IPv6 – What does it mean, and what is it used for?

The IPv6 is a network layer protocol that allows communication and data transfer between two different hosts. It sets specific rules that help identify the separate hosts and track their location. That way, they could exchange information successfully. Only when the two corresponding IP addresses are identified, the route could be established, and the hosts are able to communicate.

IPv6 operates with 128-bit addresses. Each address includes eight different groups of strings, and every group has four characters (alphanumeric), divided by a colon. Thanks to these characteristics, it is able to provide an incredible amount of unique IP addresses. That guarantees that we should have available unique IP addresses to assign to all of the new devices for a very long time.

History of IPv6

IPv6 stands for Internet Protocol version 6, and it is the newer version of the Internet Protocol (IP). Yet, can you imagine it was around for more than 20 years? It was introduced back in December 1995! The main goal for its creation is to take over and eventually replace the previous protocol – IPv4. The reason is simple. The number of devices that want to connect to the Internet is growing tremendously, and IPv4 is not able to satisfy such needs. 

IPv4 protocol, the previous standard, allows 4.2 billion unique IP addresses. However, with the newer tech developments and the various new wireless and network-attached devices, such as the IoT devices, it was predicted that by 2010, the Internet would have exhausted all unique IPv4 addresses.

On the other hand, thanks to the standardization of the new IPv6, it allows 3.4 x 1038 unique IP addresses. This is equal to 340 trillion trillion trillion IP addresses.

How does the Internet work? 

The Internet is a pretty extensive cable network. It connects numerous data centers placed all over the world and the users that desire to reach and connect with their services. All of the network points are connected with massive cables.

Additionally, such a large network of interconnected machines and devices requires proper order and the ability to identify all of the different devices with their associated addresses. Therefore, both users and servers should have an IP address for that purpose. Moreover, the servers hold hostnames, too. 

When a user wants to view a particular website, it has to type its domain name (hostname) and connect to the web server that holds the information for it. Every website on the Internet is hosted on web servers in different data centers. That way, you can access websites, applications, and services.

IP address – definition

The IP address serves as an ID and identifies all of the various hosts on the network – both servers and users. There are two main types of IP addresses:

• Private: This type of IP address is used when users connect on a closed private network. Thanks to it, the user gains access to the specific network, and it is able to communicate with the other devices, which it includes.
• Public: This type of IP address is used when you want to connect to the Internet. Usually, an Internet service provider (ISP) provides you with a router that you need and a public IP address. Servers need such an address too, and it should not change, meaning they should be static.

You are probably wondering why we are talking about IP addresses. In reality, to access a website, we just type domain names. So, let’s find out more!

Domain Name System explained

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a global database that contains all of the existing domain names and their IP addresses. It answers the DNS queries of the users for the domain names and their IP addresses daily.

The Domain Name System is decentralized and built in a hierarchical order. Therefore, each level knows the answer for the one below. On the top level are the Root servers, which provide information about the TLD (Top-Level Domain) servers. In addition, they hold data about where the different extensions are, such as .com, .info, .net, etc.

Thanks to this arrangement, it is easy for users to type the domain name and reach the website. The user requests the needed IP address (IPv4 or IPv6), and it first checks the DNS cache of the device. If it’s not available there, the recursive DNS server performs the next step. It searches for the answer until it reaches the authoritative DNS server that holds the needed information (A record or AAAA record). This whole process is also known as DNS resolution.

Types of Internet Protocol version 6 addresses

Now we know what an IPv6 address is. So, let’s take a look at its three different types: unicast, anycast, and multicast, which are defined by RFC 4291: IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture.

• Unicast (a single interface) – It represents a particular node on a network and frequently alludes to a specific transmitter or receiver. Accordingly, it is one-on-one communication.
• Anycast (a set of interfaces) – It is linked to a group of interfaces, most of which are connected to various nodes. Accordingly, it is one-to-closest communication.
• Multicast (a group of interfaces) – We only implement it as a datagram’s destination and represents a collection of IP devices. Accordingly, it is one-to-many communication.

Furthermore, IPv6 does not support broadcast addresses. Multicast addresses are used to implement the broadcast features.

IPv4 vs. IPv6 – differences

The main contrast between IPv4 and IPv6 is in the increased number of addresses. The IPv4 is a 32-bit IP address, and IPv6 is a 128-bit IP address. Yet, IPv4 is still a popular choice compared to IPv6.

Additional differences between IPv4 and IPv6 are:

• IPv6 relies on an alphanumeric addressing technique. On the other hand, IPv4 is based only on numeric.
• The bits in IPv6 are divided by a colon. The bits in IPv4 are divided by a period.
• IP security is demanded by IPv6, while in IPv4, it is an option.
• IPv6 implements an IP security (IPSec) protocol. On the other hand, IPv4 leans on applications.
• With IPv6, networks are automatically configured. On the other hand, networks based on IPv4 should be configured via Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) or manually.
• IPv6 uses NDP (Neighbor Discovery Protocol) for mapping MAC addresses, and IPv4 operates with ARP (Address Resolution Protocol).
• IPv6 holds eight header fields with a length of 40-characters. IPv4 holds 14 header fields with a length of eight characters.
• IPv6 does not include any checksum fields.

Ways to check IPv6 address

If you are wondering how to check an IPv6 address, don’t worry we got you covered! It is a simple and easy task which you can perform both for a device (network) and for a specific hostname.

For a device/network

Checking your IPv6 address is a simple task. There are several ways you could see it. 

• Via your browser: 

You are able to check your external IPv6 address by simply writing “What is my IP” on Google.com. You are going to receive the regular search results, plus a rich snippet with the information you need. So, simple and easy, right!

• If you are a Windows user:

In this case, you should simply open the Command Prompt. Then, type the following:  “ipconfig”. You will receive as an answer the entire IP configuration.

• If you are a Linux user:

In this case, you should simply open the Terminal and then type the following: “ip addr”. Next, you should find “inet”, and you are going to notice your IPv6 address.

• If you are a macOS user:

In this case, click the Apple icon on your top left corner. Then click on “System Preferences” and find and click on “Network”. Lastly, search for the network connection that you use and click on it. There you are going to see your IPv6 address. Easy, right?

For a hostname

We took a look at how to check your Internet Protocol version 6. But let’s see how to find it for a hostname. It is also an easy procedure, depending on the Operating System that you are using.

• On Windows

Open the Command Prompt application. Inside it, write the following command:
nslookup -type=aaaa cloudns.net
Press Enter to get the IPv6 address(es) for cloudns.net. 

10 most used Nslookup commands

• On macOS

Open the Terminal application. Inside it, write the following command:
dig cloudns.net aaaa
Press Enter and check the results. 

Check out our article if you want to learn more about the dig command, how to install it, and use it.

• On Linux

Open the Terminal. Inside it, write the following command:
dig cloudns.net aaaa
Press Enter and check the results. 

*Note that you need to change cloudns.net with the hostname you want to check*

How to figure out the full address from the shortened one?

First, determine whether the address contains a double colon to select the full IPv6 from an abbreviated one. Next, view how many double colons represent 0 blocks if it has one. To do this, count the number of blocks in the abbreviated address and divide it by 8. In the address AF02::2, for example, there are two blocks: AF02 and 2. The double colon (::) represents the number of blocks (8 blocks – 2 two blocks).

After determining all eight blocks, count the number of hexadecimal digits in each. Each block must include four Hexadecimal digits. If any block has fewer than four hexadecimal digits, add an equal number of zeros on the left side or in the block’s leading position.

Let’s use the abbreviated example address to calculate the full address.

AF02::2
AF02:0:0:0:0:0:0:2 – The address after removing the abbreviated double-colon
AF02:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0002 – The address after adding leading zeros

So the full address of the abbreviated address AF02::2 is AF02:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0002.

Advantages and disadvantages

As many things in life, IPv6 also has its advantages and disadvantages. Therefore it is important to know what you can expect from this new Internet Protocol.

Advantages of IPv6

The main benefits of IPv6 include the following:

• It increases the capacity of address space – That way, the different resources are efficiently distributed to the adapted additional web addresses.
• Routing is efficient – It gives a possibility of easy aggregation of prefixes assigned to IP networks.
• Efficient Data Flow – It allows the transfer of large data packets simultaneously. That helps with preserving bandwidth.
• Security– It improves safety and security based on the improved authentication methods built into network firewalls.

Disadvantages of IPv6

As we mentioned there are some drawbacks of the protocol, which are:

• Slow adaptation: It is based on the fact that IPv4 is still very popular, and a large part of users are using it. The transition to the newer IPv6 is a slow process.
• Connection: IPv4 and IPv6 devices are not able to communicate directly. Yet, there are very few occasions that they would need to.
• Readability: Operating and learning IPv6 subnetting can be complicated on its own. Additionally, if you just think about remembering or memorizing your IPv6 address seems like a difficult task.

Suggested article: IPv4 vs IPv6 and where did IPv5 go?

IPv6 Transition Challenges

When it comes to discussing IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6), there are several challenges that organizations may face as they transition from IPv4 to IPv6. 

• Address Space Management: The biggest advantage of IPv6 is its vast address space, yet this can also be a challenge. Managing such a large pool of addresses requires robust strategies to ensure efficient allocation and prevent address exhaustion. Organizations need to develop effective address assignment policies to make the most of IPv6’s capabilities.
• Dual Stack Implementation: During the transition period, many networks operate in a dual-stack mode, supporting both IPv4 and IPv6 simultaneously. As a result, configuration and maintenance are more complex, and potential security issues may arise. 
• Legacy System Compatibility: Not all systems and applications are IPv6-ready, and many legacy systems may only support IPv4. Ensuring compatibility and interoperability between IPv6-enabled devices and older systems can be challenging. It requires careful planning and investing in updates or replacements for outdated infrastructure.
• Security Concerns: While IPv6 includes features that improve security, such as IPsec integration, the transition itself can be risky. Misconfigurations, lack of awareness, and the coexistence of IPv4 and IPv6 can create vulnerabilities that attackers may exploit. Robust security measures and constant monitoring are crucial during the transition phase.
• Skill Gaps and Training: Implementing and managing IPv6 networks requires a different skill set compared to IPv4. Many IT professionals may need to learn the necessary expertise. Organizations should invest in training programs to ensure their team can effectively design, deploy, and maintain IPv6 networks.
• Costs and Budgeting: IPv6 adoption often involves investment in new hardware, software, and training. The upfront costs can be a significant barrier for some organizations, especially smaller ones with limited resources. Clear budgeting and cost-effective strategies are essential for a smooth transition.
• Internet Service Provider (ISP): The successful implementation of IPv6 also depends on ISPs. If they are not fully prepared to support the new protocol, it can lead to connectivity issues and interfere with the overall transition process.

Best Practices for Transitioning to IPv6

Transitioning to IPv6 requires careful planning to ensure a smooth and secure implementation.

• Start by adopting a dual-stack configuration, which allows your network to support both IPv4 and IPv6 during the transition. This approach helps maintain connectivity with both IPv4 and IPv6 devices.
• Develop a comprehensive IP address management strategy to effectively organize and allocate the large IPv6 address space.
• Prioritize training for IT staff on IPv6 configuration and troubleshooting as IPv6 introduces new protocols and practices.
• Implement strong security measures by configuring firewalls and monitoring systems for IPv6 traffic specifically.
• Collaborate with your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to ensure they fully support IPv6, as ISP compatibility can significantly impact your transition’s success.

IPv6 Security: Exploring IPsec Integration

IPv6 includes IPsec (Internet Protocol Security) as an essential, built-in feature, offering improved security by encrypting and authenticating network traffic. Unlike IPv4, where IPsec is optional, IPv6 was designed with IPsec as a foundational element.

