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.

SYN flood attack: Origin and Basics

In the 1990s, a man named Wietse Venema explained a certain attack method in-depth. On its surface, the concept seems innocuous enough. In a network protocol, namely TCP, a three-way handshake commences communication. Imagine this as a modern chivalry ritual between your computer and the server you want to engage with.

1. You send a SYN (synchronize) packet: “Hi, can we chat?“
2. Server sends back SYN-ACK (acknowledgment): “Sure, let’s talk.“
3. You finish with an ACK: “Cool, let’s get started.“

What SYN flood attack is?

Broadly speaking, a SYN flood attack, also referred to as a TCP/IP-based attack, is a type of Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on a system. It might be compared to an irritating prankster continuously dialing a business phone to keep the line busy and prevent legitimate callers from reaching the establishment. The attacker here sends a flood of SYN requests from either a single or multiple spoofed IP addresses to a server with the malicious intent to halt the server’s functionality to process new incoming service requests. As the server gets trapped in a vicious cycle of responding to these inexistent or half-open connections, it can lead to crashing or becoming unavailable to legitimate users.

How does it work? 

The mechanics of a SYN flood operate in a methodical sequence of steps that exploit the TCP handshake protocol. Let’s break it down for clarity:

Step 1: Identifying the Target

The attacker first picks out the target server. Usually, they’re gunning for a specific service, like a website or an application hosted on that server.

Step 2: Initiating SYN Requests

Here, the attacker commences the mischief by generating a multitude of SYN packets. Each of these SYN packets asks the server, in essence, for permission to establish a connection.

Step 3: Half-Open Connections

Upon receiving a SYN request, the server reciprocates with a SYN-ACK packet and moves the corresponding request to a backlog queue. This places the connection in a “half-open” state, awaiting the client’s final ACK for completion.

Step 4: Server Response

At this juncture, the attacker ghosts the server, never sending the final ACK to complete the handshake. Consequently, the server’s backlog queue starts brimming with incomplete handshakes.

Step 5: Resource Exhaustion

With each half-open connection, the server allocates a chunk of its resources. As these incomplete connections accrue, the server begins to hit its limit on resources.

Step 6: Denial of Service

At this point, the server becomes unable to accept any new connections. Legitimate users trying to connect encounter timeouts or failures, achieving the attacker’s endgame of denying service.

Types of SYN Flood Attacks

SYN flood attacks can take on multiple forms, each with its own level of complexity and associated risks:

1. Direct Attack: In this type of attack, the attacker does not hide their IP address, meaning that all traffic comes from a single source. This makes it relatively easier for network administrators to identify and block the attack by filtering the IP address. However, direct attacks can still overwhelm a server, especially if they come from high-capacity sources.
2. Spoofed Attack: Here, the attacker sends SYN requests using spoofed IP addresses, making it difficult to track the origin of the traffic. The server tries to send SYN-ACK packets to non-existent or unreachable IPs, leaving the connections open and slowly exhausting server resources​. Spoofing adds an extra layer of complexity, making it harder to mitigate, as simply blocking the traffic source won’t solve the problem.
3. Distributed Attack (DDoS): In a distributed SYN flood attack, the attacker uses a botnet – a network of compromised devices – to send SYN requests from various IP addresses. This creates massive amounts of traffic from multiple sources, overwhelming the server and making it extremely difficult to pinpoint and block the attack. This method was infamously used by the Mirai botnet, which leveraged IoT devices to launch one of the largest DDoS attacks in history​.

Ways to mitigate the SYN flood attack

Ah, but there’s hope! Multiple strategies can serve as lifelines in mitigating the fallout from a SYN flood.

SYN cookies

Implementing SYN cookies proves useful in minimizing risk. When deployed, the server doesn’t allocate resources right away for a new SYN request. Rather, it converts the connection into a unique cryptographic cookie. Only when the handshake gets completed does the server expend resources, reducing vulnerability to attacks.

