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Ask HN: Best free DNS provider?

37 points by preek ↗ HN
Hi there,

the last couple of years I have been a happy user of dnsexit.com - their interface is simple and they have never let me down; so far. Since 48h I'm experiencing downtime on several of my domains - sometimes they come back, but as quickly they are lost again.

So, knowing that there are a lot of free providers out there - which do you use?

Best, Alain

34 comments

[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 104 ms ] thread
bkrausz
I find 2 requirements for DNS (on top of the requisite uptime criteria):

1) It's not tied to any other services (so I can switch, say, webhosts without having to move my DNS config)

2) It lets me configure timeouts so I can experiment with settings without waiting forever.

For these I shell out the $30/year for DynDNS.com. Totally worth it to not have to worry about this sort of thing. I also get dynamic DNS if I want to configure a home subdomain, which is built into most Linksys routers.

preek
Thanks for your insights.

I also have a DynDNS account for my Linksys/DD-WRT router. And I agree on having DNS configuration decoupled from my other servies - years ago I used to run my own bind server.

I don't want to sound cheap, because $30/y is totally affordable, but providers give you DNS for free (zoneedit, dnsexit, freedns, ..) - I'm trying to figure out which one is liked best on HN. But I'll note the DynDNS option, because you are right in saying that 30 bucks for a good service is next to nothing.

randomtask
I use freedns for hosting for a non-critical domain. I've never noticed any problems with them, but to be honest if they went down for a few hours at a time I probably wouldn't notice on that domain.
preek
What do you use on more critical pages, then?

And thanks for the advice on freedns.

randomtask
I didn't mean for my comment to imply that I have any critical pages :)
yesimahuman
Another good one is http://freedns.afraid.org/

I used to use it years ago for a home server. When I was doing that I think I preferred it over the other ones I had previously used (dyndns comes to mind).

borism
DynDNS is wonderful!
AdamGibbins
Gandi, strictly speaking they're not free. But they're my registrar and provide DNS at no extra charge - I cannot fault them.
preek
I do that with some of my other domains - that's probably the best option, because when your hoster/registrar goes down, there's simply no need for DNS.

But Swiss .ch and .li domains are registered through switch - and they don't offer own DNS servers.

AdamGibbins
Hmm, I think there's a slight misunderstanding here. If your registrar goes down it shouldn't affect you in any way other than your ability to renew and transfer your domain.

Your host yes, your registrar no - they're not the same thing.

randomtask
On their website it says that they're experiencing DDOS attacks. Sounds like not all their servers are down however:

"Though our name server are still under DDOS attacks, your domains should be up and running fine now. If unable to reach your domain, please make sure you have all 4 name servers, ns1.dnsexit.com, ns2.dnsexit.com, ns3.dnsexit.com and ns4.dnsexit.com assigned to your domain."

preek
I admit, I only had configured only three NS for my domain. But it doesn't make any difference, right now none of the four are available.

Good though, that they have a warning sign attached to their page now. I've been searching the web a couple of times the last two days and found _no_ news whatsover. In the event of a DDOS attack, I would appreciate a warning mail.

Of course if the attack is as bad as it seems, the downtime is not their fault and I feel with them. They are probably working around the clock on that. I wish them all the best to block that traffic out.

But anyway - I have learned that I'll need more than one DNS provider to ensure a reliable service.

sgt
I am using GratisDNS.dk, it's a danish company. It's free and in my experience it always works, for years on end.

Their webpage is in Danish but if you don't want to learn the language, they have an English translation as well.

preek
Thanks for the advice, I probably wouldn't have considered a danish site otherwise^^ Unfortunately the English translation doesn't work - it only gives me fewer danish options. Anyway, I understand enough words to roughly figure out the page.
uxp
Google Translate seems to work well enough to navigate the site without having to learn the entire Dutch language.
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[dead] sgt
Danish.
forcer
I use dnsmadeeasy.com - fantastic service for $60 a year. There is even a plan for $30 if your sites doesn't get many hits.

Their support is excellent as well - guys who do support are true tech geeks who know what they are talking about and happy to help setup things etc.

benologist
I've been using http://www.dnspark.net/ for ages now. Never had any problems on a very high-volume website.

Very cheap too - pay like $14/year. They do have a free plan which would probably suit you until your traffic grew.

chaosmachine
I've been using both of these for years with no problems:

http://dollardns.net/ (free, despite the name)

http://everydns.com/

trafficlight
I've been using EveryDNS for a couple of years. I did donate the $20 to get unlimited domains and records.
hbrundage
Another vote for EveryDNS, they got bought recently by DynDNS but it seems as if that hasn't changed their offering. Great service.
bobbywilson0
Zerigo is solid, has an API, and as low as 1 minute TTLs http://www.zerigo.com/

- 3 domains are free

- $19.95 up to 25

thegoleffect
I recommended Zerigo to a bunch of my friends, we all have been incredibly happy with it thus far. The web2.0 website is great, the API is excellent compared to what we'd been using previously and super fast TTLs/updates = super helpful.
matthall28
PointHQ.com

Beautiful UI, redundant nameservers, completely free

spinron
http://cloudflare.com includes a real anycasted DNS service for free (there also a bunch of other niceties which you can turn off, if you really want). All the other anycast providers cost $$-$$$ (let me know if you know otherwise, guys).

They don't have an API for users yet, so you'll need to do a bit of scraping/coding if you want to automate things for a dynamic DNS setup. Otherwise, I'm really happy with their service and recommend it wholeheartedly for any kind of VS or simple cloud setup.

Having said that, my previous choices for free DNS were NearlyFreeSpeech.net (which isn't free anymore), and the built-in (free) DNS service offered by Answerable.com for registered domains.