It provides three primary benefits: data integrity, data origin authentication, and data confidentiality, making IPv6 inherently more secure. This protocol suite is especially beneficial for sensitive data transmission, as it minimizes the risk of interception and tampering.

IPsec works by securing data packets at the network layer, which supports secure end-to-end communications without needing application-level encryption. However, IPsec setup and maintenance require expertise, so organizations should ensure their IT teams are highly familiar with IPv6 security practices to maximize the benefits of IPsec integration.

Conclusion 

There is no doubt that IPv6 is beneficial, and it is considered a revolutionary technology. However, it is going to take some time until we fully commit and use its real potential.

The post What is an IPv6 address? [Fully explained] appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.

What is a DDoS attack?

DDoS attack stands for Distributed Denial-of-Service attack and represents a cyber-attack that aims to disrupt normal traffic and make the target (website, server, network) unavailable for regular users. There are few different types, but in general, a DDoS attack is an attempt to overwhelm the target (a computer, few connected computers or a whole DNS network) with high traffic from multiple sources.

The cybercriminals can generate this strong wave of traffic by:

• Using a network of pre-infected devices (computers, mobiles, IoT devices, etc.)  called a botnet
• Amplify attack that uses other servers to resend the traffic to a target after significantly increasing the size of the packets
• Occupy the existing connection and not allow new ones
• Exploit the vulnerabilities of a protocol, such as the UDP or another. 

There are many DDoS threats, this is why you want to a DDoS defense too. DDoS attack protection could keep your business safe and notify you of problems.

How does it work?

There are different types of DDoS attacks (volume-based attacks, protocol-based attacks, and application-layer attacks), but in general, they all have the same stages:

1. Pre-production of the attack. At this moment, the cybercriminals will create a network of botnets (infected devices) that later they will use for attacks. For example, hackers can bypass the security of IoT devices, or they can send phishing emails to users, and when the users open the emails, they can get infected with malicious code. 
2. Launching of the attack. Now it is time to use the botnet. Time for choosing a victim and sending the traffic towards the targeted server. There are different reasons for the attacks, but the goal is to saturate the target with traffic and take it out of service. 
3. The success of the attack. After a while, if the target does not have DDoS attack protection, or it is not strong enough, eventually it won’t be able to function correctly. There is a limit to how many active connections a server can have, even if it is very powerful. It will start to deny service and stop working. Normal users will not be able to use the server until the traffic drops again and the server can begin responding to normal queries. 
4. Final result. The bad actors could have achieved different goals, and now they get their reward. It could be money or just satisfaction with the success of the attack.

Signs of DDoS attacks 

DDoS attacks are extremely harmful and could lead to large reputational and financial losses. That is why it is crucial to be mindful and observe for any early signs of an appearing attack. There are specific characteristics of each DDoS attack type, but in general, what you can expect during an attack is: 

• Strange traffic, coming from one IP address or various but similar IP addresses (same range of addresses). 
• Traffic coming from devices with a similar profile (the type of devices, OS, etc.) and same patterns. 
• Out-of-ordinary traffic spikes like a huge spike, in the middle of the night without any sense or repeatable traffic, with a particular interval. 
• Traffic only to a single page, and no further exploration of your website.  

DDoS vs. DoS 

Let’s first briefly define a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. In this type of online attack, a source is maliciously infected in order to send big amounts of traffic to a target. The purpose is to saturate the system, to make it crash by exhausting its technical resources (CPU, RAM, etc.), or by exploiting a specific vulnerability and injecting a proper, harmful input. Then the service for users will be denied.

Now, let’s jump to the differences between DDoS vs. DoS attacks:

• Sources for attacking. In DoS attacks, the perpetrator only needs one Internet-connected device (source) to flood its victim with lots of forged requests or exploit a specific vulnerability within its software. DDoS attacks are executed from multiple sources, thousands, even millions of devices connected to the Internet.
• Way of execution. Generally, DoS weapons are apps like Low Orbit Ion Cannon or homemade codes. DDoS perpetrators use botnet armies, massive groups of malware-infected devices like PCs, routers, mobiles, Internet of Things (IoT) connected to the Internet. The traffic a DDoS attack can produce is heavy, much bigger than a DoS attack can.
• Damage scope. Both attacks can be very aggressive. But still, modern technology makes it easier to defend and even track the malicious source of a DoS attack, increasing the chances of identifying it and defeating it. It becomes a one-to-one fight (DoS). During a DDoS attack, you are fighting against multiple devices, possibly located in different countries or continents. You would have to track and stop all of them simultaneously. This is more like a war, and it definitely will demand so much more time and resources for the victim to defend and try stopping the attack. Thus, the damage scope of a DDoS is wider than the DoS one.

DDoS attacks Protection

There is a solution that can stop most of the DDoS attacks, even a strong attack involving heavy traffic, called DDoS Protection. It is an additional service to a regular managed DNS plan. 

To successfully mitigate a DDoS attack, you need to have the following 3 elements:

1. Active monitoring. You need a Monitoring solution system that checks for signs of attacks like increased traffic, suspicious traffic from particular IP addresses, and strange patterns of requests. 
2. Reactive service. One thing is to see the danger. Another is to take action. Good DDoS protection service must have auto triggers that will take action. This may include load balancing, traffic filtering, and an alarm system. 
3. Traffic load balancing. When we talk about heavy traffic, you need to direct the traffic to more servers. That way, you will balance the hit on one and disperse it to more. The more DNS servers your plan includes, the better possibility you have to resist the DDoS attack. 

You need to have an intelligent DDoS attack protection service that can distinguish between heavy traffic because of your excellent promotion or real danger. You don’t want to block your real users at any moment.

Discover Web monitoring from CloUDNS

What is the motivation of DDoS attackers?

Cybercriminals can have multiple reasons to use a DDoS attack, and the most common are:

• Extortion. The attacks can send waves of traffic towards the target and disturb the functionality of its services, causing technical problems, downtime, and miss of sales, demanding money for stopping the DDoS attack.
• DDoS-for-hire to attack the competition. On the Dark Web, people can hire hackers for DDoS attacks. Some people pay for such an attack to be directed towards their competitors. It is especially popular during important sales moments like Christmas, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or Easter promotions. If the competitor is down, it won’t receive visitors on its site, and they will go to another place. The one who paid the attack hopes a part of these visitors directs to its site.
• Cyberwarfare. The governments of some countries use DDoS attacks to target the opposition’s news sites, their communication, or other crucial services. The goal is to control the narrative and not allow free speech in their country. These attacks could be especially strong because countries have a lot of money for sponsoring them.
• Gamers’ conflicts. You could be surprised, but the gaming industry has already reached almost 200 billion dollars in revenues per year, so the stakes are high. Rival gamers use DDoS attacks to bother their competitors and try to lower their scores. Sometimes, they use DDoS to stop a competition game they are losing and demand a re-match.
• Hacktivism. Hackers also have an opinion. They might have a problem with the government, with a particular organization or event. Modern activism has many new ways to protest and express a point that includes cyberattacks.

Types of DDoS attacks

Over time, cyber criminals managed to create multiple technical approaches for taking out their victims through DDoS. Each of the techniques falls into one of the three general types of DDoS attacks, which are the following: 

Volume-Based or Volumetric Attacks

These are the most classic type of DDoS attacks. They use different methods for generating massive volumes of traffic to overwhelm the capacity of the victim’s resources. As a result, servers are overwhelmed with requests, networks are overwhelmed with traffic, and databases are overwhelmed with calls. Additionally, they saturate bandwidth and produce large traffic, which results in it being impossible for legitimate user traffic to flow into the targeted website.

Protocol Attacks

Protocol attacks, also known as state-exhaustion attacks, abuse protocols to overwhelm a particular resource, most commonly a server but occasionally firewalls or load balancers. They are designed in a way that allows them to consume the processing capacity of network infrastructure resources. Their target is usually Layer 3 and Layer 4 protocol communications and, more precisely, their weaknesses. These attacks are often measured in packets per second.

Application-Layer Attacks

These DDoS attacks target weaknesses in applications in order to force the application itself to fail. In contrast to other attacks that mainly concentrate on disrupting infrastructure, these attacks are initiated on Layer 7 (the Application layer) by opening connections and starting processes and transaction requests that consume limited resources, such as disk space and available memory. Yet, it can even result in overloaded CPUs or exhausted memory, which impacts the server and other applications. Layer 7 attacks are well-known that are difficult to prevent since it can be challenging to distinguish malicious traffic from regular traffic. Application DDoS attacks are usually measured in requests per second.

In real-world cases, criminals can actually use a combination of these types of DDoS in order to increase the intensity of the attack.

Popular DDoS attacks used by hackers

Let’s talk a little bit more about the most popular types of DDoS attacks initiated by cybercriminals!

Smurf Attack

The Smurf attack is performed over the ping tool (ICMP echo request). The ping tool is used to check the reachability of connected devices.  When you send a ping request to the destination address, you should receive a confirmation. In this DDoS attack, the ping is sent to a device but from a masked IP. The return confirmation doesn’t go to the original source, but it is redirected to the target of the attack. All the infected devices will do the same, and they will send the traffic to the victim.

Teardrop Attack

A Teardrop attack works by sending modified, oversized data packets to the victim’s device to make them inaccessible. Frequently, perpetrators use a specific bug for destabilizing the fragmentation codes or the reassembly feature of the TCP/IP protocol. This opens the door for the teardrop attack to happen.
Reassembling the maliciously modified data packets won’t be possible. This will produce repeated attempts to complete the task. And the constant cycle of these repetitions will cause the overlapping of the packets. Finally, to increase the strain, big traffic loads will be sent to the target for a definitive crash.

Ping Of Death

The Ping Of Death (POD) attacks using a common and valid tool with malicious objectives – the Ping command. Altered or oversized data packets are sent to the target through the ping command.
Consider that a correct IPv4 data packet (IP header included) must be 65,535 bytes. This is the standard allowed by the Internet protocol (IP). Perpetrators violate it and make the target struggle while trying to reassemble altered packets repeatedly. Target’s resources like memory will be exhausted, causing different problems, crashing included.
POD became popular because attackers don’t need deep knowledge about its victim, only its IP address.

Slowloris

A highly dangerous attack executed a single computer vs. a server. A sophisticated technique that takes down a server without disrupting the rest of the network’s ports and services. Slowloris operates by sending many partial requests to the server. It keeps sending more and more HTTP headers continuously but without completing those requests. These forged requests keep many connections open to the server for a longer time than usual to overwhelm the maximum concurrent connection pool. As a result, the system will slow down, additional connections from legit users will be denied.

Zero-day DDoS attack

A Zero-day, also called a zero-minute attack, is one that takes advantage of new vulnerabilities. People are not yet aware of them. Usually, those vulnerabilities appear on new updates or patches, but they can also exist since the software is launched. The name of the attack refers to the fact it is happening before the vulnerability perpetrators used is publicly known.

This attack can have a positive purpose when software companies pay people in exchange for reporting vulnerabilities of new products before their official release. But it also points to the reality that attacks are far from disappearing.

Preparing a DDoS attack

To launch a DDoS attack, first, the criminals need to “recruit” enough connected devices that later will generate the traffic. To do so, they infect those machines with different malicious software (from emails, visiting unprotected sites and more) and create so-called botnets – hijacked devices ready to be used when it is time for the attack. There are even markets for botnets, where you can buy an attack on a website of your choice.