Rate limiting

Another solid tactic involves imposing rate limiting on incoming SYN packets. By setting a strict threshold for the number of allowable new connections per unit of time, the server can effectively nip malicious flood attempts in the bud.

DDoS Protection

Incorporating DDoS protection is an advanced, indispensable strategy. These specialized solutions not only defend against SYN flood attacks but also guard against a broader range of DDoS threats. DDoS protection services usually feature large traffic scrubbing networks that can sift through immense volumes of data, allowing legitimate traffic through while blocking malicious requests.

Anycast DNS

Anycast DNS serves as another invaluable layer of defense. By distributing incoming traffic across multiple data centers (PoPs), it minimizes the load on any single server. This distribution can effectively dilute a SYN flood attack, rendering it far less potent. Anycast DNS is especially beneficial when used in conjunction with DDoS protection services, providing an additional layer of robust, scalable defense.

Robust Load balancers
High-capacity load balancers can significantly improve your system’s capacity to manage an enormous volume of connection requests. In turn, this can enhance your network’s ability to resist SYN flood attacks.

Monitoring services
Real-time Monitoring services track and scrutinize network patterns, activities, and performance, enabling the early detection of potential threats or attacks. These services can monitor server health, network performance, and traffic patterns, thereby identifying and alerting about possible anomalies that might indicate a SYN flood attack.

Firewall rules

Tweaking firewall configurations can also be invaluable. For instance, you can set rules to block incoming requests from a specific IP address if it exceeds a set number of SYN requests within a short timeframe.

Suggested article: Router vs firewall

Consequences of non-protection

• Service disruption: SYN flood attacks can result in service disruption or downtime, as the targeted server becomes overwhelmed and unable to handle legitimate requests.
• Financial loss: Downtime can lead to financial losses for businesses, especially e-commerce websites, online services, and organizations heavily reliant on internet connectivity.
• Reputation damage: Frequent DDoS attacks, including SYN floods, can tarnish a company’s reputation, eroding trust and customer confidence.
• Security overhaul costs: Post-attack, merely patching vulnerabilities won’t suffice. A complete revamp of security protocols becomes vital, often draining both time and financial resources.

Conclusion

In a world increasingly reliant on digital technology, understanding and defending against threats like SYN flood attacks is crucial. While they are a potent threat, solutions such as SYN cookies and robust load balancers offer effective means of mitigation. In essence, maintaining cybersecurity is not just a good idea, but a necessity in today’s digital landscape.

The post Understanding SYN flood attack appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.

What is BGP?

BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) is the protocol responsible for routing data between different networks on the Internet. Think of BGP as the postal service of the Internet—just as the postal service decides the best route to deliver mail, it determines the most efficient path for data to travel across the web. It’s the protocol that enables different networks, or Autonomous Systems (AS), to communicate and share routing information, ensuring that data packets reach their intended destination.

The Importance of BGP in Internet Architecture

Border Gateway Protocol plays a crucial role in determining the best possible route for data to travel across different autonomous systems (AS). An autonomous system is essentially a collection of IP networks and routers under the control of a single organization that presents a common routing policy to the Internet. BGP is the protocol that enables different autonomous systems to communicate, making it fundamental for the seamless operation of the Internet.

Without it, the Internet as we know it would not be able to function. It prevents routing loops, ensures redundancy, and supports the scalability of the Internet by allowing the aggregation of IP prefixes. This aggregation reduces the size of the global routing table, making the Internet more manageable and efficient.

How does it work?

Border Gateway Protocol operates by exchanging routing information between different networks or Autonomous Systems (AS). Here’s a simplified step-by-step breakdown of how it works:

1. Establishing Connections: BGP routers, known as BGP speakers, establish a connection with each other using TCP (Transmission Control Protocol). This connection is known as a BGP session.
2. Exchanging Routing Information: Once the session is established, the BGP speakers exchange information about the networks they can reach. This information is stored in a Routing Information Base (RIB).
3. Selecting the Best Path: Border Gateway Protocol doesn’t simply choose the shortest path. Instead, it uses various attributes (discussed later) to determine the most optimal path based on factors like policy, path length, and network stability.
4. Report Routes: After selecting the best path, BGP speakers share this information to their peers, enabling other networks to update their routing tables.
5. Routing Data: Finally, BGP uses the selected routes to direct data packets through the network, ensuring they reach their destination efficiently.

