Cheap/Free DNS Service Suggestions?

36

me too.

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37

People wanting to move away from CloudFlare, don’t use DNSimple nor EasyDNS… they are using CloudFlare’s DNS servers.

Example:
$ dig ns3.dnsimple.com +short
162.159.26.4

$ whois 162.159.26.4
…
NetName: CLOUDFLARENET
NetHandle: NET-162-158-0-0-1
Parent: NET162 (NET-162-0-0-0-0)
NetType: Direct Assignment
OriginAS: AS13335
Organization: Cloudflare, Inc. (CLOUD14)
…

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38

Why would people move away from CloudFlare? They just love it. And those who didn’t would never have signed up in the first place. It is like their hotmail or gmail account.

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41

Digitalocean domain dns and cloudns

42

Is propagation time (TTL) a concern for you or no?:slight_smile:

43

How’s Vultr compared to Hetzner?
I do like Hetzner’s service, but I don’t think it offers DNSSEC (nor ALIAS/flattened CNAME).
So Vultr doesn’t require you to have an active service with them for using the free DNS? (Someone claimed they did in some forum/thread, or I’m just remembering very wrong.)

(Asking because I’m considering which DNS providers to test with @nem’s ApisCP, which seems to be an excellent panel in many ways! :+1: Consider getting it while it’s on sale. :smile:)

(Sorry to revive old topic, if that’s considered bad … :innocent:
Feel free to close/delete/move to new thread.)

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44

I’ve never used DNSSimple, but something like that should be doable with a Lua record in PowerDNS. The record is basically a very small Lua script, so it can do some pretty sophisticated stuff, like routing based on GeoIP of the client’s IP address, or based on availability (have a pool of IPs and only return an IP if that particular server is up), or weighted in some way. Pretty flexible.

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45

Coudns and Simpledns :slight_smile:

46

Just signed up at Vultr. Seems like DNS is free/available, and supports DNSSEC … Will give it a try, then. :grin:

47

I tried playing with Lua records, but I wasn’t able to get the syntax right and the deployment experience was quite painful. In the end, I found a method with ALIAS records that works for me in my particular configuration (hidden master and AXFR replication), I described the method in https://www.datafaber.com/2020/08/creative-uses-of-alias-records-in-powerdns/ .

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48

Any tools for checking how well anycast DNS works?

(Vultr should be anycast, and tools like DNS Delegation Lab - BuddyNS Secondary DNS just reports both nameservers as being in Dallas.)

Previously I’ve just made shure to have servers spread out a bit.
Hetzner has all three nameservers in Germany, while 1984hosting.com has their nameserver well spread (and supports DNSSEC).

I guess looking at the response times for each server at dnstools.ws gives a clue. Seems to be quite good for zones using ns1.vultr.com and ns2.vultr.com, from all over the world, 8-40 ms response times.

49

This is one of the main use cases I was thinking of when redesigning the ping feature to allow pinging from multiple locations simultaneously :smiley:

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50

If you are searching for a cheap/free DNS service, then maybe give https://nextdns.io/ a visit.

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51

I guess topic here might say “DNS Hosting Service”, not “DNS Resolver Service”. I’m specifically testing DNS Hosting Service integration with a panel right now, but nextdns.io looks interesting. :slight_smile:

52

Ah. My bad. Did not read it all. Good luck out there. Otherwise we can always go back to another cup of instant coffee…

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53

ClouDNS has never let me down, @FHR is correct their Anycast is well shit.

I also use gdnsd if you fancy running something yourself.

54

Has anyone tried No-IP’s managed DNS services? They seem to score high over at DNSPerf.

55

Started using this a month ago and love it.

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56

I know that DigitalOcean’s DNS is based on CF, but anyone knows if it’s available even if I don’t have a currently running service?

57

When I came across this thread again, I decided to check the current status of my managed DNS service.

I signed up to ClouDNS around 2 years ago for a supposed project that didn’t mature. I decided to stick with it for my personal domains since it’s cheap anyway ($2/month plan). However, upon checking now, I realized that my queries are being directed to their POP in Netherlands (I ran my query through a major residential ISP in SE Asia).

I’m not an expert with networking; I realize that Anycast works with the shortest path rule and indeed the Amsterdam IX is just one hop away from my country, but with 250+ ms reading. When they said that it was an issue with my ISP, I sent in traceroutes to nameservers by HE and DNSMadeEasy that directs me to Singapore or LA POP. They said they can’t do anything about it, so I decided to move away; it’s useless to pay for a service that directs me to EU POP when most of my users will be in SE Asia.

Anyway, I decided to use free options at the moment since it’ll be just for personal use. Just a quick rundown of the features (and non-features) of some of the DNS providers mentioned in this thread:

  • 1984 - no DNSSEC, allows AXFR
  • HE - no wildcard records, allows AXFR
  • Zilore - no DNSSEC, no AXFR
  • Vultr - DNSSEC, no AXFR

Btw, Vultr DOESN’T ALLOW free use of their DNS services without any current subscriptions. I asked them and they replied:

Use of Vultr DNS without any subscriptions is discouraged. Any terms of service violation via this mechanism may result in account suspension and/or termination.

Anyway, so I decided to use 1984 as my hidden master with HE as secondary nameserver. The reason being HE has a POP in Singapore but I need wildcard records. I also intend to use Zilore, but I’m currently being directed to their LA POP instead of their Asian POPs, which may be my ISPs fault (just like with ClouDNS?).

Going forward in the future, for future projects that might need it, I’ll probably sign up with DNSMadeEasy with No-IP as secondary nameservers.

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