The Consequences of DDoS attack

Experiencing such a harmful threat is highly unpleasant and can have a huge negative impact. Some of the possible outcomes of a successful attack include:

• Operational Disruption: One of the immediate consequences of a successful DDoS attack is the disruption of normal operations. Websites become sluggish or entirely inaccessible, leading to frustrated users, decreased productivity, and financial losses. E-commerce platforms, financial institutions, and online services are especially vulnerable, as downtime translates directly into revenue loss and damage to customer trust.
• Financial Loss: DDoS attacks can cause severe financial harm. Businesses may face not only the direct costs of mitigating the attack and restoring services but also indirect costs associated with reputational damage and lost customers. The financial damage can lead to legal consequences, especially if sensitive client information is compromised during the attack.
• Reputational Damage: Trust is a delicate matter in the digital space, and a DDoS attack can destroy it instantly. When customers cannot access services or experience disruptions, they may lose confidence in the affected organization and its ability to protect their interests. Rebuilding a reputation can be a long and difficult process.

How long does a DDoS attack last?

The duration of a DDoS attack can vary significantly based on the resources available to the attackers and the defensive measures of the target. DDoS attacks can last from a few minutes to several weeks. On average, however, most DDoS attacks last for around 24 hours, though some intense attacks can go on for days or even weeks.

Short-duration attacks can be a part of a coordinated strategy where attackers test a target’s vulnerabilities with brief bursts, estimating the response and preparedness of the target’s systems. These “hit-and-run” style attacks can cause considerable disruption in a short time, particularly if they target time-sensitive operations like financial transactions or sales events.

Prolonged DDoS attacks typically aim to exhaust the target’s resources or force them to pay a ransom in exchange for stopping the attack. Long-term attacks can be devastating as they may prevent an organization from functioning entirely, leading to major operational and financial issues.

Preparedness and robust DDoS protection are essential to mitigate the effects of both short and prolonged attacks.

Which industries are being targeted and why?

Certain industries are more frequently targeted by DDoS attacks due to their high online activity, competitive nature, and dependence on continuous uptime. Here are some of the industries most affected and why they are popular targets:

• Financial Services and Banking: Financial institutions are high-value targets due to their critical role in managing and securing funds and customer data. Attackers may aim to disrupt operations, damage reputation, or extort these institutions for ransom. A successful attack on a bank can lead to significant financial loss, operational chaos, and damage to customer trust.
• E-commerce and Retail: Online retail is another major target, especially during peak shopping seasons like Black Friday and holidays. Attacks during these times can severely impact sales revenue, as website downtime directly translates to lost customers and sales.
• Government and Public Sector: Government websites, especially those related to public communication, law enforcement, and emergency services, are frequent targets. These attacks may be politically motivated, intending to disrupt public access to information. Governments are also targeted to disrupt official communication channels.
• Gaming and Entertainment: The gaming industry is particularly vulnerable, as users expect real-time access and responsiveness. Gamers often participate in competitive or time-sensitive events where even short downtimes can lead to significant frustration and financial loss for companies. DDoS attacks are frequently employed to disrupt gaming servers.
• Media and News Websites: News outlets and media websites are also prime targets. Hacktivists may use DDoS attacks to silence certain news outlets or delay the publication of specific content. Attacks on these sites can reduce public access to information, potentially affecting the narrative on important topics.

How to prevent a DDoS attack and stay safe?

The cyber-criminals can make a vast network of botnets, but it doesn’t mean you can’t be protected. ClouDNS provides you two options to stay away from DDoS troubles.

You can choose and subscribe for a DDoS protected DNS.

All plans provide unlimited Layer 3-7 DDoS Protection. Whichever you pick from them, you will be able to use 4 DDoS protected DNS servers, 50+ Anycast locations and unlimited DNS queries. For big companies, we recommend our DDoS Protection L subscription with 400 DNS zones that you can manage.

DDoS Protected Plans

Or you can use a Secondary DNS as a backup DNS, so you always have a backup copy of your DNS records.

It adds resilience, reduce the outage periods by answering requests even if the Master is down.

Conclusion

The more extensive your DNS network is, the better. The massive traffic from the attackers can be distributed between your servers in the different locations, and it will ease the load. Don’t forget that modern DDoS attacks target different communication layers, so you will need intelligent DDoS protection to respond fast and accurately. 

To be safe, always choose quality DNS service provider like ClouDNS.

The post DDoS attacks and how to protect ourselves appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.

Domain name explained

The domain name is a unique identifier that is utilized for accessing websites. Thanks to the Domain Name System (DNS) – a hierarchical naming system that translates domain names into IP addresses, users can connect to websites using domain names. Compared to IP addresses, domain names are very easy to remember for regular users. 

The structure of a domain name, starting from left to right, is the following: 

• Subdomain: It is located on the left side of a secondary domain and serves as an extension to the primary domain. A subdomain, such as blog.site.com, represents a separate website section. It should be noted that not every domain has a subdomain.
• Second-Level Domain: It is positioned in the middle of a domain name and is usually the most memorable part of the domain structure. People commonly use their personal or business names.
• Top-Level Domain (TLD): It is the extension at the very end of the domain name, such as .com or .net.

The complete version of a domain name, also known as the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN), also includes the hostname.

Now that you know more about domain names and the position of the TLD (Top-Level Domain), let’s explain a little bit more about what it actually is.

What does TLD stand for?

The short acronym TLD stands for Top-Level Domain and represents the last part of the domain name, located after the last dot. Also known as domain extensions, TLDs can help to recognize some aspects of a website, such as its purpose or geographical area.

In the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy, the TLD (Top-Level Domain) defines the first stop after the Root zone. Additionally, it has an extremely vital role in the DNS lookup process (DNS resolution). When a user types a domain name into their browser, like example.net, the Recursive DNS server searches the corresponding IP address by communicating with many servers, including the TLD server. In this case, the TLD is .net, so the Recursive DNS server will contact the TLD server responsible for all domains with the extension .net. Then the search continues until the Recursive DNS server gets the requested IP address from the Authoritative DNS server of example.net.

The Evolution of TLDs

In the early days of the Internet, there were only several TLDs, and securing a .com domain was the ultimate goal for businesses looking to establish an online presence. However, as the Internet expanded, the demand for domain names grew as well. That led to the introduction of a more diverse range of TLDs.

The introduction of new gTLDs (generic top-level domains) has been a game-changer. These gTLDs are more specific and offer a wider collection of choices for domain names. Some popular gTLDs include .app, .blog, .guru, .tech, and .io, to name just a few. These new gTLDs have opened up a world of creative possibilities for domain names and allow businesses and individuals to craft web addresses that are more relevant to their specific niche.

Types of TLDs

There are several main types of TLD (Top-Level Domain).

Generic Top-level Domains (gTLD)

They are the most popular TLDs, and they can serve so many different purposes. Here are some of the most popular generic TLDs:

• .com – At present days, it’s the most widely used TLD. Yet, originally it was used for commercial sites. 
• .net – At first, it was utilized by businesses working with networking technology. Currently, all sorts of organizations and companies benefit from it.
• .org – It comes from “organization,” and that is why it is very suitable for many nonprofit associations.
• .tech – A very suitable and preferred choice for tech companies.
• .biz – A great extension of all kinds of businesses.

Choose your Generic or Country TLD from ClouDNS

Country Code Top-level Domains (ccTLD)

The ccTLDs illustrate different countries and geographical areas. They are usually two-letter codes specified by ISO 3166-1 alpha 2. An interesting fact is that there are more than 300 ccTLDs in the IANA’s list. The reason for that is simple ccTLDs can also illustrate sovereign states and dependent territories. Here are several examples of popular ccTLDs:

• .us – United States
• .ca – Canada
• .de – Germany
• .fr – France
• .cn – China
• .es – Spain

Sponsored Top-level Domains (sTLD)

Sponsored Top-Level Domains, according to the name, are proposed and supervised by private organizations. Usually, these entities are businesses, government agencies, and different organized groups.

The Sponsored Top-Level Domains (sTLD) list only contains a short number of alternatives. Back in the day, such types of TLDs were only .edu, .gov, and .mil. Yet, in recent years have been created new Sponsored Top-Level Domains and their number has increased. 

Here are some of the most popular sTLDs:

• .gov – for United States governmental agencies
• .edu – for higher educational organizations
• .mil – for usage by the US military
• .museum – for museum institutions
• .travel – for travel industry companies

Infrastructure Top-Level Domain (ARPA)

The Infrastructure Top-Level Domain is a special category that actually includes just one single TLD, which is the Address and Routing Parameter Area (ARPA). In addition, IANA directly manages the domain extension .arpa for the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) under the guidance of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB). It is utilized only for technical infrastructure purposes.

Test Top-Level Domains (tTLD)

The Test Top-Level Domains, also known as tTLD, are extensions reserved for local testing and documentation objectives only. Therefore, they can not be established in the global Domain Name System (DNS).

Here are the four tTLDs:

• .test – reserved for testing various scenarios or software
• .localhost – used for testing local networks.

What is Localhost (IP 127.0.0.1)?

• .example – dedicated for placeholders and documentation objectives
• .invalid – displays invalid domain names

Who’s accountable for managing TLDs?

ICANN is responsible for managing the TLDs. The short acronym stands for Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which is actually a non-profit organization. That is possible thanks to a division of ICANN known as IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority).

In addition, ICANN/IANA delegates some of the responsibilities for certain Top-Level Domains to other organizations.

How to choose the right TLD for you?

Choosing a TLD could sometimes be overwhelming. So here are a little bit more details and tips that will help you make your decision more effortlessly.

• Choose a TLD that corresponds to your business characteristics.
• Keep it short. That way, you make it clear and concise, and your visitors don’t get confused when writing your domain name into their browsers.
• Check availability. The combination of your SLD and your chosen TLD could be already taken.
• Target your market. Choose a specific ccTLD, in case you want to focus on a precise county.
• Exact match with your brand. Make sure to register a domain name that is not misspelled. That would confuse your visitors.
• Popular TLDs, like .com, .org, net, and .info, are usually considered more trustworthy by regular users. 
• Consider new gTLDs. By selecting a newer TLD, you can distinguish your business from opponents. Additionally, some of them help you create amazing domain names. For example, there are industry TLDs like .film, .press, .digital, and more. 

Why TLDs Matter?

When it comes to establishing a web presence, your choice of a Top-Level Domain (TLD) isn’t just a matter of aesthetics. It’s a strategic decision that can significantly impact your online identity. 

Top Level Domains play a crucial role in defining the purpose, scope, and geographic relevance of your website. They help your visitors understand the nature of your online presence. For instance, a .com TLD traditionally signifies a commercial website, while .org often indicates a nonprofit organization.

We’ll also discuss how TLDs influence search engine optimization (SEO) and user trust. Understanding the importance of Top Level Domains can help you make an informed choice that aligns with your brand, target audience, and marketing goals. 

The Impact of TLDs on SEO

The choice of TLD can impact your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. While it’s true that Google’s algorithms treat all TLDs equally, user behavior can differ depending on the domain extension. Here’s how your Top Level Domain can influence SEO:

• Credibility and Trust: Traditional TLDs like .com, .org, and .net are often associated with credibility and trust. Users tend to trust websites with these domain extensions more, which can indirectly affect your SEO.
• Keyword Relevance: If you include relevant keywords in your domain name, they can contribute to your SEO efforts. For instance, if you run a plumbing business, a domain like “www.yourplumbingexperts.com” can help your website rank higher for plumbing-related keywords.
• Geotargeting: Country code TLDs (ccTLDs) can help your website rank well in local searches. If you’re a local business, using a ccTLD can be beneficial for your SEO in your target region.
• Niche Relevance: Using a domain extension that is relevant to your niche can signal to both users and search engines that your website is focused on a specific topic, potentially improving your rankings for related keywords.

It’s important to mention that while the choice of TLD can have an impact on SEO indirectly, it is just one of many factors. High-quality content, backlinks, website speed, and mobile-friendliness still play more critical roles in your website’s ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).

