Figments and Perceptions Unleashed by LogicX

I recently joined SocialSci.com to handle Operations.  I'm working on security, databases, user privacy, hosting of our website, among other hats in the startup. My focus was webhosting 10 years ago, but for the last 4 I've been focusing on security. I'm going to post a series of blog posts as I work my way through the choices I make, and why, as I develop solutions for SocialSci.com.

Starting things off slowly here: lets talk about who you host your DNS with..  Perhaps you do all your hosting with an uuber-reliable cloud-based redundant backed up provider.... but use some free, single-point of failure DNS from an old host.

We at SocialSci were caught by this on Friday: We've recently moved from mediatemple to EC2, but were down because we were still relying on mediatemple's two DNS servers.

I'm now looking into DNS solutions, ranging from Godaddy's Total DNS (FREE, but can only go to 30 min TTL, updates are slow, you only get two DNS servers, and they are not very distributed) to UltraDNS ($15/mo+, but the gold standard) to other reasonable choices:

• Nettica.com: $10/yr/domain, $50/yr/50 domains
• Easydns.net: $20/yr/domain (cheaper through partner luxsci.com at $12/yr/domain)
• dnsmadeeasy.com: $15/yr/3 domains
• Zerigo.com: $19/yr/25 domains
• EveryDNS.net: Free + Donation
• FreeDNS.Afraid.org: Free + Donation

With these, and obviously many more choices; who to go with? I looked at a few key things:

1. How many domains do they alow you to serve up? Some account tiers even limit the number of resource records per domain.
2. Is their network geographically diverse and well-connected? You want to see that they're spread across the US, with some non-US presence, with high speed connections and low latency.
3. Do they utilize anycast? If so, your customers will be directed to the nearest DNS server when their request is made: resulting in potentially faster request-to-load time on your website.
4. How many queries/mo do they serve up? The standard seems to be 1M/mo to start. Keep in mind you have control over this: The higher you set your TTL, the fewer queries you'll receive as requestors cache your info.
5. How low do they let you set your TTL: When you know you're about to change hosting providers, servers, etc. you want to be able to set this in the 1-5 minute range.
6. Do they support newer DNS record types such as SPF? allow you to set TXT?

I'm currently testing Zerigo.com for our services, using the free account to try things out. At $19/yr for 25 domains, they have a nice RESTful API, and work with dynamic DNS updating clients and services.  They actually provide me with some real-time stats as far as how many queries I'm using per period, and their minimum TTL is 1 minute.  They recently expanded their network of DNS servers, and are more geographically disperse than most of these other providers. Finally they just seem like a new player in the space who is young and eager to please customers and their website is pleasant to use.

Take a few minutes to review your situation: If you're getting lots of traffic, and downtime means lost money; it may be worth a few dollars to invest in a more reliable DNS solution. You can also plug your domains into intodns or dnsquries for a quick summary which may be helpful.

Update 6/14/2010: I updated DNSMadeEasy above, with their lower cost tier: $15/yr for 3 domains.  I'm currently doing a 30-day trial of that for SocialSci after receiving a quote from dynect in the thousands for their anycast service. I'm also going to use zerigo for my personal domains due to the ability to have so many domains in the account.