easyDNS Blog

Big Changes Coming to easyDNS

nospam@example.com (Mark Jeftovic) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 11:35:10 -0500

We will soon be launching our new member interface, a ground up rewrite of the current members.easydns.com website. It has been a long time in coming, like all complex projects, it always goes over-budget and takes longer than expected.

The current user interface works, but it's pretty stale. There are so many layers of upgrades, fixes and plugins underneath the UI you see when you log in, that it's hit the point of diminishing returns: every time we add a feature or commit a bugfix, it seems to break something else. Despite the fact that most people dislike change, especially user interface changes, it is time to move on to the next level for easyDNS.

Continue reading "Big Changes Coming to easyDNS"

DNS usage quotas: before you panic

nospam@example.com (Mark Jeftovic) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:47:07 -0500

I've fielded a handful of queries from members about the coming DNS usage quotas. Some have looked at the "query usage" links beside their domain names and are surprised at the numbers they are seeing.

One thing to be aware of is that we've discovered that the January numbers were tabulated incorrectly and are too high. To gain a truer insight into your usage, look at the January 28th figure. We are currently running a process to fix up the stats to reflect actual usage and expect to have those online within the next couple of days.

But I'd like to take an opportunity to convey the following principles behind this to our member base:

Continue reading "DNS usage quotas: before you panic"

DNS usage stats offline for now

nospam@example.com (Mark Jeftovic) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:51:40 -0400

We have temporarily disabled the DNS usage stats module while we iron out some performance and consistency issues. Sorry for the inconvenience, we hope to have them back online within a week to 10 days.

DNS Query counts now visible

nospam@example.com (Mark Jeftovic) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:22:55 -0400

As of tonight you may notice when you log into your member control panel a new item beside each of your domain names called "query usage".

This links you to a monthly histogram depicting the DNS query counts for the domain. Right now we are just compiling aggregate lookups across all
RR types and it only counts the lookups that resulted in SUCCESS. To get the exact count for a specific day, hover your mouse over the date.

Use the "previous / next" text links in the lower right to scroll backward and forward by month. Keep in mind, we have no data available prior to March, so everything zeros out if you go back further than March 2009.

Heads-up; re-assigning IPs of remote1.easydns.com and remote2.easydns.com

nospam@example.com (easyDNS Support) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 11:16:40 -0500

We are re-assigning the IP addresses for remote1.easydns.com and
remote2.easydns.com. The changes will be as follows;

WAS
remote1.easydns.com 216.246.59.66
remote2.easydns.com 209.200.141.4

IS NOW
remote1.easydns.com 205.234.220.154
remote2.easydns.com 209.200.187.4

This will not impact name service resolution, although if you are a secondary customer and are using a DNS server that can not accept netblock assignments into the ACL (MS DNS servers) you will have to change your configuration to reflect this move.

Holiday Hours

nospam@example.com (easyDNS Support) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:52:47 -0500

Our offices will be open for telephone support:

Thursday December 24th, 8:30AM - 3:00PM
Friday December 25th, closed
Saturday December 26th, closed
Sunday December 27th, 12:00AM - 6:00PM
Monday December 28th, 10:00AM - 6:00PM
Thursday December 31st, 8:30AM - 3:00PM
Friday January 1st, closed.

thank you
easyDNS

telephone support

nospam@example.com (easyDNS Support) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:00:30 -0500

Telephone support will be unavailable on Saturday December 12th, 2009 and will resume Sunday December 13th, 2009. Email support at support@easydns.com and billing@easydns.com will still be available.

We do apologise for the inconvenience.

thank you
easyDNS

Power outage at the Amsterdam co-lo...

nospam@example.com (easyDNS Support) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:43:25 -0500

Just over an hour ago, the co-location facility we use in Amsterdam suffered a brief power outage, which resulted in two of our nameservers being unexpectedly restarted:

ams1.easydns.com (part of the "ns1.easydns.com" Anycast cluster)
ns6.easydns.net

Our sysAdmins took "ams1.easydns.com" out of the "ns1.easydns.com" Anycast cluster as soon as this occurred, which means that "ns1.easydns.com" was not affected at all. However, as "ns6.easydns.net" is currently a stand-alone nameserver, our sysAdmins focused on bring this server up as quickly as possible.

At this time, "ns6.easydns.net" is operational again and responding to queries, and we will work with our co-location provider to determine the cause of this outage.

We apologise for any inconvenience.

appsto.re, a niched URL shortener for iphone apps

nospam@example.com (Mark Jeftovic) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:53:51 -0500

The other day I stumbled across http://appsto.re, a DNS client domain which is a pretty useful specialized URL shortener for iPhone apps.