The Importance of TLD in Branding

Top-Level Domains (TLDs) play a crucial role in branding by shaping the first impression of a website and influencing user perception. Traditional TLDs like .com, .org, and .gov are widely recognized and associated with established, reputable organizations. Users often perceive sites with these TLDs as more credible, which can reinforce brand identity. For nonprofits, the .org TLD is often preferred because it signals authenticity and a mission-driven focus, while government and educational institutions use .gov and .edu, respectively, to communicate authority and reliability. 

Newer, industry-specific TLDs like .tech, .store, and .design allow businesses to communicate their niche directly through their domain, making them instantly recognizable to targeted audiences. Selecting the right TLD is essential as it communicates brand credibility, relevance, and industry focus, which can enhance customer trust and reinforce the brand message.

Future Trends in TLDs: What’s on the Horizon?

The future of Top-Level Domains (TLDs) points toward increased diversity, personalization, and regional relevance. With thousands of TLD options now available, businesses and individuals are looking beyond traditional options like .com to more unique and memorable TLDs that better reflect their brand identity. We can expect a continued rise in specialized TLDs that cater to niches like .tech, .shop, and .media, enabling brands to create highly specific web addresses that stand out in search results and user memory while also making their purpose immediately clear to users.

Geographic and regional TLDs are also expected to see more growth. TLDs like .nyc, .paris, and .tokyo are gaining popularity as businesses aim to establish local relevance. These TLDs support geotargeting in SEO strategies and appeal to users who seek local services, thus building brand trust and visibility within specific regions.

Another significant trend is the focus on cybersecurity. New TLDs with enhanced security protocols, such as .bank and .insurance, are on the rise, providing users with added assurance. This shift reflects a broader trend of using TLDs to express trustworthiness and enhance user confidence in online interactions.

Finally, the rise of new technologies, including blockchain, has introduced decentralized domains. These TLDs operate outside traditional ICANN regulations, allowing users more control over their digital presence without intermediaries. While still experimental, this trend hints at a future where decentralized domains could play a larger role as blockchain technology advances.

Conclusion

The Top-Level Domain (TLD) is very important and provides details about your business purpose or location. Additionally, it helps you reach the desired market. That is why it is crucial to confuse your audience. There are lots of different types of TLDs. So, make sure to choose one that better suits your needs.

The post What is TLD? appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.

What does SEO (Search Engine Optimization) mean?

The SEO abbreviation stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it is the process of improving your website so that it can rank better on search engines’ results. The search engines like Google, Bing, Baidu, Yahoo, and Yandex create their own algorithms based on factors like content quality, keywords used, loading speed, and others to evaluate sites and rank them on their search pages in their free results. They usually have paid results in the beginning and free results after that. Site owners compete for the free results by constantly improving many aspects of their sites.

Some of the top SEO factors that search engines take into consideration are:

• Security – does the site uses a TLS certificate?
• Loading speed – how fast do the domain and all the elements of the site load?
• Mobile-friendliness – how well is it optimized for mobile (smartphone) use?
• Content quality – how well are the texts and articles written, and how well are the keywords selected?
• Crawlability – how easy is it for search engine bots to search the content on the site?
• Website structure – is there a good structure of menus, categories, articles, etc.?
• Backlinks – are the important sites that lead to the particular site?
• User experience – how good is the total experience for the visitors of the site?

The algorithms are not public, but SEO specialists have already understood many of the factors that strongly improve a site’s ranking. Those that we just mentioned are vital for getting a good position.

What is DNS (Domain Name System)?

Domain Name System, or DNS for short, is a decentralized hierarchical structure that links domain names (computers, services, resources, etc.) to their IP addresses (IPv4 or IPv6 addresses). It also links much more additional information information.

People like to compare it to a phonebook in which they can search for domain names like Wikipedia.org and find the IP addresses behind them without remembering long strings of numbers like 91.198.174.192 or 2620:0:862:ed1a::1. It makes everything easier both for humans and machines.

DNS was created in 1983 by Paul Mockapetris from the Internet Engineering Task Force – IETF. The main purpose of the DNS was to change the ever-growing HOSTS.TXT file that people needed to use to find hosts (computers) and to pave the road to the modern interconnected network called the Internet that was just getting popular at that time.

DNS history. When and why was DNS created?

Every time when somebody requests a new domain, his or her browser or application will perform a DNS query for the domain’s IP address. The request will travel a long way. First, it will visit the highest level of the DNS hierarchy called DNS root servers. Then, they will direct to the correct top-level domain server (TLD), based on the extension of the domain like .com. Finally, the TLD server will point to the corresponding authoritative name server, and finally, that last server can answer the DNS query.

You can see that there are many stops that a DNS query makes.

Does DNS service affect SEO, and how?

There are several ways how DNS could affect SEO results. Some are obvious, and others are not so clear. Let’s explore them one by one.

Site loading speed

The DNS is the first process that happens before a website gets loaded inside the visitors’ browser. As we already mentioned, the DNS resolution process is a long process that will add up to the total time that the visitor experience. There is a bit difference between an average of 20 milliseconds with a good DNS provider from all around the world or 200 milliseconds to 500 milliseconds leaving everything to the domain registrar.

Availability

Experiencing DNS outages often and for a long time most definitely affect your site SEO negatively. If a search bot tries to reach your site and it can’t do it, it will report this event. First, it won’t be able to index newly added pages quickly. Second, it will take a note about general availability that could worsen your site’s position.

DNS providers have multiple features to provide excellent DNS availability that includes: providing multiple name servers, Anycast that uses a single IP address for all of them, DDoS protection, DNS monitor, DNS Failover, and more.

Multiple locations

A DNS provider can offer you multiple points of presence (PoPs) that you can use and set name servers. It will significantly increase the speed for the visitors by shortening the route from them to the name servers. At CLouDNS we have one of the best Anycast DNS networks with 60+ PoPs located on 6 continents. All of our Premium DNS, DDoS Protected DNS and GeoDNS plans include Anycast DNS as well as many more, such as DNSSEC, DNS Failover, Reverse DNS, etc.

DNS migration

If the DNS migration is performed correctly and the proper measures were taken, there should be no feelable difference for the users nor the search engines’ bots. The problem occurs only if the TTL values of the previous DNS records are too high, and those DNS records won’t be deleted from the DNS caches of recursive name servers for long. Until the caches get updates, they will still point to the older address, resulting in downtime.

Changing of the IP address

If you have to change the IP address of your site, this should not negatively impact SEO as long as it is managed properly. Ensure that the transition is seamless by updating DNS records and monitoring performance to maintain high availability and user experience.

Which is the best DNS for me?

Optimizing DNS for SEO

Choosing a Fast DNS Provider

Selecting a reliable and fast DNS provider is crucial for improving your site’s DNS resolution time. Providers with optimized global networks and high response speeds can significantly reduce latency, ensuring faster and more consistent access for users. ClouDNS is a standout option, offering a robust global Anycast network with DDoS-protected DNS servers, DNSSEC for enhanced security, and flexible options like Secondary DNS, making it an ideal choice for high-performance, secure, and SEO-friendly DNS management.

Setting Up CDN and DNS Configuration

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) can be used in conjunction with DNS to improve your site’s loading speed. CDNs store cached versions of your site’s content on servers around the world. By integrating a CDN with your DNS provider, users can load your content from the server closest to them, reducing load times and improving SEO.

How to create your own CDN using DNS

Implementing DNS Prefetching

DNS prefetching is a browser feature that helps pre-resolve domain names that users are likely to click next. By adding the <link rel=”dns-prefetch” href=”//example.com”> tag, you instruct browsers to look up the DNS information for that domain before the user even clicks it, reducing potential latency.

Tip: Use DNS prefetching for external resources on your site, such as analytics, social media, and third-party widgets, to reduce delays.

DNS and International SEO

For websites with international audiences and global services, DNS configuration can impact international SEO strategies. Utilizing country-specific domains (ccTLDs) or regional subdomains helps search engines identify your target audiences. However, misconfigurations can lead to incorrect geotargeting, hurting your rankings in specific regions.

Tip: Use Google Search Console’s geotargeting settings and configure DNS properly to avoid conflicting signals.

Conclusion

In conclusion, DNS plays a pivotal role in enhancing SEO by directly impacting site speed, availability, and overall user experience. With optimized DNS settings, including faster DNS resolution, multiple locations, and proper IP address management, you’re not only improving user satisfaction but also signaling quality to search engines. Investing in a reliable DNS provider ensures smoother site operation and helps your site perform well across global search rankings. To truly benefit from your DNS setup, stay proactive about performance monitoring and consider advanced configurations like DNS prefetching and CDN integration.

The post DNS and SEO: How does DNS service affect SEO? appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.

What is a DDNS (Dynamic DNS)?

DDNS, most commonly known as Dynamic DNS, is an automatic method of refreshing a name server. It can dynamically update DNS records without the need for human interaction. It is extremely useful for updating A and AAAA records when the host has changed its IP address.

Imagine this situation. You have a server in your office, and you are providing some service to your employees. You are using a standard/consumer-grade internet from a typical ISP (Internet service provider). You are getting a temporary IP address that could change the next type you connect or change automatically after some time. To provide a service, you 3 options:

1. A Static IP address that could be expensive.
2. Change the IP address manually every time it changes
3. Automatically update the IP addresses – Dynamic DNS or DDNS!

DDNS is a service that automatically and periodically updates your DNS’s A (IPv4) or AAAA (IPv6) records when your IP address changes. These IP changes are made by your Internet provider.

With DDNS you don’t need to worry about the changes in IP addresses!

In this article, you can find more information about what DNS is!

How does DDNS work?

The DDNS works in the following way: The DDNS client monitors the IP address for changes. When the address changes (which it will if you have a dynamic IP address), the DDNS (or Dynamic DNS) service updates your new IP address.

Let’s get back to the same example from before, you owning a server, connected to the Internet, and want to share service from it. 

This server will be connected to the internal network, and it will communicate with the Internet via NAT (Network Address Translation) router. The NAT router will provide an internal IP address to the server, probably via DHCP. To Make it available externally, we will need to perform port forwarding and get external Port (Portex) and external IP address (IPex). Now the service you want to share is visible with IPex and Portex, and people can use it through the Internet. The problem comes when this IP changes. 

First, you will need to register with a Dynamic DNS provider like us and set up a client software on your server. In the Dynamic DNS settings, you will give a fixed name to this server. Put the IPex, and we need to tell the NAT to automatically update it and send the data to the DNS server.  Inside the NAT’s settings, we will put the data from our Dynamic DNS service provider (our account and password). Now everything is ready. 

Free Dynamic DNS Service!

Why is it useful?

It can be very useful for people who want to host their website, access CCTV cameras, VPN, app or game server from their home computer. It is cheaper than to have a static public IP and by setting up DDNS, you will avoid the need to update all of your records whenever your IP changes manually. Also, a static IP address is not always an option; it depends on your Internet provider.

DDNS is a very flexible option. The way that Dynamic DNS gives a connected device the ability to notify DNS servers to automatically update, alongside the active DNS configuration, IP addresses, configured hostnames and some other information. This saves the need of an administrator who should do the changes.

Common use cases for DDNS

DDNS is a valuable tool in scenarios where devices are assigned dynamic IP addresses. Here are the key use cases:

• Home Servers: If you’re hosting a personal website, game server, or file storage at home, DDNS ensures you can always access your server via a fixed domain name, even if your IP changes regularly.
• Remote Access to Security Cameras: Many people use DDNS to view their home CCTV cameras remotely. Instead of updating the IP address every time it changes, DDNS keeps the connection steady through a permanent domain name.
• VPN and Remote Desktop: Whether for work or personal use, accessing a home or office network remotely via VPN or remote desktop is easier with DDNS, allowing uninterrupted connections despite changing IP addresses.
• IoT and Smart Home Devices: DDNS is often used to manage smart home systems or IoT devices. It ensures that even when your home’s IP changes, you can always reach devices like smart lights, thermostats, and more from any location.
• Game Servers and Media Streaming: Hosting a game or media server at home? DDNS provides consistent access for friends or family to your server, regardless of your ISP changing your IP.

