selling IDN domains for .su, not .ru. Which is a bit wierd.

The importance of local country domain names

2009-04-10T02:58:00.000-07:00

The first domain I ever bought was webtropy.com back in 2001, eight years ago. I bought it because the name was unusual, a combination of "web", and "entropy",

information: (communication theory) a numerical measure of the uncertainty of an outcome; "the signal contained thousands of bits of information"

If I could go back eight years, and just tell myself, that nobody cares if you think of a funky name, with fancy words. Unless you've got the branding budget of Coca-Cola, nobody gives a sh*t.

Every domain I buy today, and that's one a month, at least, is something that means something. The domain *must* match the search term you're targeting. The best example of this, is Mesothelioma.ie. It matches the highest paying keyword in the world, and hit #1 spot in Google.ie in 24 hours. - It's dropped a little since, but it's still ranking well.

This is certainly an unfair advantage in Google. I would concur with anybody who could pick out 10 much more deserving websites for that position, but, If you know how to play the domain game in Google, it's their loss.

So, going back to the topic of the post. I've understood the importance of top level country domain names, and I've got hard figures to back up what I'm saying here, it's not a hunch, not a guess, it's fact.

If you sell something that is only relevant for one country, i.e. Wedding car hire in England, then there is very very little chance that someone from south africa will care about your site, so you should not target them, or even delude yourself into thinking you *might* make a sale outside of England. Forget it, it won't happen, be honest. Therefore, DO NOT BUY WeddingCarHire.com, instead by WeddingCarHire.co.uk. you will get a boost in Google.co.uk, that is worth hundreds of pounds in online advertising.

The next business model is one that goes international well, such as, International Mobile Phone Sim cards. So therefore, instead of buying InternationalSimCards.com, which is (a) giving you no advantage in the UK / US (b) Alienating all non-english speakers. You should buy InternationalSimCards.co.uk, AND simKarteWeltweit.de, .ch, .at, etc.,

Sure, this means extra cost in Domain name registration fees, dilution of your brand, translation fees, but believe me, it will be worth it.

Even if the top level domain of a country is not available, then a second level domain is ok too. They are normally cheaper, less regulated, and give the same boost in google. Ie, a .co.cz is much easier to get than a .cz, same for .sk and .eu.sk. same for .co.pt and pt. The list goes on.

Some sample boosts in Google due to getting a top level domain from the target-contry:
.com -> .co.cz - 70 Google.cz positions up in one month.
.com -> .ie - 681 Google.ie positions up in one month.

You can get the same effect with online advertising, but, this approach is much cheaper, and in my mind, easier.

That's my thoughts on SEO this Easter weekend.

DNS Setup of an IDN domain

2009-04-08T07:55:00.000-07:00

IDN domains allow non-latin letters to be present in domain names. For example the hungarian word "Cheap" should be spelt as "olcsó" which cannot be resolved with standard DNS due to the accented "ó".

For this purpose, the encoding "punycode" was developed, a punycode converter can be found at http://mct.verisign-grs.com/index.shtml

A sample conversion would be xn--olcs-tqa.hu for olcsó.hu

On a seperate note, Hungarian domains have a unusual requirement, postmaster@.hu must exist. The DNS check at the Hungary NIC has a good check which shows this:

http://www.domain.hu/domain/English/regcheck/

Technical check

Results of the domain check

Congratulations!, the domain xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu is configured correctly.

Should you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact hostmaster@ns.nic.hu.

Output of the check procedure:
..............................................................................
M-GREET -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] Domi version 20090324
M-NADD -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] NS addr: 86.xxx.xxx.194
M-PNAM -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] primary NS name: ns1.xxx.net
M-PADD -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] primary NS addr: 86.xxx.xxx.194
M-PGET -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] getting domain from NS 86.xxx.xxx.194 ...
M-PRZO -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] cannot download domain from 86.xxx.xxx.194
M-PARI -W- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] NS records inconsistent with parent !!!
M-ROK -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] SOA parameters comply with RIPE
M-NS -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] A records for DNS servers:
addr of NS ns1.xxx.net.: 86.xxx.xxx.194
addr of NS ns2.xxx.net.: 86.xxx.xxx.196
M-SOA -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] A record for SOA mail host xxx.ie:
addr of MX fallback002.hosting-concepts.nl.: 80.95.170.17
addr of MX fallback001.hosting-concepts.nl.: 87.233.136.38
addr of MX mail.xxx.ie.: 65.182.102.78
M-MX -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] A records for MX records:
addr of MX mail.xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu.: 86.xxx.xxx.201
M-PTR -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] getting traceroute info to 86.xxx.xxx.194... done
M-NSC -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] checking NS records ...
M-SGET -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] getting data from 86.xxx.xxx.196 ns2.xxx.net ...
M-STR -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] getting traceroute info to ns2.xxx.net... done
M-TRL -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] traceroute lengths differ 9 8
M-TRC -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] traceroutes differ (9): 86.xxx.xxx.194
M-PMAI -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] checking postmaster e-mail at mail.xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu, 86.xxx.xxx.201 ...
M-VOUT -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] address verification: Requested mail action okay, completed
M-MXOK -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] MX server okay
M-SMAI -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] checking SOA mail xxx@xxx.ie at 80.95.170.17
M-VRRT -W- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] retrying verify 1
M-VOUT -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] address verification: Deferred: Connection closed
M-SOAMI -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] SOA mail address check failed at MX, (80.95.170.17)
M-SMAI -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] checking SOA mail xxx@xxx.ie at 87.233.136.38
M-VRRT -W- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] retrying verify 1
M-VOUT -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] address verification: 213.239.177.111 could not deliver to 213.239.177.111
User unknown
M-SOAMI -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] SOA mail address check failed at MX, (87.233.136.38)
M-SMAI -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] checking SOA mail xxx@xxx.ie at 65.182.102.78
M-VOUT -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] address verification: 2.1.5 Ok
M-MXOK -I- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] MX server okay
M-OK -S- [xn--xxx-3hb3k88c.hu] All's well............ that ends well.................