Border Gateway Protocol Attributes

Border Gateway Protocol uses various attributes to determine the best path for routing data. These attributes are critical to how BGP makes routing decisions. Some of the key attributes include:

• AS Path: This attribute lists the autonomous systems that data must pass through to reach its destination. Shorter AS paths are generally preferred because they represent fewer network hops.
• Next Hop: The next hop attribute indicates the next router that should be used to reach a destination. It’s crucial for determining the next step in the routing process and ensuring that data packets are forwarded correctly.
• Local Preference: Used mainly within an autonomous system (AS), this attribute helps determine the preferred exit point when multiple paths to the same destination exist.
• Multi-Exit Discriminator (MED): This attribute allows one AS to influence another AS’s decision on which route to take when multiple entry points exist into the same AS.

BGP Port Number

Border Gateway Protocol operates over TCP and uses port number 179. This port is critical for establishing BGP sessions between BGP routers (BGP peers) and for the exchange of routing information. The use of TCP ensures reliable BGP sessions and delivery of routing data, thanks to the built-in error checking and data retransmission capabilities. This is essential for maintaining stable and accurate routing tables across the Internet.

Types of BGP: External vs. Internal

Border Gateway Protocol comes in two primary types: External BGP (eBGP) and Internal BGP (iBGP). Understanding the difference between these two is essential for understanding how Border Gateway Protocol operates on a global scale.

• External BGP (eBGP): This type is used for communication between different Autonomous Systems. For example, if one internet service provider (ISP) needs to route traffic to another ISP, they use eBGP. The key characteristic of eBGP is that it’s designed for routing between separate networks, often owned by different organizations.
• Internal BGP (iBGP): In contrast, iBGP is used for routing within a single Autonomous System. It helps ensure that all routers within the same AS have consistent routing policies. While eBGP routes traffic between different ASes, iBGP ensures that once traffic enters an AS, it can be efficiently directed to its final destination.

BGP and DNS: How They Interact

DNS (Domain Name System) and Border Gateway Protocol might seem like separate entities, but they often intersect in the management of Internet infrastructure. Here’s how they relate:

• Anycast DNS: BGP plays a vital role in the implementation of Anycast DNS. Anycast is a routing technique where the same IP address is advertised from multiple locations. BGP directs traffic to the nearest location using its routing policies, which enhances DNS resolution speed and redundancy.
• DNS Traffic Steering: It is used to steer traffic based on network conditions, such as congestion or outages. By manipulating Border Gateway Protocol attributes like AS-Path and Local Preference, providers can influence the flow of traffic to their DNS servers, ensuring optimal performance.
• DDoS Mitigation: It is also instrumental in mitigating Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. By redistributing traffic through BGP routing changes, DNS networks can absorb or neutralize the effects of an attack, maintaining service availability.

Common Issues and How to Resolve Them

Despite its importance, Border Gateway Protocol is not without its challenges. Network operators frequently encounter issues that can impact the stability and security of BGP routing. Here are some common issues and solutions:

• Route Leaks: A route leak occurs when prefixes intended to be advertised only within a certain scope are unintentionally advertised to the broader Internet. This can lead to poor routing or traffic hijacking. To mitigate this, implement BGP route filtering and establish clear routing policies with peers.
• BGP Hijacking: It occurs when a malicious actor falsely announces IP prefixes belonging to another network, effectively rerouting traffic. Using techniques like RPKI (Resource Public Key Infrastructure) and prefix filtering can prevent such incidents.
• BGP Convergence: Convergence refers to the process by which BGP routers agree on the best paths after a network change. Slow convergence can cause packet loss or increased latency. To improve convergence times, optimize BGP timers and ensure efficient path selection processes.
• DDoS Attacks: As mentioned earlier, Border Gateway Protocol can be used to mitigate DDoS attacks. However, without proper monitoring and rapid response strategies, these attacks can still overwhelm networks. Implementing automated DDoS detection and prevention systems is essential.