By automating IP updates, DDNS saves you the hassle of manually tracking and updating IP changes, offering convenience and cost savings compared to static IPs.

Benefits

As you can see DDNS is a very convenient solution, and it has different advantages, but the main ones are the following:

Accessibility – You will be able to access your website or server, easily, without being worried. The IP will change, but this won’t stop any of your activities.

Practicality – You don’t need a network administrator to check and reconfigure your settings.

Economic – DDNS makes it cheaper; you won’t have IP address conflict in case you have many addresses, and they are used at the same time.

There are many other advantages, and you are probably thinking about how to start using DDNS. Luckily for you, it is relatively easy to switch to it. You can get a free DDNS service from ClouDNS. We provide it with all our plans, including the entirely free one. Just sign up for a new free account  and start using it.

Configuring Dynamic DNS

With each A and AAAA record, we provide a unique URL, so-called DynURL, when you are using our Dynamic DNS.
You can read the following step by step explanations on how to configure it, depending on your operating system down below.

First for Windows users, regardless of the version you have on your device:

• Dynamic DNS for Windows

Or watch the video tutorial:

If you are a MacOS or Linux user or another type of NIX system, you can follow these instructions:

• Dynamic DNS for Linux, Mac and all types of *NIX systems

Or watch the video tutorial:

If you have multiple Internet providers:

• Dynamic DNS for Linux, Mac and all types of *NIX systems with multiple network interfaces (Internet providers)

And even if you are using the data solutions of Synology, you can still benefit from the DDNS

• DDNS for Synology

With the help of ClouDNS, you can start using DDNS right away. This can help your business or personal project.

So what are you waiting for, start using it today!

The challenge without DDNS

Imagine owning a server that’s pivotal for your business operations. While internally connected, it communicates externally via a Network Address Translation router. Without DDNS:

1. Every time your external IP changes, you risk downtime or inaccessibility.
2. Manual updates are tedious and can lead to errors or oversights.
3. Business operations relying on constant server access might face disruptions.

Conclusion

In a digital era where consistency is king, DDNS stands out as a beacon, ensuring that shifting IP addresses don’t impede server access. As businesses increasingly rely on online operations, services like DDNS aren’t just conveniences—they’re necessities.

The post What is DDNS? How does it work and how to setup DDNS? appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.

Now let’s see the second word – propagation. To propagate, it means to spread ideas, opinions among people and places (Cambridge Dictionary). So DNS propagation is about spreading the DNS records’ changes through the vast network of DNS name servers.

What is DNS propagation?

It is the time it takes, from updating your DNS records in the Primary Zone in the Authoritative name server, and actually spreading this new information (a new DNS A record that points to a new host (IP address), change in a host and a service, or another) to all of the DNS recursive servers. When you make the changes in your DNS records, they will get instantly updated in the authoritative servers. It will take extra time, for the data, to be modified in all the recursive servers along the way, depending on the TTL values of the DNS records. The recursive servers have cache memory that temporarily stores the data.   

The connection passes through many recursive servers, including those in your internet provider (ISP). All of them have TTL (Time to live) which defines for how long they will keep the DNS cache with the DNS records. The DNS cache exists mostly for load balancing so that it won’t be so heavy on your nameservers and to make the whole process faster.

When a user uses their browser to open a web page for the first time, he or she will send a request all the way to an authoritative server. If it is not for the first time, the request will get an answer on the way in a recursive server, and if the data is still up to date, the user will get his answer quicker.

Basically, the DNS propagation depends on the TTL in the DNS records.

How much time does DNS propagation usually take?

The DNS propagation could take 48 hours or even 72 hours. It depends on the TTL values, and when was the last time your recursive DNS servers got their update, the name servers at TLD level, and the recursive servers at the ISPs. A recursive server won’t search for updates until the DNS records that it has in the cache memory expire.

Why the DNS propagation takes so long? 

4 factors really affect the DNS propagation speed:

1. The domain name registrar. When you buy a domain name, you get it from a domain name registrar. You will get a domain name with the TLD (top-level domain) you have chosen. The name servers will be there, and you will get their IP addresses. When you get a managed DNS, you need to make the change in this TLD’s name servers. The time it takes to update there is out of your hands and is usually up to 48 hours. 
2. The TTL values of the DNS records. This part we already mention a few times. The TTL value shows the time that recursive servers should keep the DNS records in their memory before updating. If you have the TTL value of an A record at 30 minutes, for example, it will take up to 30 minutes to propagate the change, depending on the last time it updated before.  
3. The recursive servers of the ISPs (internet service providers). Not all recursive DNS servers are the same. The ISPs have their own, and they could ignore the TTL values of your DNS records and keep them for longer. Why? Because they want to have less DNS traffic. So the ISPs recursive servers could be the bottleneck of your DNS propagation. 
4. The DNS cache of the users’ computers. When a visitor enters a website, the DNS records for this site will be saved on his or her computer, the time that the TTL value indicates. So, if you are a site owner and you want to visit your site, to which you recently change the IP address, you will need to flush the DNS cache. Then you can visit the site with its new IP address. The users will need to wait until the DNS propagation comes to them or flush the DNS tool.  

How to make the DNS propagation faster?

Yes, you can, and it is simple; you need to lower the TTL period of the DNS records. If you want to know more about it, you can read our article about TTL, where we recommend different duration for various DNS records. You will still need to wait for the expiry period that was set before. All the DNS caches need to expire and the recursive servers to refresh.

You can also force a zone transfer, and that way, push an update to all of the Secondary DNS servers. 

Just take into consideration that a lower TTL value for your DNS records will mean more DNS queries to the Authoritative name servers. This uses more server’s resources.

*Take a look at the previous point. You can’t control the DNS propagation when we are talking about the recursive servers of the ISPs and in the case of change on the TLD level.

How to check the DNS propagation?

It is an easy process. We will show you two ways, depending on your OS.

Windows 10
First, on Windows OS, you will need to open the Command Prompt. There you can use Nslookup on your web site. Just write:

 nslookup YOURWEBSITE.TLD

*Change YOURWEBSITE.TLD with your domain name.

It will perform a lookup for an A or AAAA record and show your website’s IPs, and you can see if they have already changed.

Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, etc.), and macOS 

For Linux OS, you can perform a dig command. Open your Terminal, and you can write: 

“dig YOURWEBSITE.TLD” command. You will get similar result like the nslookup command on Windows OS – the A or AAAA record and the current IP addresses. 

*Put your domain name on the place of YOURWEBSITE.TLD.

ClouDNS Free DNS tool

With the ClouDNS Free DNS tool, monitoring DNS propagation has never been more straightforward. It allows you to check the propagation of DNS records by selecting the specific DNS records and the corresponding resolver. Whether you’re updating A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, or any other DNS records, ClouDNS’s tool provides real-time insights into the status of DNS propagation across different locations globally. It’s designed for both beginners and advanced users who require detailed DNS information with ease of use. Simply navigate to the tool, enter the domain you wish to check, and let ClouDNS handle the rest.

ISP and TTL impact on DNS propagation

When you initiate a web address lookup, the query traverses from your local ISP-provided DNS resolver through a network of servers, culminating at an authoritative nameserver. However, if ISPs opt to extend the caching of DNS records beyond their set TTL, this can lead to unnecessary delays in DNS propagation. Conversely, setting appropriate TTL values is crucial; a longer TTL will mean slower updates globally, while shorter TTLs can ensure rapid propagation for frequent DNS changes. For critical services, a TTL as low as 30 seconds is recommended, though testing for recognition of ultra-low TTLs by resolvers is always a prudent step.

How to Troubleshoot DNS Propagation Issues

If you’re experiencing delays or problems with DNS propagation, here are several suggestions to fix them:

• Verify the Correct DNS Settings: Ensure your DNS settings (A, CNAME, MX) are correct at your domain registrar.
• Check Nameserver Configuration: Confirm that your domain is pointing to the correct nameservers, especially after migrating to a new DNS provider.
• Use DNS Propagation Checkers: Use multiple DNS propagation tools to check whether your records are updating globally.
• Flush Local and Server Caches: Sometimes, local caches (on your device or web servers) can hold old DNS information. Flush DNS caches on both local machines and web servers.

How does DNS caching affect DNS propagation?

While DNS propagation primarily depends on the time taken for DNS updates to spread across all servers, DNS caching plays a significant role in the experience of end users. Recursive DNS servers, ISPs, and even local devices cache DNS records to avoid overwhelming the authoritative DNS servers with requests. This caching system can delay updates for users who already have cached records, even if propagation has occurred on the DNS network. To ensure users receive updates quickly, you can prompt them to clear their DNS cache or wait for the cache to expire based on the Time to Live (TTL) value.

How DNS Propagation Affects Website Visitors

DNS propagation can result in visitors seeing different versions of your website depending on their location and when they access it. During this process, some visitors may:

• Be directed to the old IP address of your website while others see the updated one.
• Experience temporary downtime or slow access, especially if they are served outdated DNS records from cached resolvers.
• Face email delivery issues if your MX records have changed, but their ISP has not yet updated its cache.

This uneven experience will gradually resolve as DNS records are fully propagated.

Conclusion

Now you understand the essence of DNS propagation and its significance. Patience is key during this process, but with the tools and insights provided, you can efficiently monitor the status of your DNS updates. Remember, effective DNS management is foundational to ensuring your online presence is robust and reliable.

The post What is DNS propagation? How to check DNS propagation? appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.

DNS outage (DNS downtime) – what does it mean? 

The DNS outage (a.k.a. DNS downtime or DNS failure) is a period of time when the domain name can’t be resolved to its IP address. The clients will send a DNS query for a domain name, but the DNS recursive will either answer with the old IP address from its cache, which will not respond, or it will try to query the DNS authoritative name server of the domain name won’t get an answer. 

What causes DNS outages? 

DDoS attacks

DDoS or a denial of service attack, is a type of cyber-attack that involves multiple devices that work together, targeting a victim’s computer, with a large amount of traffic intending to make it unable to answer any more queries. To prevent any problems that a DDoS attack can cause, you will need a load balancing that can share the traffic between your servers, even if it is very strong. And also, you will need DDoS-protected servers. 

Maintainance of the authoritative name server

If you are using only one authoritative name server, whatever happens to it, can affect your DNS. If it needs updates and reboot, the time that it takes, the server won’t be able to respond to DNS queries. Updates and maintenance are needed, so you better have a Secondary DNS that can answer the queries meanwhile. 

A problem in the data center, where the authoritative name server is

The cloud equipment does not magically hover over the Earth. Instead, it resides in multiple data centers. These places can have problems like long-lasting electricity outages, natural disasters affecting the area, fire, or other problems. If you are using a cloud service, these issues are out of your hands, but you can use multiple servers in multiple data centers. If one is down, still, there will be more to answer the queries. 

Bad configuration

Errors in DNS configuration can cause DNS downtime. It can be a human mistake, like badly addressing caused by misspelling the IP address or domain name, script error, wrong firewall configuration, etc. 

If it is a misspelled problem, you can try to query the domain name and the IP address to see which does respond and which does not. 

If it is the firewall, you can check the ports if they were allowed. 

DNS propagation delay

When you add or remove DNS records (like A or AAAA records), the changes are not always instant. You are editing the zone file inside the Primary DNS server, and you can propagate to your Secondary DNS servers, but there are many DNS recursive servers that you don’t control. They can keep your old IP address and provide it to clients, even after you published a new one. 

What you can do about the DNS propagation is to push the zone transfer to your Secondary servers and to keep lower TTL values for your DNS records. 