Blogspot DNS setup without CNAME

2009-04-02T02:25:00.000-07:00

I recently looked at hosting one of my blogspot / blogger domains on my own domain name,
i.e. www.mesothelioma.ie

According to instructions, you are meant to point the CNAME to ghs.google.com, however, I found the same effect if you just point the domain to 74.125.77.121. This may be bypassing some of google's load balancing systems, but... It works.

.travel top level domain

2009-04-01T07:37:00.001-07:00

I came accross a domain today with a .travel top level domain. I was surprised to know it was coming into common useage.

In order to register a .travel domain name, you need to be authenticated by ABTA or one of the organisations listed at travel.travel

The TLD DNS service is backed by UltraDNS as follows:

travel nameserver = tld6.ultradns.co.uk
travel nameserver = TLD5.ULTRADNS.INFO
travel nameserver = tld4.ultradns.org
travel nameserver = tld3.ultradns.org
travel nameserver = tld2.ultradns.net
travel nameserver = tld1.ultradns.net
travel nameserver = B.GTLD.travel
travel nameserver = A.GTLD.travel

Comparison of .RS (Serbian) Domain name registration costs

2009-03-18T07:25:00.000-07:00

EUNet.rs 13.17 €
http://www.bitsyu.net/nic/ 12.61 €
https://www.loopia.rs/domeni/ 10.18 €
http://www.absolutok.rs/ 12.61 €
http://www.madnet.rs/domeni/ 12.04 €
http://www.cri.co.yu/usluge/rsdomeni 10.51 €
http://sezamhosting.com/rs/ 11.93 €
http://www.verat.net/sr/web-hosting/registracija-rs-domena/ 13.14 €
http://hosting.neobee.net/rsdomen.php 14.6 €
http://www.ninet.rs/en/rs-domain-registration.php 12 € * English
http://www.hostingmania.rs/ 11.95 €
http://hosting.sbb.rs/ 12.34 €

The cheapest registration is with Loopia.rs at just over 10 euros, but their website is in Serbian, and hard to navigate.

The cheapest english registration service is ninet.rs, at 12 euros. You get a .co.rs SLD for this, and the process is pretty painless, although the paypal payment option was buggy.

Comparison of .RO (Romanian) domain name registration costs:

2009-03-18T07:21:00.000-07:00

Comparison of .RO (Romanian) domain name registration costs:

EuroDNS 28 €
http://nic.ro 17 €
inregistrare-domenii-ro.com 26 €
rowebsolutions.ro 39 €
www.domenii.eu 33 €
www.abonet.ro 28 €

Buying direct from the romanian NIC (nic.ro) seems the cheapest at 17 euros.
You get a .co.ro, or a number of other .ro SLD's for this.

The site's in english, and easy to use.

Irish (.ie) domain registration price comparison

2009-02-08T07:23:00.000-08:00

The price for registering a .ie (Irish) domain name varies amazingly from €21.86 euros right up to 138 euros., excluding the RBN cost of 30 euros. These prices are correct as of posting, and may or may not include VAT if not quoted. Prices may be rounded to the nearest euro. No hosting is included in the price.

EuroDNS - 48 €
Hosting Ireland - 70 €
Register365 - 25 €
register.ie - 70 €
blacknight - 24.24 € inc. VAT
Irish domains - 60 €
WebWorld - 29 €
Netnames - 138 €
letshost.ie - 21.86 € inc. VAT
webhost.ie -29€
hostireland - 60.57 € inc VAT

So out of that list Letshost.ie is the cheapest.