BGP vs. OSPF

BGP is often compared to another routing protocol, OSPF (Open Shortest Path First). While both are used for routing, they serve different purposes:

• BGP is primarily used for routing between autonomous systems on the internet (inter-domain routing). It is designed to handle large-scale networks and is crucial for global internet connectivity.
• OSPF is used within a single autonomous system (intra-domain routing). It is an interior gateway protocol (IGP) that quickly adapts to changes within a network, making it suitable for smaller, localized networks.

The main differences between BGP and OSPF include their scope, complexity, and the way they calculate routes. Border Gateway Protocol is more complex and scalable, while Open Shortest Path First is faster and simpler, making it ideal for internal network routing.

Conclusion

Understanding BGP is essential for anyone involved in networking, especially when dealing with large-scale networks or internet service providers. While it may seem complex at first, learning its basics can help you appreciate its role in ensuring that data travels efficiently and securely across the internet. Whether you’re troubleshooting common Border Gateway Protocol issues or comparing it with other routing protocols like OSPF, this knowledge will empower you to manage and optimize network performance effectively.

The post Understanding BGP: A Comprehensive Guide for Beginners appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.

What is Anycast DNS?

Anycast DNS is a network addressing and routing technique in which a single IP address is assigned to multiple servers distributed in different geographical locations. It is a method used to improve the performance and reliability of DNS (Domain Name System). 

With Anycast DNS, when a user requests a website, the DNS query is directed to the nearest available server based on network topology, latency, and other factors. As a result, Anycast DNS provides redundancy, load balancing, and high availability.

Unicast vs Anycast DNS Routing

When discussing DNS routing methods, it’s essential to compare Anycast DNS with the traditional Unicast DNS to understand their differences and advantages fully.

Unicast DNS is known as the more traditional form of DNS routing, where each DNS server has a unique IP address. When a DNS query is made, it is routed to a specific server, which has been assigned to handle DNS requests. While Unicast DNS is simple and effective for many applications, it has limitations in scalability, speed, and redundancy. The DNS response time can vary significantly depending on the user’s distance from the server, which can also become a single point of failure if the server goes down.

Anycast DNS uses a single IP address across multiple servers distributed globally. This setup allows a DNS query to be routed to the nearest server in terms of network latency, making it significantly faster and more reliable than Unicast DNS. Anycast DNS provides redundancy and load balancing because if one server fails, the DNS query will automatically reroute to the next closest server. It is especially beneficial for handling large volumes of traffic and defending against DDoS attacks, as the traffic is distributed among multiple nodes rather than directed at a single server.

How does Anycast DNS work?

Anycast DNS uses a group of servers that hold the same IP address rather than having a single DNS server to which all DNS queries go. This results in faster response times and increased reliability, as requests are automatically directed to the closest server

Here are the simple steps involved in how Anycast DNS works:

1. Multiple DNS servers are set up across different geographic locations, each having the same IP address.
2. When a user makes a DNS query for a domain name, the query is sent to the nearest DNS server.
3. The DNS server receiving the query then responds with the IP address of the requested domain name.
4. The user’s device then uses this IP address to establish a connection with the server hosting the domain.
5. If the nearest DNS server is unavailable due to any reason, the query is automatically redirected to the next nearest available DNS server.