It is not technically a DNS outage because it will affect only those with the older cached IP address of the domain name, but it was worth mentioning it.

How to avoid DNS downtime (outage)

The best way to avoid DNS outages is to have a robust DNS network that provides redundancy and can withstand strong traffic. The more servers you have, the better you are going to be prepared. Additional features might also facilitate the DNS administration and automate the process of handling problems. 

Use Secondary DNS services

A secondary DNS service provides you with the opportunity to use multiple Secondary DNS servers, which can be set as Secondary authoritative nameservers. They will have a copy of the zone file with the DNS records. They can answer queries for your domain, just like the Primary one. The big advantage is that they will keep answering even if the Primary is experience downtime. Having Secondary DNS is your DNS backup solution. 

You can learn more about it in this article, “What is backup DNS?”, and you can try our Secondary DNS plans with a 30-day free trial. 

Use DNS load balancing

DNS load balancing is also another nifty way to lower the chance of DNS outages. It is a mechanism for administrating the DNS traffic between the DNS server, based on criteria like the number of active connections, specific algorithm, time of connection, etc. 

It will reduce the stress on a particular DNS server and spread it between the network. 

It can help in case of a DDoS attack but also in a natural spike in traffic caused by increased clients’ queries. It can help you during a promotional period when you are experiencing higher traffic.

Be prepared with DNS Failover

DNS Failover is a trigger that will activate in case of a nameserver’s failure. It can automatically redirect the traffic without any human interaction, based on the information it gets from DNS monitors like ICMP ping, UDP requests, HTTP checks, etc. It is an easy way to keep your clients’ happy and provide DNS resolution, even if some of your DNS servers are experiencing some problems. We offer DNS Failover service with all of our paid plans.

Also, we recommend you to check our Brand new Monitoring service!

How to diagnose DNS outages?

When facing a DNS outage, quick diagnosis is essential to restore functionality. Follow these steps to pinpoint the problem:

• Ping the Domain

Use ping to check if the domain resolves and the server responds.

ping example.com

If it doesn’t resolve, it’s likely a DNS issue.

• Test DNS Resolution with nslookup

Verify if DNS is working by querying your DNS server with nslookup.

nslookup example.com

If it returns an IP address, DNS is working for that domain. But if it fails, the DNS server may be down or misconfigured.

• Run dig for detailed queries

Use dig for detailed DNS resolution data, including specific DNS record types.

dig example.com

Add +trace to follow the query path through name servers and find where it fails.

• Test with Alternate DNS Servers

Query public DNS servers (like Google’s 8.8.8.8) to rule out provider-specific issues.

nslookup example.com 8.8.8.8

If the domain resolves with a different DNS server, it suggests the problem is with your original DNS provider.

• Check DNS Propagation Delays

If you’ve recently made DNS changes (such as updating A or MX records), delays in DNS propagation could be the culprit. Use online tools like ClouDNS Free DNS tool to check whether your DNS records have propagated across global DNS servers.

• Check for DDoS attacks or high traffic loads

DNS outages can be caused by Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks or heavy traffic loads. Tools like TCPdump can help capture and analyze DNS traffic to detect abnormal patterns, such as a flood of queries or unusual IP activity.

Example:

sudo tcpdump -i eth0 port 53

This command captures DNS traffic, allowing you to inspect for signs of an attack. For real-time detection, combine TCPdump with network monitoring tools and DDoS mitigation services.

Troubleshooting 

What can you do when your domain is not reachable? 

As DNS administrator of the domain name, you can: 

• Suppose you have recently finished a DNS delegation. You might need to way up to 24 hours, so the changes are well propagated. 
• Check if you have paid for your domain name. If you have forgotten to pay your domain name, it won’t answer queries anymore when it expires. Set reminders for domain renovation and don’t miss the time. 
• Use the ping command to ping the DNS server from different locations to see if it is responding to any DNS requests. It is possible that you haven’t set up your nameservers correctly, and they are working but not answering queries for the domain name. 
• Try to reach the DNS server by using its IP address. If you can reach it, there might be a badly configured A or AAAA record that does not link well the domain name and its IP address. 
• Check your DNS monitor and see how the traffic is going. If you can’t see the monitor’s log, check if there were any unusual activities before the server stopped working. For example, it could have been a DDoS attack. If it is still happening, you can redirect the traffic and stop it. 

As a client who can’t reach a site: 

• You can have problems with the DNS cache of your device. You can flush the DNS of your device and your browser. This action will remove the previous DNS records that you have, and your device will search again for the A or AAAA record of the site you want to visit. If you had an older IP address, this could fix it. 
• Maybe your router is the problem. The router has a recursive DNS server that may need to be restarted. Pull its plug, then wait around a minute and connect it again. It should reboot and start working well again. 

Monitor your DNS server

Monitor your DNS for any strange pattern in traffic. There are different automatic monitors that you can set to see the traffic behavior. If something strange happens, you can see in almost real-time any changes and use the information to take action. 

You can monitor the DNS from different locations. That way, you can see if the problem is very local, is it regional, continental, or global. It will be easy to spot the problem.
DNS monitoring works best in combination with DNS Failover. You can set the monitor with the parameters that you prefer, and it will notify you and show you the data. But when you also have DNS Failover, you can connect this data and trigger automatic even in case of a down server. It can deactivate DNS records and replace them with working. It can also react in case the server gets up and add it to the list again. 

ClouDNS offers DNS Failover service for all of its paid customers. You can set it up and activate it for your domain fast and easily.

What are the consequences of a DNS outage?

If a DNS outage occurs, it could have a negative impact on your entire organization and community of customers. When DNS (Domain Name System) is down, websites, applications, and online services related to the domain name, such as emails, won’t function correctly. Unfortunately, that has the potential to damage operations, revenue, and brand reputation. In addition, you should act fast and quickly get it up and running again to regain all the temporarily lost functionality.

Yet, let’s assume the functionality of the DNS operations was seriously interrupted for a prolonged period of time. In that case, a DNS outage can potentially cause devastating consequences to the companies with an online presence. Here are some of the most common effects during this time: 

• Miss potential visitors
• Lose potential sales
• Have issues with services like email, FTP, VoIP, etc.
• Productivity losses
• Damage to reputation
• Impact on customers and strategic partners
• Diminished competitive advantage

It is crucial to implement all precautionary measures to avoid DNS outage’s negative influence on your business.

The biggest DNS outages in the history

• 2016 Dyn DNS Interruption: A significant disturbance shook the internet when Dyn, a leading DNS service provider, fell victim to an attack. Websites with heavy traffic, such as Twitter, Spotify, and Reddit, experienced outages. This event underscored the vulnerabilities tied to unsecured IoT devices.
• 2019 Cloudflare Outage: A misconfigured web application firewall rule caused a major disruption in Cloudflare’s services, impacting millions of websites.
• 2019 Google Cloud Outage: In June 2019, Google Cloud Platform experienced a significant outage that affected multiple services, including Gmail, YouTube, and Google Cloud Storage. A configuration change intended for a small number of servers in a single region was mistakenly applied to a larger number of servers across several neighboring regions.
• 2020 AWS Outage: In November 2020, Amazon Web Services (AWS) faced a significant outage that affected several services reliant on AWS’s infrastructure. This incident disrupted many online services and platforms, highlighting the vulnerabilities in centralized cloud infrastructures.
• 2021 Fastly Global Outage: In June 2021, a major global internet outage occurred, affecting numerous high-traffic websites including Reddit, Twitch, and even the UK government’s official website. This was traced back to a software bug in the Fastly CDN network, a critical infrastructure provider for many internet services.
• 2022 Microsoft Azure DNS Outage: In mid-2022, Microsoft’s cloud service, Azure, experienced a DNS outage. It impacted a wide range of services, from basic operations in Azure to third-party applications relying on Azure’s infrastructure. The outage underscored the need for robust failover systems and redundancy in cloud services.

Conclusion

A huge DDoS attack can lead to a DNS outage even if you have excellent infrastructure. But applying all the measurements can lower the time and the frequency of the DNS outages. Be prepared and intelligently manage your DNS traffic to be able to provide excellent service for your clients. Keep your business up!

The post What is a DNS outage (DNS downtime), and how to avoid it? appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.

Let’s explain a little bit more about DDI and give you more details about these three technologies separately and how they work.

What is DDI?

DDI represents the integration of three core components of networking – DNS, DHCP, and IPAM into one management solution. All three parts are essential. 

DNS guarantees the association of hostnames and IP addresses. In addition, it provides access routing to applications and services in order to maintain HTTP web traffic and network traffic flowing. DHCP assists by automatically assigning a dynamic IP address for nodes logging into the precise network. IPAM comes in handy by providing efficient management of IP addresses all over the particular network. All of them together form DDI.

DDI is commonly implemented, and it is extremely beneficial for organizations that manage and control massive IP resources. Oftentimes businesses centralize DNS, DHCP, and IP address services into one particular platform in order to make their network administration better and more effortless. Moreover, DDI solutions can benefit IT organizations with multi-cloud environments by incorporating multi-cloud network management centrally. That way, they guarantee a reliable and smooth process. For instance, organizations using multiple cloud service providers can manage all clouds in one place.

Now, after you are aware of what DDI is, let’s dive deeper and explain a little bit more about the three main components – DNS, DHCP, and IPAM. 

DNS explained

The Domain Name System (DNS) translates IP addresses (IPv4 or IPv6) into human-friendly domain names. That is why it is commonly called the phonebook of the Internet, and it is one of the main components of the global network. At its core, it is a hierarchy-built naming system that stores all existing domain names and their corresponding IP addresses.

Without DNS, regular users would have to memorize long and difficult strings of numbers (IP addresses) in order to connect and explore their desired websites. So instead, we use domain names, which are way easier to use. The Domain Name System relies on various different DNS records, like A, AAAA, PTR, CNAME, and many others, to store essential data about the domain name. Most importantly, machines and all devices could not communicate without DNS.

Without a doubt, the Domain Name System is a crucial component of the DDI. Beyond everything, DNS connects users to websites and services, which pushes the HTTP web traffic. Combining it with DHCP or IPAM gives the ability to network administrators to update and modify DNS records effortlessly. In addition, timely management guarantees the effective transfer of services if IP addresses change.

What does DHCP mean?

DHCP is the short acronym for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, which is a popular network management protocol. Its main purpose is to dynamically allocate unique IP addresses to the devices connected to the precise network. But, more importantly, the assignment of IP addresses is completed entirely automatically. There is no need for human involvement in the process.

Let’s say, for instance, that a new device wants to connect to a particular network:

1. It asks for an IP address from a DHCP server.
2. The DHCP server provides the IP address to the device automatically.
3. The new device is able to connect without any difficulties to the precise internal network. 

The great thing about DHCP is that the process of assigning IP addresses is automatic, guaranteeing fewer errors in the configurations of devices. In addition, network administrators are not required to perform this task manually, leaving more spare time for more complicated tasks. You can add and update DHCP ranges, or scopes, by defining the scope of IP addresses that is available for usage. That means you can avoid IP conflicts by guaranteeing that one device obtains just one IP. 

Combining DHCP with IPAM is a great opportunity for total automation and centralization. Without DHCP, network administrators would have to assign the IPs based on the IP resource plan manually. Yet, DHCP is not able to give a complete understanding of the entire picture without IPAM.

IPAM – What is it?

IP address management, or just IPAM for short, is a fundamental element of the DDI that allows organizing, monitoring, and controlling a network’s IP address pool.

The IPAM software is extremely beneficial because it allows network administrators to manage IP addresses effectively. It also involves examining the collection of IP addresses (assigned and not) and additional information about subnets and hardware. The great thing about IPAM is that it lets network administrators view IP address records and the whole system just on one interface. By collecting all of the data in one place, network administrators can easily analyze and maintain the infrastructure resources up to date.