Every site in google marked as harmful

2009-01-31T06:43:00.001-08:00

Above is a search for Wikipedia, with the message "This site may harm your computer!"

Which european country has the most listed pages in Google?

2009-01-18T04:58:00.000-08:00

Here's a pub trivia question:

Which country in europe has the most pages in googe registered under it's top level domain?

Answer:

If you type "Site:.uk" into google, you get the number of sites registered as .co.uk / .org.uk etc., this is 701 Million.

If you type "Site:.de" into google, you get 1.3 Billion. Hense the Germans are ahead!

UK Second Level Domain DNS Architecture

2008-10-28T06:30:00.000-07:00

The UK's TLD (.uk) is spread across 11 DNS servers, as follows: ns1.nic.uk to ns7.nic.uk, then nsA.nic.uk to nsD.nic.uk. Although very few domains actually use the TLD directly, most use second level domains, most commonly .co.uk.

The second level domain, .co.uk, is balanced accross the same 11 DNS servers as the TLD, .uk. The same configuration is also used for ltd.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk, .nic.uk, .org.uk, .plc.uk, and .sch.uk.

Alternative configurations are used for .ac.uk, using ns0.ja.net to ns4.ja.net, and the following servers: sunic.sunet.se, ns.uu.net, ws-fra1.win-ip.dfn.de and ns1.cs.ucl.ac.uk.

The second level domain .gov.uk uses the same five ja.net DNS servers as ac.uk, and the UCL server, it also uses auth50.ns.de.uu.net, auth00.ns.de.uu.net and ns1.surfnet.nl

The Ministry of defence second level domain mod.uk, uses only three DNS servers. relay.mod.uk, ns1.nic.uk and the DNS server at UCL used for .ac.uk and .gov.uk.

The National Health service second level domain, nhs.uk, is served by two DNS nodes, nsa.nhs.uk and nsb.nhs.uk

The police force second level domain, police.uk, seems unrelated to the other uk domain names, using totally different DNS servers as follows: ns2.psops.net, ns0.cwci.net, chtdns1.cwci.net, ns1.psops.net, and ns1.cwci.net

Aruba Registration services

2008-09-18T11:43:00.000-07:00

English: Aruba is one of the biggest Italian internet services provider. Aruba offers web domains, web hosting, dedicated servers and web connection

Plesk Interface in PHP

2008-08-09T13:08:00.001-07:00

Our initial Design of FreeNameServers.co.uk used PLESK as a back-end DNS provider, we moved away from this model for licensing issues, however, the PHP interface was already developed, so this is included below for anyone who is looking to automate their plesk DNS system.

<?php

define("HOST", "localhost");
define("PORT", 8443);
define("PATH", "enterprise/control/agent.php");
define("LOGIN", "admin");
define("PASSWD", "xxxxxxx");
define("PROTO_VER", "1.3.1.0");

$proto = PROTO_VER;
$action=$_GET['action'];
$domain=$_GET['domain'];
$host=$_GET['host'];
$type=$_GET['type'];
$value=$_GET['value'];
$opt=$_GET['opt'];
$domain_id=NULL;
$record_id=NULL;

//retrieve the domain id
if ( $action != 'adddomain' && $action !='listdomains' ) {
$data =<<<EOF
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no" ?>
<packet version="$proto">
<domain>
<get>
<filter/>
<dataset>
<gen_info/>
</dataset>
</get>
</domain>
</packet>
EOF;

sendCommand(get_domid);
}

switch ( $action ) {

case 'listdomains':
$data =<<<EOF
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no" ?>
<packet version="$proto">
<domain>
<get>
<filter/>
<dataset>
<gen_info/>
</dataset>
</get>
</domain>
</packet>
EOF;
sendCommand(print_response);
break;

case 'adddomain':
$data =<<<EOF
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no" ?>
<packet version="$proto">
<domain>
<add>
<gen_setup>
<name>$domain</name>
<client_id>1</client_id>
<ip_address>62.233.105.208</ip_address>
</gen_setup>
</add>
</domain>
</packet>
EOF;

sendCommand(print_response);
break;

case 'removedomain':
if ( $domain_id ) {
$data =<<<EOF
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no" ?>
<packet version="$proto">
<domain>
<del>
<filter>
<id>$domain_id</id>
</filter>
</del>
</domain>
</packet>
EOF;
sendCommand(print_response);
} else {
echo "Error: domain $domain not found in the database<br>";
}
break;

case 'listrecords':
if ( $domain_id) {
$data =<<<EOF
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no" ?>
<packet version="$proto">
<dns>
<get_rec>
<filter>
<domain_id>$domain_id</domain_id>
</filter>
</get_rec>
</dns>
</packet>
EOF;
} else {
$data =<<<EOF
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no" ?>
<packet version="$proto">
<dns>
<get_rec>
</get_rec>
</dns>
</packet>
EOF;
}
sendCommand(print_response);
break;