A good example is easyDNS' own iPhone app for easyWhois. The iTunes URL is loooooooooooooong and cumbersome, and to be honest, I can't readily remember what shortened URL I created for it on easyURL (I think maybe http://easyurl.net/easyiphone?)

Well with appsto.re, we know it's simply http://appsto.re/easyWhois, and you can view the info for any given app by using http://appsto.re/info/easyWhois.

You can even create your own custom shortened URLs for any given iPhone app.

The other interesting thing about appsto.re that distinguishes it from most of the other URL shorteners out there, is that it actually has a revenue model, since I imagine they can use affiliate links to redirect to the paid apps (sorry guys, our app is free).

If the ns3 problem is still causing you trouble, read this

nospam@example.com (Mark Jeftovic) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:28:01 -0500

We've changed the glue record in the roots for ns3.easydns.org to reference a different node while we debug the data syncing issue.

Some queries are still coming in owing to DNS cache issues. If you recently updated your zone and that update has not been reflected in ns3.easydns.org then you could also consider removing ns3.easydns.org from your DNS delegation.

ns3 is a stand-alone node (we will be phasing out the stand-alone noded in the new year), as long as you have the ns1 and ns2 anycast strands in your delegation, you can safely remove ns3 from the delegation.

ns3.easydns.org

nospam@example.com (easyDNS Support) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 10:21:58 -0500

We're experiencing issues with this machine updating zone info.
We are working to resolve this issue and will post further info as it becomes available.

NS3 may become unresponsive for a brief period as we restart all DNS services on this machine.

Telephone Support - Sunday 6 December, 2009

nospam@example.com (easyDNS Support) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:09:32 -0500

At this time, telephone support is not available.

For support or billing inquiries, please email us:

support@easydns.com

billing@easydns.com

Thank you,

The easyDNS Support Team

ns3.easydns.org this morning

nospam@example.com (easyDNS Support) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 08:16:11 -0500

Greetings,

We are experiencing an issue with the DNS resolver on ns3.easydns.org this morning. This issue will not impact resolution. We are currently working with our network provider in London to resolve this issue.

Thanks,

NS1.EASYDNS.COM IP Change.

nospam@example.com (easyDNS Support) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 10:03:13 -0500

We are in the midst of changing the anycast address for ns1.easydns.com
The new IP of ns1 will be 64.68.192.10 , we are in the process if switching the zone entry as well as updating the glue records for ns1.easydns.com

We will leave the old IP operational for a couple of weeks.
During this time both the new IP and old IP will respond to queries.

As always, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

SOLVED: Hardware outage.

nospam@example.com (easyDNS Support) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 08:27:20 -0500

Update: The hardware outage has been solved and the members interface is now back online.

We have discovered a hardware issue with one of our DB servers.
This affects the usage of our main site and members area. Our sysadmins are on site and working to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

We'll post further updates as info becomes available.

members interface offline

nospam@example.com (Mark Jeftovic) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 08:26:16 -0500

The main easyDNS member's interface at https://members.easydns.com and public facing website are currently experiencing database communications issues and are offline.

Systems personnel are onsite now and we hope to have things back to normal ASAP.

In the meantime, easyDNS production systems - DNS, URL forwarding, email forwarding, etc. are unaffected.

We will post updates accordingly and we are sorry for the outage.

URL forwarding issues... RESOLVED

nospam@example.com (easyDNS Support) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:45:32 -0500

Unfortunately, we are currently experiencing an issue with our URL forwarding services. Our sysAdmins are looking into the issue and hope to have it resolved as soon as possible.

We apologise for the inconvenience.

**UPDATE - 2009-11-12 - 12:02pm**
The URL forwarding issue we were experiencing has been resolved, and the URL forwarding service is operational at this time. Again, we apologise for the inconvenience.

Phone Support Is Not Available For The Rest Of The Day

nospam@example.com (easyDNS Support) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:10:08 -0500

Hello,

Due to continuing building maintenance we will not be able to provide phone support for the rest of today.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email us:

support@easydns.com

billing@easydns.com

Thanks!

The easyDNS Team.

Useless URLs, Chapter #1

nospam@example.com (Mark Jeftovic) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:24:16 -0400

I see this so often I've decided to start a channel here to try to educate people on the effectiveness (or not) of using web addresses or URLs in both online and offline situations.