Besides, IPAM could be helpful in noticing possible network abuses or breaches associated with particular IP addresses. By following IP address assignments and tracking usage patterns for administrators is easier to recognize probable security issues and network vulnerabilities.

In DDI, DNS and DHCP are accountable for the technical functionalities, while IPAM supplies management and planning functions. Meaning network administrators are able to configure hardware automatically without IPAM. However, they would only have a partial sight of the whole IP pool.

Benefits of DDI

DDI combines three very important and extremely useful elements – DNS, DHCP, and IPAM. For that reason, it is considered an amazing unique packaged solution that offers a straightforward approach to the network architecture. The integration of DNS, DHCP, and IPAM services in one solution – DDI comes with some essential benefits.

• Automatization of network management

DDI centralizes and automates fundamental network services and eliminates manual configuration tasks. As a result, it makes the management of the IP-based network more effortless and decreases the chance of configuration errors.

In addition, organizations are able to, with small steps, supply automated provisioning of IP resources by incorporating DDI deployment models. Let’s say, for instance, a company already maintains several DNS servers and a DHCP server. It can integrate IPAM and complete the automation and resource centralization, achieving DDI.

That way, DDI will optimize the workload for the network administrators in the organization. It can save time and leave space for completing more complex and important tasks.

• Improves network efficiency

Once DNS, DHCP, and IPAM (DDI) are automated, they can guarantee the smooth operation of the organization’s network. Additionally, they are able to lower the chance of appearing configuration management errors. That way, organizations are able to keep their network traffic flowing plus to minimize network downtime.

By centralizing the core network services with DDI, administrators are able to view clearly all of the information and settings in one place. Based on that, DDI can be helpful for troubleshooting various problems and easing network provisioning.

• Enhanced Scalability

As organizations grow, the demand for IP addresses and network resources also increases. DDI solutions are designed to adapt to scalability seamlessly. Additionally, network administrators can easily assign and manage IP addresses and DNS records to support a growing number of devices. That way, it ensures that the network can adjust to changing requirements without disruptions.

• Improved Security

Security is a primary concern for modern networks, and DDI can significantly enhance network security. By centralizing DNS, DHCP, and IPAM, administrators can establish stricter control and implement security policies across the entire network. As a result, it reduces the risk of unauthorized access, DNS-related attacks, and IP address conflicts, making it easier to detect and prevent security breaches.

• Cost-Efficiency

By optimizing network resources and reducing the need for manual intervention, DDI solutions contribute to cost savings. They help minimize downtime, improve network performance, and reduce the administrative overhead associated with network management, ultimately providing a strong return on investment.

Why do you need DDI?

Sometimes, managing DNS, DHCP, and IPAM individually could be risky. Therefore, using a centralized solution like DDI helps network administrators to see and control their networks easily from one place.

There is no doubt that DDI solutions make things simpler for network teams. Records are updated in real time. That way, it reduces the gap between records and actual IP address usage.

A lot of IT organizations consider DDI as a crucial networking technology. In present days, the growth of multi-cloud and numerous devices is massive, which makes this solution more important than ever. Moreover, it helps tackle evolving security threats that traditional network security struggles with. An integrated DDI solution helps automate and manage DNS, DHCP, and IPAM interactions more effortlessly. This is essential for handling the growing number of IP addresses and the dependence on core network services by businesses.

The Role of DNSSEC and Security in DDI

DNS Security Extension (DNSSEC) is a vital aspect of securing the DNS layer within a DDI solution. DNSSEC helps to protect against DNS-based attacks, such as DNS spoofing and cache poisoning, by ensuring that DNS responses are authenticated and verified. This is particularly important as cyber threats evolve and attackers exploit DNS vulnerabilities to intercept or manipulate traffic. In a DDI solution, integrating DNSSEC is essential to maintaining the integrity of DNS queries and responses, enhancing the overall security of network communication.

Beyond DNSSEC, DDI also strengthens network security by centralizing control over DNS, DHCP, and IPAM. Administrators can implement uniform security policies, such as access control lists (ACLs) and IP whitelisting, across all network services. Additionally, monitoring and auditing tools built into DDI solutions enable real-time visibility into IP address assignments and DNS traffic, helping to detect anomalies and prevent unauthorized access.

Best Practices 

To ensure optimal performance of your DDI solution, follow these best practices:

• Monitor DNS Query Load: Regularly monitor the DNS query load to identify potential bottlenecks or spikes in traffic. It allows timely adjustments to configurations or scaling of services.
• Update IPAM Regularly: Keep your IPAM system updated with accurate records of assigned and available IP addresses to prevent conflicts and ensure smooth provisioning.
• Enable Redundancy: Implement redundancy in DNS and DHCP services to ensure high availability, particularly in large or geographically distributed networks.
• Automate Routine Tasks: Automate common network tasks, such as IP address allocation and DNS record updates, to reduce the risk of human error and free up administrator time.
• Regularly Update Software: Ensure your DDI is kept up to date with the latest security patches and software improvements to maintain performance and protect against vulnerabilities.

Conclusion

By combining DNS, DHCP, and IPAM, DDI is highly beneficial for optimizing your network performance. Each one of the components is extremely valuable for the proper and satisfying operation of DDI. Each one of them has a specific and very important role.

The post DDI explained in detail appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.

Load Balancing – Definition

The network performance has become incredibly important. No matter if your organization is big or small, you don’t want to experience operational issues or network reliability problems. Load Balancing manages the demand by distributing the traffic and the application load over different servers depending on their current load.

It is not a new invention. In its early days, it was used between the end device and the application servers to check the servers and to send traffic to the least occupied.

But with the evolving of the networks, load balancing has gotten a new shape. Now it is not a simple distribution system. The load balancing has become very divided.

Here are some Load Balancing examples:

• There is application load balancer which distributes one single application over the servers; there is another which distributes only between the server cluster; another directs the traffic from multiple paths to a single destination.
• Other load balancing solutions are very advanced. They can shape the traffic and act as intelligent traffic switches, do different health checks on the content, applications, and servers, add extra security on the network and protect it from malicious software and improve availability.

Choosing load balancing is hard. You need to think about the demands on your networks and servers. You need 100% reliability on every part. If one component fails, this can lead to downtime.

Why Do You Need Load Balancing?

Load balancing is crucial for optimizing the performance, reliability, and scalability of your online services. Without it, a single server could become a bottleneck, causing downtime or even crashes during periods of high traffic. Load balancing helps distribute traffic efficiently across multiple servers, reducing the risk of server overloads and ensuring uninterrupted service. It also enhances user experience by providing faster response times and higher availability. Furthermore, load balancers help protect your infrastructure against DDoS attacks by distributing malicious traffic across multiple servers. It is particularly important for businesses with high traffic volumes or mission-critical services, as it can help maintain uptime and performance consistency. Another significant reason for adopting this mechanism is its scalability. As your website grows, adding more servers is a standard solution to manage the increased traffic load. Load balancing enables this growth by ensuring that new servers are smoothly integrated into your system without affecting overall performance.

How does it work?

Load balancing is achieved and managed with a tool or application that is called a load balancer. Despite the form of the load balancer (hardware or software), its main goal is to spread the network traffic among different servers and prevent overloading. 

Here are several steps which explain how load balancing works:

1. Your website receives traffic. Once users reach your website, they send a lot of requests to your server at the same time. 
2. The traffic is spread toward the server resources. The load balancer (hardware or software) intercepts and examines every request. Then, it directs it to the most suitable server node.
3. Every server works with a reasonable workload. The server node receives the request. When it is able to accept it, the server notifies the load balancer that it is not overloaded with too many requests.
4. The server answers the request. In order to complete the process, the server sends the response back to the user.

Whenever a user request arrives, the load balancer directs it to a precise server. The process repeats for every request. Load balancers are responsible for deciding which server is going to receive a precise request. That is determined based on different techniques for load balancing.

Types of Load Balancing

There are three appliances of Load Balancing – Physical, Virtual and Cloud-based.

Physical Appliance

This is the most traditional approach. The load balancer is placed right after the firewall and before the server cluster. Now you can expect the balancer to include more advanced functions like a built-in firewall and to be the all-in-one gatekeeper of the network.

There are other subtypes to the Physical. Some load balancers serve as caching devices, others like SSL accelerators or ADCs.

They are all physically present in the same data center as the application servers. The benefits that they provide are easy controlled and easy to connect and form bigger structures.

The negative part is that they are costly, you need to buy a lot of hardware and software to control them and lack geographical distribution.

Virtual Appliance

In the previous appliance, the main accent was put on hardware; here we don’t have a specific hardware. It runs on a virtual machine. This virtual machine provides the environment where the load balancing software works. It is a lot easier to apply because it can run on different computer configurations. It is cheap as well, and you can buy less expensive servers; the focus goes on the software, not on the hardware; it is easier to back up.

As for disadvantages, we can mention the problem with choosing a virtualization platform, and patches and upgrades can sometimes hurt the system.

Cloud-based Load Balancing

This is a convenient and robust solution for bigger networks. It is based on the cloud, and there it handles the load balancing and other functions like failover.

It manages interruptions, network problems, and outages far better and it can easily redistribute the traffic. Some other benefits of using Cloud-based Load Balancing are:

• Speed – it significantly reduces the response times and reduces the load on applications and web servers.
• Security – at load balancer level, DDoS attacks can be blocked and prevented.
• Low starting cost – you don’t need to buy software, nor expensive hardware. It is a service that you choose based on your current needs, and it is easily upgradable.

If you want to manage your DNS traffic (DNS requests) more efficiently, you can implement Load balancing in one of the following ways:

• Round Robin DNS

Round Robin DNS is a technique of load distribution, load balancing, or fault-tolerance provisioning multiple, redundant Internet Protocol service hosts (e.g. Web server, FTP servers), by managing the Domain Name System’s (DNS) responses to address requests from client computers according to an appropriate statistical model.

Round Robin DNS is often used to load balance requests between a number of Web servers. You can find more information regarding Round Robin DNS and how to use it here.

• GeoDNS

The GeoDNS service allows you to redirect your customers to specific IPs (servers) based on their geographic location. The service allows you to build your own CDN or to load balance your traffic. It is more accurate and smart than the Round-Robin. You can also set up different websites for each geolocation region. You can find detailed information regarding GeoDNS here.

Load Balancing Benefits

Load balancing is all about improving the management of network traffic and making the user experience better. Therefore, the benefits it provides are the following:

• Scalability: If you notice a drop or spikes in your traffic, you can easily increase or decrease the number of your servers to satisfy urgent requirements. That way, you can handle sudden massive amounts of requests. They usually appear, for instance, during a promotion or holiday sales.
• Redundancy: When you have the ability to maintain your website on multiple servers, you can ensure excellent uptime. Relying only on one web server hides a lot of risks that will force your visitors to leave your website. Load balancing is key if you can’t afford downtime.
• Flexibility: Load balancing gives you the ability to redirect traffic from one server to another. So that way, you have the flexibility to perform your regular maintenance work without disturbing the normal operations of your website.
• Avoid failures: Load balancing can be very helpful for avoiding failures. It spreads large amounts of traffic to the available servers and prevents outages. You can manage the servers efficiently and precisely. It is best if they are distributed across several data centers.
• DDoS attack protection: Spreading traffic across servers is also valuable when protecting against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. Load balancing helps when a particular server gets flooded with malicious traffic by a DDoS attack. The traffic is forwarded to many servers rather than just one, and the attack surface is reduced. This way, load balancing eliminates single points of failure, and your network is resilient against such attacks.

Who can benefit from load balancing?

