MyDomain.com: What gives with these guys? Anyone know? I had several sites set up with self-managed DNS services through MyDomain.com since early this year and things were going just fine. They had a great Web interface to manage everything and good tech support. They claimed to have had 300,000 domains resolving through their servers.

Early last month they were acquired by namesdirect.com and the story goes they were upgrading their servers at their colo facility at AboveNet. Well, most of the domain functionality was lost: email, subdomains, etc. They "locked" their database and I couldn't make any changes to try to fix the mess. Then their Web site went down completely and email I sent them started bouncing back. My clients were off-the-air for over a week because of this and I found myself fighting a lynch mob. I was left twisting in the wind because mydomain.com never returned phone calls or email. Even the new owner, namesdirect.com, didn't return my several pleading calls to their alleged headquarters in the Bahamas. Yes, Bahamas. . . hmmm.

Now their site is back up -- sort of -- but it looks like third graders whacked at it. Scary. I was able to salvage only one client from the debacle and escape with seriously damaged credibility.

I'd chalk this up to experience, but I'm running low on chalk.


[Edited by alchiba on 09-08-2000 at 09:49 AM]

I am a teacher, I'll send ya' some :)

it looks like some of the functionality are back up. the page still looks cheesy though :(

To me, it looks like the new owners are going to stop offering accounts and use their existing market base to promote their domain registration service. What makes me mad is I setup an account when they first opened and paid 50.00 for unlimited domains which they are not honoring anymore.

Scott

Situtaions like these are exactly why I set up my own server. I hate depending on services like mydomain.com or others, especially when my reputation is at risk. I think it's worth the couple hundred bucks a month for my server so that I can control every aspect of my business.

Originally posted by tabernack
I think it's worth the couple hundred bucks a month for my server so that I can control every aspect of my business.

hi! would someone please give a few examples on what tabernack meant when he said "you can control every aspect of your business".

what i'd like to learn is knowing examples of how owning your own server can remove a lot of other "headaches" (such as the one mentioned in this tread). also, even though somebody has his own server, what are the issues (if any) which he may still be dependant on other companies for.

i am a bit new to all this... so your answers would really help.

thanks.

Learner

I think it would just add to the problems :) But then again, you never know :)

I own and operate my own Web and mail servers, but at the time did not have anyone to provide DNS for me. That's why I went with MyDomain.com. Generally speaking, you should not run DNS on your Web server -- at least that's the conventional wisdom that drove me to outsource it. Typically, if you own or lease a server, you also get DNS from whomever you lease or colocate with. In this scenario you often don't have the direct control you may sometimes need.

The valuable lesson I learned was not to scatter my network services all over the place because you spend so much time hacking it to make it work or stitching it back together when it doesn't. It was fun for a while, but then it got to be serious business. Now, I'm safe in a managed NOC and couldn't be happier. A little less wealthy. . . but happier. :-)

[Edited by alchiba on 09-09-2000 at 04:51 PM]

Hi Learner,

Obviously there will always be factors out of my control, like Dialtone's network (ie: problems with there backbone providers will affect me no matter what I do), etc...

But, by having my own server I can perform my own DNS updates/changes, proper backups, account creations, server configs (Apache, sendmail, etc....), permissions, etc.... I don't have to rely on someone else to "get around" to doing these things for me. I don't have to worry about my DNS service being disrupted because it's mine, and "I" decide what "I" want to do with it. A perfect example is this thread started by alchiba. alchiba had to rely on mydomain.com for DNS service which leaves you at their mercy.

Having your own server allows you to decide what,where,when,why and how?

I run my DNS server on my webserver. I will in the future separate the two, but for now it works out fine. The reason for not running DNS on your webserver is purely for reliability reasons. The ideal DNS server will never go down and will be set up exclusively for DNS and nothing else. That is something I can look forward to in the future. Right now, it's the most economical thing for me.

Does anyone have other reasons for not running DNS on your webserver? Keep in mind, I am not talking about a server with several hundred virtual domains. If I ever get to that point I will definitely set up a dedicated DNS server.

