Adding a DNS TXT record on a Windows DNS server

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

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':'

1. Log in to your account for reflector.webtropy.com at www.enomcentral.com.


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


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


4. 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.


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


6. Select TXT from the Record Type drop-down menu.


7. In the Address field, copy and paste the following unique security token:
   
   
   google-site-verification=SZbLFW5cn6o-N_9k0bzkc4UAhMQEotpvjt52pJtsTEI
   
   


8. Click the save button.


9. 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':'

1. Log in to your account for reflector.webtropy.com at www.godaddy.com by clicking the My Account tab.


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


3. Under the DNS Manager header, click Launch.


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


5. In the Host field, enter @.


6. In the TXT Value field, copy and paste the following unique security token:
   
   
   google-site-verification=SZbLFW5cn6o-N_9k0bzkc4UAhMQEotpvjt52pJtsTEI
   
   


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

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.

','MelbourneIT.com.au':'

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

','Name.com':'

1. Log in to your account for reflector.webtropy.com at www.name.com.


2. Click the Account icon in the top navigation bar.


3. Click the domain you're using.


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


5. Click DNS Record Management.


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


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


8. 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



9. Leave the TTL field set to the default.


10. Click submit.


11. 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.

','NetworkSolutions.com':'

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


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


3. Click Manage Domain Names.


4. 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).



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


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


7. In the Host field, enter @.


8. Leave the TTL field set to the default value.


9. In the Text field, copy and paste the following unique security token:
   
   
   google-site-verification=SZbLFW5cn6o-N_9k0bzkc4UAhMQEotpvjt52pJtsTEI
   
   


10. Click Continue.


11. Review your changes and click Save Changes.


12. 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.

','Register.com':'

1. Log in to your account for reflector.webtropy.com at www.register.com.


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


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


4. Leave the Host Name field blank.


5. In the TXT Record field, copy and paste the following unique security token:
   
   google-site-verification=SZbLFW5cn6o-N_9k0bzkc4UAhMQEotpvjt52pJtsTEI
   
   


6. Click Continue.


7. Review your changes and click Continue.


8. 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.

','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

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

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

.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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

.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

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

.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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

HOTTIME offers 10% off for VPS hosting plans.

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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.