case 'addrecord':
switch ( $type ) {
case 'A':
case 'CNAME':
case 'TXT':
case 'NS':
case 'MX':
if ( $opt) {
$data =<<<EOF
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no" ?>
<packet version="$proto">
<dns>
<add_rec>
<domain_id>$domain_id</domain_id>
<type>$type</type>
<host>$host</host>
<value>$value</value>
<value>$value</value>
<opt>$opt</opt>
</add_rec>
</dns>
</packet>
EOF;
} else {
$data =<<<EOF
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no" ?>
<packet version="$proto">
<dns>
<add_rec>
<domain_id>$domain_id</domain_id>
<type>$type</type>
<host>$host</host>
<value>$value</value>
</add_rec>
</dns>
</packet>
EOF;
}
sendCommand(print_response);
break;
default:
echo "Error: unknown record type $type<br>";
break;
}
break;

case 'removerecord':
//retrieve the record id
if ( $domain_id) {
$data =<<<EOF
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no" ?>
<packet version="$proto">
<dns>
<get_rec>
<filter>
<domain_id>$domain_id</domain_id>
</filter>
</get_rec>
</dns>
</packet>
EOF;
} else {
$data =<<<EOF
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no" ?>
<packet version="$proto">
<dns>
<get_rec>
</get_rec>
</dns>
</packet>
EOF;
}
sendCommand(get_recid);

//remove the record
if ( $record_id ) {
$data =<<<EOF
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no" ?>
<packet version="$proto">
<dns>
<del_rec>
<filter>
<id>$record_id</id>
</filter>
</del_rec>
</dns>
</packet>
EOF;
sendCommand(print_response);
} else {
echo "Error: the specified record not found in the database<br>";
}
break;

default:
echo "Error: unknown action $action<br>";
break;
}

//handles the response. This default handler simply prints the response.
function print_response($ch, $data)
{
echo $data;
return strlen($data);
}

//handles the response. This handler extracts the domain id that corresponds $domain
function get_domid($ch, $data)
{
global $domain;
global $domain_id;
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($data);
foreach ($xml->xpath('/packet/domain/get/result') as $result) {
if ( $result->data->gen_info->name == "$domain" ) { $domain_id = $result->id; }
}
return strlen($data);
}

//handles the response. This handler extracts the record id that corresponds search conditions
function get_recid($ch, $data)
{
global $host;
global $type;
global $value;
global $opt;
global $record_id;
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($data);
foreach ($xml->xpath('/packet/dns/get_rec/result') as $result) {
if ( $result->data->host != "$host" ) { continue; }
if ( $result->data->type != "$type" ) { continue; }
if ( $result->data->value != "$value" ) { continue; }
if ( $opt ) { if ( $result->data->opt != "$opt" ) { continue; } }
$record_id = $result->id;
}
return strlen($data);
}

//sends the request to plesk and call the response handler
function sendCommand($handler)
{
$url = "https://" . HOST . ":" . PORT . "/" . PATH;
$headers = array(
"HTTP_AUTH_LOGIN: " . LOGIN,
"HTTP_AUTH_PASSWD: " . PASSWD,
"HTTP_PRETTY_PRINT: TRUE",
"Content-Type: text/xml",
);

// Initalize the curl engine
$ch = curl_init();

// Set the curl options
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
// this line makes it work under https
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, &$headers);

// Set the URL to be processed
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);

// Set the callback functions
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_WRITEFUNCTION, $handler);

// Set the data to be send
global $data;
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);

// Debug, however...
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, 1);

$result = curl_exec($ch);

if ($result == CURL_OK) {
#print_r(curl_getinfo($ch));
} else {
echo "\n\n-------------------------\n" .
"cURL error number:" .
curl_errno($ch);
echo "\n\ncURL error:" . curl_error($ch);
}

curl_close($ch);

return;
}
?>

About FreeNameServers.co.uk

2008-08-08T01:47:00.000-07:00

FreeNameServers.co.uk, is a website that gives free public access to two live DNS servers. This allows people to set up DNS for their website, if their webhost or registrar does not provide it for them. It also can be used to add extra redundancy to a website, that has experienced DNS resolution problems in the past.

FreeNameServers is a website developed by Open Merchant Account Ltd, a company perhaps more known for it's Sage components and SMS websites. However, for once this venture is entirely philanthropic. Our kind of Corporate social responsibility so to speak. Giving something back to the internet in the form of something genuinely useful, and genuinely free.

Is this service reliable?, is probably one of the main questions you may ask. And I guess we'd be as reliable as most other webhost's DNS systems. In the IT world computers can fail without warning, and we do have redundancy on 2 DNS servers, which is the norm. If you need more than that, then try DynDns.org, they offer 5 DNS server redundancy.