I would however use services like mydomain.com for backup DNS service.

Thanks Tabernack. But what exactly is BACKUP DNS SERVICE?

Learner

You can specify more than two DNS servers for your domain. If your primary or secondary DNS server becomes unavailable for some reason your "backup" DNS servers will be queried to resolve your domain.

It's always a good idea to implement an off-site backup DNS service (don't have your redundant dns servers on the same network as your primary and secondary DNS servers in case the network experiences problems).

Anyone used http://ultradns.com ?




[Edited by tabernack on 09-09-2000 at 05:30 PM]

Hmmm... so would these BACKUP DNS SERVERS be as...

ns.primary.com
ns2.secondary.com
ns3.primaryBackup.com
ns4.secondaryBackup2.com

Also, do name servers after the primary and secondary ALWAYS have to be in pairs?

Learner

[Edited by Learner on 09-09-2000 at 05:39 PM]

Exactly, I consider all entries after my primary and secondary as "backup". No, you don't have to enter them in pairs after the primary and secondary entries.

Thanks again, Teachernack (the knack of teaching) :)

Learner

Backup DNS servers in fact all as secondaries DNS servers... so if the first DNS is unavaliable, any of the other one is picked and tried.

The tip about having a DNS server on another network is definately a good idea.

You can also have multiple master name servers and specify up to 10 IP's for the primary name server, and it will try each one in order:


masters ip;ip;ip;ip;ip;ip;ip;ip;ip;ip

Greg, could you please mention how this would look like when a WhoIs query is run?

Learner

I think it will just show up the first primary and first secondary name server settings in the Whois. I have never seen any more DNS setttings who up in the whois.

I'm curious myself about these DNS providers. Although the concept sounds good, two that I dealt with (tzo.com & dnswiz.com) both provided crappy service/response on exploritory Email questions for their services. They were both around $50 US per year/per Domain Name.

Did I just happen to come across 2 lemons?

Interesting also that if you do a whois lookup on either of the above, you will see 4 ns servers listed.

Well, thats the first for me :)
The who is for dnswiz.com shows up the following nameservers ->

NS1.DNSWIZ.COM 207.91.131.30
NS2.DNSWIZ.COM 207.91.131.31
NS3.DNSWIZ.COM 216.119.149.100
NS4.DNSWIZ.COM 216.119.149.101


This is interesting! :)

Originally posted by Website Rob

Did I just happen to come across 2 lemons?

Interesting also that if you do a whois lookup on either of the above, you will see 4 ns servers listed.

MyDomain.com also used 4 nameservers. The more more the merrier. It spreads the load across multiple machines if you're resolving tons of domains.

Since my bad experience, I did run across http://easydns.com which seems well respected and is used by some serious-minded sites I know. http://granitecanyon.org is a free, public DNS but their disclaimer as to their reliability is painfully honest and scared me off. Probably not appropriate for commercial sites. Also, http://ultradns.com is rather new in the arena.

Not to be critical of any of the above organizations, but I've learned my lesson. I'd prefer to keep my DNS "in-house".


[Edited by alchiba on 09-10-2000 at 09:30 AM]

I have a friend with a dedicated server in a different state and we provide backup dns service to each other.

I have 5 dns entries for each domain. That way I will never have to worry about dns being unavailble.

If you know someone who is willing to do this with you it would provide a win-win situation for both of you.

UltraDNS is absolutely fantastic with a great interface... Only problem is it costs $299/year for one domain!!!!! Yeeeee-ouch.

You might like to check out ZoneEdit - I'm testing it out for some sites I'm managing at the moment and it seems very decent. It's free for 5 or less domains and charges a bit for more than 5, but quite reasonable prices.

ZoneEdit (don't mind the 80s interface - it's effective and it works) is @ http://www.zoneedit.com

YIKES!! :eek:

The interface is a lil scary!! but I think one can get used to it :)