DNS provider needed - help!

[KermitTheFrag]

anyone know any dns service providers ie i can retag a domain to them and they have a control panel type application so i can add and change A records/CNAMEs/MXes at will? Must support wildcard domains as I have about 100 vhosts to run off it.

I DONT want hosting - just a dns provider.

im ****ed off with having to phone up humans and get them to do dns changes as they cant spell, are stupid and change things that they arent supposed to :/

[Boffykins]

Try www.hammernode.org. They're free and they do DynDNS as well. Dunno about wildcards though

[KermitTheFrag]

err no - i need a reliable commercial provider.

hammernode are an el-cheapo one.

dynamic dns isnt required. this will host about 60 commercial sites.

[Jez_Gafys]

try contacting ICM Netserv. They have a secure website where you can update all things like MX records when ever you feel like it. Ill try and find a web link now.


Or you could try

http://www.zoneedit.com/signup-team.html?ad=googlex

[Tang0]

if you are hosting commercial web sites, and you dont want to go to a small provider ... just pay for DNS hosting from the likes of PSINET or other likes of tier 1 providers ...

yes, there is no interface for changing the a/cname/mx records yourself, but tier1 providers do it all via e-mail anyway ...

[KermitTheFrag]

it was a tier 1 provider who mistyped the record for a rather large commercial property site we operate causing a days outage while changes propogated...

"trust not the human but the machine" ... i heard someone quote.

[Afty]

Originally posted by Tang0
if you are hosting commercial web sites, and you dont want to go to a small provider ... just pay for DNS hosting from the likes of PSINET or other likes of tier 1 providers ...


How interesting that and Kermits next post was.

I recently changed all our new domains from a Tier-1 provider who took instructions via email or fax to a small, UK based web front ended domain+DNS company for that very reason.

We do perhaps 20 or 30 record changes per year, and not only do they get about 1/4 of them typed in with the incorrect IP address, but about 10% of the time they manage to change the wrong record, or even carry out actions on the wrong domain completely.

We were close to losing customers several times, and I will *never* trust a by hand/mouth DNS provider again - I now have direct access to my zone files which is superb.

The company is gradwell.net but you need to fork out for a hosting/developer account before they will let you register domains + use their DNS.

[BatWick]

i was told that http://www.easydns.com was good by a friend who works with a lot of that sort of thing. Apparently they have a control pannel that lets you make changes when you want so its easy to control where mail goes if you have a lot of different email addresses from it, but im afraid i have no knowlege of my own to give.

[Boffykins]

Sorry if I'm missing the point here, but why not get a DedServ in Telehouse a la Wizzo, and host your own DNS?

[Big Giant Head]

Cost I would suspect

[Afty]

Indeed. You'd be looking at around £2,500 a year + travel and setup costs even if you used a low cost OS - quite alot compared with the hundred quid or so you can get it done for by professionals ;)

[KermitTheFrag]

lol ... got 6 colo boxes at easynet and telehouse. The bandwidth costs that every couple of weeks. I'm talking proper commercial sites..

The main problem is simplicity. Editing zone files is a pain in the arse and you have to pay someone more to know how to. There arent any administrators here - only developers and graphic designers and managers. Everyone does their bit. Doing DNS admin isn't a priority to be done on site and it wouldnt be cost effective to do it.

[Say_Ten]

I found a web based admin system on sourceforge before, what about something like that to your own DNS servers? Once you're setup then you'll be using a system that you'd be using elsewhere but without the extra cost.

[KermitTheFrag]

we'd have to run a unix box though... unfortunately the boss won't like that.

[Say_Ten]

Bugger, don't tell him? ;)

[Cheez]

Originally posted by KermitTheFrag
we'd have to run a unix box though... unfortunately the boss won't like that.

are you working for microsoft or something? why wouldnt he like a unix box?

[Say_Ten]

Management can be funny like that. They seem to believe MS brings esteme to their company or something. There's also the if it's free it must be crap attitude as well.

[Big Giant Head]

There's also the fact that if you work in a shop that develops in M$ product exclusively you lack the in house resources to put up a properly configured unix box

[KermitTheFrag]

We suggested migrating from ASP to ASP.Net to the boss but the answer was "lets stick to what we know best". Replace we with I and you'll see what I mean. We're not Microsoft whores - just afraid of change (well the boss is anyway - we are all fed up of ASP and want to switch to php on linux).

oh and we could set up dns if we had a machine to do it on but levering another colo box out of the boss might be a bit hard as he'd ask questions.