Migrating DNS service

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, I’ve been rather occupied with trying to maintain the future of this site!

OP-EZY runs on a home internet connection which, like most connections, use a dynamic IP Address. What this means is, every time the connection to the internet is switched off, and reconnected, the numeric address of this site changes. Reasons for disconnections include:

• The router crashing
• phone line issues
• ISP issues

When you type in www.op-ezy.co.uk into your browser, a DNS server will look up its database to find that site’s nameserver, that name server will then tell your browser what the numeric address is where the data for that site can be found. If I was running on a static IP, I could host my own nameserver, which would make the availability of this site much more reliable!

Sadly, that isn’t possible, so I have to use a third party DNS supplier who will let me keep updating the IP addresses each time it changes.

On the 6th of this month, I received an email from zoneedit, the company who provided DNS for OP-EZY. They listed major improvements they were rolling out towards the end of this month. Sadly, they decided to change how their free service works:

Free Service Changes

• All accounts that have ever purchased a credit will be grandfathered into the new system and maintain their 5 free zones
• New accounts will only receive 2 free zones instead of 5
• Current accounts that are free and have never purchased a credit will be downgraded from 5 to 2 free zones
  • NOTE: If you have only used free services and want to maintain your 5 free zones in the new system there’s a simple solution: buy at least one credit before the migration and you’ll keep all 5 free zones

Now, this wouldn’t bother most people, as they will, most likely, just be running one site. But I run three, so this meant I was over their new 2 zone limit. They do mention I could buy one credit to keep the 5 zone limit, but they don’t make it clear how I’m supposed to pay this! So I decided to go looking for another DNS host.

After a long while searching, I discovered, what seems to be, one of the best kept secrets on the internet! (not for much longer though!) namecheap.com. These guys provide a free DNS service for up to 100 domains, and seem to have great deals on buying domain names!

Now, I won’t be switching my current names from 1&1 to them, as 1&1 have been excellent for the past 5 years, but I will most likely consider namecheap for future names!

So, does this switch mean there will be any downtime? No, the DNS switch has already happened, and to prove it, you can go to any computer connected to the internet, open up command prompt, or terminal and type:

nslookup -type=ns op-ezy.co.uk

this should come back with something like:

Non-authoritative answer:

op-ezy.co.uk    nameserver = freedns1.registrar-servers.com.

op-ezy.co.uk    nameserver = freedns2.registrar-servers.com.

op-ezy.co.uk    nameserver = freedns3.registrar-servers.com.

Authoritative answers can be found from:

freedns2.registrar-servers.com  internet address = 66.252.2.240

freedns3.registrar-servers.com  internet address = 72.34.41.43

freedns1.registrar-servers.com  internet address = 74.81.64.51

Cheers