Here are the organizations and sectors that can benefit significantly from load balancing:

• Websites and E-commerce: Websites with high traffic, online retailers, and e-commerce platforms benefit from load balancing to ensure fast page loading, minimal downtime, and a seamless user experience.
• Cloud Service Providers: Companies offering cloud-based services rely on this technique to distribute workloads across servers, ensuring scalability and fault tolerance for their customers.
• Enterprises: Large enterprises use load balancing to evenly distribute network traffic across servers, preventing overloads, optimizing resource utilization, and maintaining system stability.
• Content Delivery Networks (CDNs): CDNs use the mechanism to efficiently deliver content to users, reducing latency and improving the delivery of multimedia, software updates, and web content.
• Gaming Industry: Online gaming companies utilize it to handle multiplayer game traffic, reduce lag, maintain game responsiveness, and ensure a smooth gaming experience.
• Healthcare and Telecommunications: Critical sectors like healthcare and telecom rely on load balancing for fault tolerance and high availability, ensuring that vital services remain accessible even during peak loads or server failures.
• Internet Service Providers (ISPs): ISPs can optimize network traffic, improving internet connectivity for their customers and efficiently managing the load.
• Government and Educational Institutions: These organizations employ load balancing to handle high volumes of traffic on their websites and online resources, ensuring accessibility and reliability.

Best Practices

When implementing the load balancing mechanism, it is important to follow the best practices, which are the following:

• Implement Health Checks

Always use health checks to monitor the status of your servers. Regular monitoring ensures that traffic is routed only to functioning servers, preventing requests from being sent to unresponsive or slow servers, which can negatively affect the user experience. Health checks allow your load balancer to automatically exclude problem servers and reintroduce them once they are back online.

• Select the Right Type of Load Balancer

Choosing the appropriate load balancer for your needs is key. Hardware, software, and cloud-based load balancers each offer different advantages. For small businesses, a cloud-based load balancer can offer flexibility and scalability, while enterprises with complex needs may benefit from physical or hybrid solutions. Consider your traffic type, load, and future growth when making a decision.

• Prioritize Redundancy and Failover Plans

Always ensure you have redundancy built into your load balancing setup. A backup or failover load balancer should be in place to take over in case the primary one fails. This ensures that traffic continues to flow smoothly even during server or network outages, thereby maintaining high availability for your users.

• Enhance Security

Load balancers are a frontline defense against Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks and other malicious traffic. By distributing traffic, they prevent bottlenecks that attackers aim to exploit. Implement DDoS protection strategies alongside load balancing, such as limiting excessive connections from a single source and setting up rate-limiting rules.

• Leverage Geo-based Load Balancing

For global businesses, using geo-based load balancing can significantly improve the user experience. This strategy directs users to the server closest to their geographic location, reducing latency and speeding up content delivery. By leveraging GeoDNS, businesses can ensure that customers experience fast, reliable service no matter where they are located.

• Monitor and Optimize Regularly

After setting up load balancing, ongoing monitoring and optimization are crucial to maintaining performance. Regularly assess traffic patterns, response times, and server health to ensure the configuration continues to meet your needs. Make adjustments as your infrastructure or traffic load changes to keep everything running smoothly.

Conclusion

As always you should know the needs of your organization to choose how exactly to implement the load balancing. Based on the advantages we recommend to start with a Cloud-based Load Balancing. You can sign up for free to use Round Robin DNS or if you want to use the more advanced GeoDNS service, you can find details about prices and features on our website.

The post What is Load Balancing? appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.

Domain Name System explained

The Domain Name System, or simply for short, DNS, is a decentralized and hierarchically organized naming system that serves to translate human-understandable domain names into machines understanding IP addresses. It is one of the foundations of the global network – the Internet.

The process is performed completely in the background, and regular users don’t even notice it. However, every time a user writes a domain name in its browser address bar, a DNS query is initiated, and a search for the corresponding IP address is triggered. A Recursive DNS server is the one responsible for seeking the information. It has to query the root server, TLD (Top-Level Domain) server, and the Authoritative DNS server of the precise domain name until the requested information is found. Once that is complete, the Recursive DNS server gets back to the browser, and it can connect and load the desired website. 

Without the Domain Name System (DNS), the process would be way more complex and slow. Users would have to remember each website’s IP address in order to connect to it successfully. You can imagine how difficult that would be. IP addresses are long strings of numbers that machines and servers use to communicate with each other, yet for us humans, domain names are the more suitable and easy-to-understand option. That is why the development of the Domain Name System (DNS) has improved the usage of the Internet numerous times! 

When it comes to choosing the best DNS service for your business, you should be aware of the different available alternatives, so your domain performs just the way you desire. 

Which is the best DNS for me?

The best DNS is the one that suits your domain name needs the most. Some businesses with an online presence require more, for instance, large e-commerce websites, and others, like small personal blogs, don’t need as many resources and features. The best DNS service is, in most cases, the key to excellent performance, fast and reliable DNS resolution, great uptime, improved security, and many more. The trick is to understand which is the best DNS for precise needs and, after that, to implement it! 

So now, let’s explain a little bit more about the different DNS services that are available and how they can benefit your company, also which of them are most suitable depending on the scale and requirements! 

Free DNS

Free DNS is the best DNS for small start-ups, personal blogs, and other businesses that do not require a lot of resources. The amount of monthly DNS queries is not so massive, and the traffic demand is low. It is amazing for anyone that is just starting their journey with 

Free DNS service gives your domain name the ability to be visible on the Internet. It provides a simple and basic DNS infrastructure that gives the opportunity to your users to access and explore your website.

You can create, modify and delete different DNS records, like A record, AAAA record, MX record, and more. Additionally, this service is very beneficial if you want to implement Dynamic DNS.

Everybody needs a starting point. Free DNS could help you boost your business and get ready for the next step.

Premium DNS

Premium DNS offers amazing advanced features and is the best DNS solution for any sized website. However, small and medium businesses with an online presence mostly prefer this DNS service. The great thing about it is that it offers scalability thanks to the different Premium DNS plans. That means you can quickly adapt to any situation. For example, if your traffic demands become higher, you can go one level up and get a larger plan.

Premium DNS is offering more of everything. You can take advantage of the increased number of DNS servers and DNS zones and guarantee the most optimal traffic management of your domain name. In addition, you will have access to more advanced features like Anycast DNS, Secondary DNS, DNSSEC, DNS Failover, Reverse DNS, and more. As a positive result, you will receive better uptime, improved security, and an improvement in the loading speed.

These plans are a perfect opportunity for any type of website that has more than a few monthly visitors. Organizations that especially are not able to experience any downtime should implement a professional Premium DNS plan.

DDoS Protected DNS 

DDoS Protected DNS is the best DNS solution for everyone that wants to enhance their security and prepare if any incoming threats appear toward their DNS. This service is going to guarantee excellent performance of the domain name even in case a DDoS attack is initiated. 

The additional DNS service combines various tools and techniques to examine the traffic and prevent DDoS attacks. Cybercriminals initiate DDoS attacks by forming massive amounts of malicious traffic. Their main goal is to overwhelm the servers of their victim. As a result, the service or website of the victim becomes unable to function, which means it is also not capable of answering the DNS requests of regular users. When that happens, the victim experiences financial and reputational losses.

As we mentioned, the best DNS, in that case, is a DDoS Protected DNS service, which will resist and stop these cyber threats from happening by load balancing through DNS servers, filtering, Monitoring, and DNS Failover. It is a preventive solution that is more affordable rather than dealing with the after-effects of a DDoS attack.

GeoDNS

GeoDNS is the best DNS choice for organizations with a global presence and for companies that provide content worldwide and want to build their custom CDN (Content Delivery Network). The name servers are positioned strategically in numerous locations (regions, countries, continents) all over the world, which totally meets the requirements of these large companies.

GeoDNS (Geographical Domain Name System) involves a traffic distribution process that depends on the location of the DNS requests. 

As you know, the complex process of DNS resolution is triggered when a user requests a precise domain. It should be quick and served successfully just for a few seconds. Using GeoDNS, the Recursive DNS server responsible for finding the needed information reads the user’s IP address to understand its location. Once it understands from where the request is made, it will be sent to the nearest server for the answer.  

The main difference between a standard DNS service and GeoDNS is that the standard DNS servers hold the same IP address for the domain. But, on the other hand, with GeoDNS, the servers hold different IP addresses based on the location. That is the way it boosts the speed and improves performance!

Factors to consider when choosing DNS

When deciding on the best DNS service for your business, consider these important factors:

Traffic Volume:

Begin by evaluating the volume of traffic your website receives regularly. High-traffic websites may benefit from DNS services like Premium DNS, DDoS Protected DNS or GeoDNS, which can ensure swift and responsive performance even during traffic spikes.

Security Needs:

Consider the nature of your business and whether you handle sensitive data. If security is a top priority or if your industry is susceptible to cyber threats, DNS services such as DDoS Protected DNS will provide an added layer of security to protect your online assets.

Scalability:

It’s vital to choose a DNS solution that can scale as your business grows. Premium DNS services offer scalability features that allow you to accommodate increasing levels of traffic and ensure a seamless user experience

Geographical Reach:

If your business operates on a global scale, consider DNS services like GeoDNS that optimize website performance by directing users to the nearest server. This is particularly valuable for companies with an international audience.

Technical Support:

Technical support is a crucial aspect to consider. All of our ClouDNS services reinforce live chat technical support. This is invaluable in addressing issues, resolving challenges, and maintaining the smooth operation of your DNS infrastructure.

Best DNS for Specific Needs

When selecting the best DNS service for your business, it’s essential to align the DNS solution with your unique needs. Not all businesses operate the same way, and choosing a DNS service that fits your specific requirements can greatly enhance your website’s performance, security, and reliability. Below are some tailored recommendations based on common business needs:

• Best DNS for High-Traffic Websites

If your business experiences a large volume of traffic, such as a popular e-commerce site or a news platform, you’ll need a DNS solution that can handle high demand without compromising performance. Premium DNS is a great choice in this scenario. It provides enhanced speed, uptime, and reliability by distributing traffic across multiple servers and offering advanced features like Anycast DNS and DNS Failover. Additionally, GeoDNS can be beneficial for global websites, ensuring users are directed to the nearest server, reducing latency and improving user experience.

• Best DNS for Security-Focused Businesses

For industries that handle sensitive data, such as finance, healthcare, or online transactions, DNS security is a top priority. In these cases, DDoS Protected DNS is a must-have. This service protects your website against DDoS attacks, ensuring that your domain remains accessible even under heavy malicious traffic. Combined with DNSSEC, which adds an additional layer of security by authenticating DNS responses, you can protect your users and data from various cyber threats.

• Best DNS for Startups and Small Businesses

If you’re just starting out with a smaller website or personal blog, Free DNS can serve as a solid foundation. It offers basic DNS functionality that allows your domain to be reachable on the Internet. Free DNS is ideal for businesses that do not yet require the full range of features offered by Premium DNS, such as more DNS zones and various DNS records. Once your website begins to grow, you can easily scale up to a Premium DNS plan when needed.

• Best DNS for Global Businesses

If your business has an international audience or operates globally, GeoDNS is the best choice. It optimizes performance by routing user requests to the closest server based on their geographic location, resulting in faster load times and improved user experience. This type of DNS is particularly useful for companies providing content, media, or services worldwide and helps ensure seamless access from any region.

• Best DNS for Downtime-Sensitive Websites

Some businesses cannot afford downtime, even for a few minutes. For critical services such as online banking, cloud platforms, or SaaS products, uptime is crucial. In these cases, Premium DNS with features like DNS Failover is the best option. This ensures that if one server fails, another one takes over, minimizing any potential disruptions and keeping your site available 24/7.

Conclusion

As you now understand, there is no universal solution for the best DNS. There are many factors that should be considered, and depending on your website’s needs, only you can make the decision and choose the most suitable option for you.

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