In this installment, I was stuck in traffic behind this van the other day. This URL was staring in me in the face for probably eons longer than any casual observer would ever see it for, yet, I wouldn't be able to get to this website if my life depended on it:

Continue reading "Useless URLs, Chapter #1"

Beware, Renewal Fraud.

nospam@example.com (easyDNS Support) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:22:07 -0400

Our subscribers have brought to our attention a new email scam designed to transfer domain names away from their legitimate registrars.
Please be on the look out in your in box for a message from http://www.domainrenewal-online.org/ that will ask you to follow a link to renew your domain name.
This link has nothing to do with easyDNS and should be avoided if received.

Thanks to our subscribers that have graciously brought this to our attention.,

thank you
the easyDNS Team.

Whois record modifications

nospam@example.com (easyDNS Support) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:32:40 -0400

We are currently experiencing some difficulties with the members page whois modification module.
If you require an immediate whois record modification and are experiencing modification errors please contact our support department
at support@easydns.com

we apologise for the inconvenience and hope for a speedy resolution

thank you
easyDNS

members site interface sync weirdness

nospam@example.com (Simon Carr) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 14:17:52 -0400

Greetings,

Last night we switched our primary web server for the members interface to new hardware. During this process, we synced up the zone files between the two servers. While the switch went well overall we are getting reports that some users are seeing old zone file configurations in the members interface.

This won't effect the results zones return from our name servers, since the zone files that are being read and propagated to our name servers are being done so from a dedicated "hidden master" name server that has the right info.

If you see this effect in your members interface (weird or old records), contact support and they will get the admins update the zone file to the proper current zone.

remote1.easydns.com

nospam@example.com (easyDNS Support) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 15:50:26 -0400

We have encountered a hardware issue with our remote1.easydns.com machine.
Currently , we are working with our provider to get the machine back up and running as soon as possible.

In the interim we have repointed the IP for remote1.easydns.com to one of our existing NS boxen.

member's site maintenance: September 6th 2009 @ 11:00pm EST

nospam@example.com (easyDNS Support) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:30:09 -0400

Greetings,

On September 6th 2009 at 11:00pm EST the EasyDNS sysops team will be conducting a scheduled maintenance on the EasyDNS members interface. The work will last until September 7th 2009 at 3:00am EST.

Barring complications or tweaks, our goal will be to complete work in a shorter period than we have allocated, but we're airing on the side of caution.

The following sites will be impacted;

http://www.easydns.com
http://members.easydns.com

https://members.easydns.com

easyURL.net now CLOSED to general public

nospam@example.com (Mark Jeftovic) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:19:39 -0400

Our URL shortening service easyURL.net is now CLOSED to the general public.

Only easyDNS members in good standing with at least one active domain in their account may use this service. To enable your access log into your easyDNS account and under your utilities module click on enable easyURL.net and then you're done. Happy shortening.

Everybody else can make other arrangements.

Thank you for your time.

easyURL.net adds useless "easyFrame" to redirects.

nospam@example.com (Mark Jeftovic) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:43:37 -0400

Feeling left out of the web 2.0 "URL Shortener" hysteria, we've added a mostly useless "easyFrame"™ to the easyURL.net redirect service. The culmination of nearly two night's worth of programming in front of the TV, and nearing 100 lines of PHP code, the easyFrame™ enables people to further perpetuate it's marginal functionality via other social networking sites with a single click. Users may also "vote" on whether they actually like or dislike the subject URL being shortened.

Perhaps the single actual useful function of the easyFrame™ is that you can also report spam URLs directly to us, with one click, which we will then nuke with extreme prejudice.

We are also happy to report that our new easyFrame™ has enticed a VC bidding war and easyURL has closed a $30 Million dollar A series funding round with a pre-money valuation more than 100X that of easyDNS itself. We are now planning on spinning off easyURL.net in an October IPO.

Try it today! Tell your friends! Tweet it!

members.easydns.com was slow

nospam@example.com (easyDNS Support) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:36:50 -0400

Greetings,

We were having some difficulty keeping load times under control on our members interface today, located at members.easydns.com. We have rectified the issue for the moment and are working diligently to ensure that we don't run into this trouble in the future.

DNS usage counts back: May numbers borked

nospam@example.com (Mark Jeftovic) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:05:53 -0400

We've re-enabled access to viewing your DNS query counts online.

Unfortunately, the May numbers are out of whack: you'll see a large spike in your query counts between May 12 and May 19 which is actually each day's total carried forward and added to the next. This was due to a parser bug caused by a change in the output log format.

Sorry for the on-again/off-again nature of this feature and we should be good to go now.