[SOLVED] Need New Public DNS Host

tonyfreeman · 11-15-2010, 10:48 PM

Nameserver/bind gurus! I have been managing my DNS with public-dns.net for a while, but that site appears to have dropped off the earth and floated out into space.

Before using public-dns.org I used granitecanyon.org to manage DNS settings. public-dns.net was much easier to use. granitecanyon also seems to have quietly drifted out of the solar system.

The site that I purchased my domain name from does not provide dns management unless I pay a yearly fee.

Anyone know of a good public dns hosting service that I could use?

I do not have a static IP ... would that be a challenge if I just made my own machine an authoritative nameserver for my domain?

paulsm4 · 11-16-2010, 12:05 AM

I've heard good things about OpenDNS:

http://www.opendns.org

There's also Google DNS:

http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/

cconte · 11-16-2010, 07:22 AM

try one of this
http://www.free-webhosts.com/free-dns-hosting.php

tonyfreeman · 11-16-2010, 09:13 PM

I decided to go with the no frills, no nonsense, just the basics editdns.net. DNS started working within minutes! I found the site from the link cconte provided thanks ;-)

redir · 12-15-2010, 08:58 AM

I use zoneedit.com and have been for several years running.

catkin · 12-15-2010, 09:04 AM

Here's a script that tests the response speed of a big list of public DNS servers so you can find which is best from your location. OpenDNS delivers (bad) advertising if it cannot resolve a name. Google want to know what brand of underwear you are wearing and where you bought it.

Code:

#! /bin/bash

# Purpose:  list response times of the public DNS servers listed at http://80.247.230.136/dns.htm
# Usage:  no options or arguments.  Writes important data to stdout and progress information to stderr.
# Author:  Charles (catkin)
# Licence: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law"

# Set up shell environment
# ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
set -o posix
set -o nounset
shopt -s extglob # allow extended pattern matching operators 

# Executables
# ~~~~~~~~~~~
# So can change to suit OS variant
cut='/usr/bin/cut'
grep='/bin/grep'
nslookup='/usr/bin/nslookup'
sed='/bin/sed'
sort='/usr/bin/sort'
time='/usr/bin/time'
uniq='/usr/bin/uniq'
wget='/usr/bin/wget'

# Constants
# ~~~~~~~~~
link1='http://80.247.230.136/dns.htm'
link2='http://vivil.free.fr/dns.htm'
lf='
'

# Get latest list of public DNS servers
# ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
echo 'Getting latest list of public DNS servers ...' >&2
wget_out="$( $wget --connect-timeout=2 --output-document=- "$link1" )"
if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then
    echo "+++ WARNING +++ Unable to get $link1, trying $link2"
    wget_out="$( $wget --connect-timeout=2 --output-document=- "$link2" )"
    if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then
        echo "+++ ERROR +++ Unable to get $link2"
        \exit 1
    fi
fi
servers="$( echo "$wget_out" | $grep '^ping' | $cut --delimiter=' ' --fields=4 | $sort --general-numeric-sort | $uniq)"
if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then
    echo "+++ ERROR +++ Problem parsing HTML for list of public DNS servers.  Pipe output was:$lf$servers"
    \exit 1
fi

# Time each one looking up a well-known domain
# ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
echo 'Timing a DNS lookup on each DNS server' >&2
out=''
for server in $servers 
do
    echo -n '.' >&2
    buf="$($time -f '%e' $nslookup 'www.google.com' $server 2>&1)"
    case $buf in 
        'Server:'* )
            out="$out$lf${buf##*$lf}s $server"
            buf="$( echo "$wget_out" | $grep "^ $server " )"
            if [[ "$buf" != '' ]]; then
                buf="${buf#*<???????????????}"
                name="${buf%%?>*}"
                out="$out $name"
            fi
            ;;
        "$nslookup: couldn't get address for '"$server"': not found"* )
            echo "Not found:  $server"
            ;;
        *'connection timed out; no servers could be reached'* )
            echo "Timed out:  $server"
            ;;
        * )
            echo "+++ ERROR +++ (program error) unexpected output from nslookup and time:$lf$buf" >&2
    esac
done

# Display results
# ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
out="${out#$lf}"
echo "${lf}Time  DNS server$lf====  ==========$lf$( echo "$out" | $sort --general-numeric-sort | $sed 's/^0.00s /<10ms /' )"

\exit 0

EDIT: don't look too closely at the code, it's naive in many ways (one of my first bash scripts) but it delivers the goods.