Advantages

Anycast DNS is a highly beneficial solution that offers numerous advantages, including the following:

• Anycast is easy to configure. You have just one IP that is assigned to every server, no matter where they are in the world. In more traditional DNS solutions, you would have to configure for every location separately.
• High availability. As we said before, the router will redirect the user to the closest server, but if the server is down, it will simply redirect to one of the rest. They all have a mirror image of the same DNS records, if one is down, the closest next will get the load. The users won’t even notice it.
• Scaling. Anycast DNS is very easy to put in practice. Imagine you are getting too much load on a particular server, what do you do? You just deploy one more server in the area where you need it. It is easy to set it up, and you can do it very quickly. This is one of the common ways how we are expanding our Anycast network.
• Enhanced security. Anycast DNS can help mitigate Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks by distributing the traffic across multiple servers, making it harder to overwhelm a single server.
• Load balancing. Anycast DNS distributes requests evenly among servers, preventing overload and ensuring load balancing and optimal use of resources.

Anycast DNS network by ClouDNS

You can take advantage of the Anycast technology with each of our Premium DNS, and DDoS protected DNS plans. You will have access to 50+ Points of Presence (PoPs) around the world. There are real hardware devices in each one. These points are distributed in a way to provide fast connectivity to everybody. It also serves as a load balancer to reduce the stress on a single domain server. In the case of DDoS protected DNS plans, you can resist a strong attack by distributing the traffic. 

With ClouDNS, you can use a route monitoring at each PoP. It analyzes the routes and provides the optimal path. Such a system lowers the downtime dramatically. If one server is down, the request is going to another server without extra complications. ClouDNS provides the highest SLA for each location. 

We also provide 24/7 Live Chat support. Our technical team is here to help you if you have any questions regarding our services.

To take advantage of our Premium Anycast DNS service, just go to our page and choose the best plan for you. Our Anycast network consists of 50+ Data Centers on six continents, and we also offer Anycast DDoS protected DNS servers and Anycast GeoDNS servers.

Think about your needs, and if you are not sure what to choose, you can always contact our customer service for help.

Premium Anycast DNS service - Try for free

Conclusion

In conclusion, Anycast DNS is a powerful technology that can help improve website performance, availability, and security. Operating with a network of servers spread across multiple locations allows users to connect to the server closest to them, reducing latency and improving website response times. Additionally, it can help protect against DDoS attacks by spreading the traffic. Whether you’re running a small website or a large-scale application, Anycast DNS can help ensure that your users have a fast, reliable, and secure experience. It is definitely worth considering as a valuable addition to your infrastructure.

The post What is Anycast DNS and how does it work? appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.

Most of the companies that aim at a steady, long-term growth, are inevitably trying to provide a secure and high-performance online experience for their clients. One of the essential means of these efforts is providing the website, online store, or e-commerce with a reliable DNS hosting.

DNS might sound like rocket science for those who are not at all aware of IT matters, but it can be explained pretty straightforward. Put simply, this is a type of “translating” system that modifies domain names into IP addresses or turning “human” language into “computer” language. As you can imagine, there are various ways of executing this process, some of which are more intelligent and reliable than others.

Choosing a trustworthy DNS partner is a matter of great importance since a fast DNS service can significantly enhance website speed, neutralize performance issues, grant additional security, reduce bounce rates, and thus inevitably boost the company’s ROI.

Here is where ClouDNS steps in

to provide a superior set of various last-generation DNS services, suitable for every need, every purpose, and every budget. 

ClouDNS is a provider of global Managed DNS services, implementing the industry’s most sophisticated cloud service architecture to ensure maximum DNS speed and DNS redundancy. The company is found back in 2010 and manages to achieve an ever-bustling growth until this day when they provide services in more than 62,000 cities, 186 countries, and 6 continents. In 2019 ClouDNS manages hundreds of thousands of domains, receiving more than 2 billion queries per day.

As every entrepreneur is painfully aware of, results never materialize out of thin air – they come as a result of hard work, exceptional services, and flawless customer satisfaction rates. How do ClouDNS ensure those fundamental prerequisites of success? Let’s dig a bit deeper and find out.

How does ClouDNS manage to meet all customers’ needs with Anycast DNS & additional perks?

ClouDNS strives to provide the most solid DNS services on the planet in matters of price, performance, and general ROI expectancy. This is an audacious goal that requires no less than having the ultimate service network, technological base, and customer service. What are the advantages that ClouDNS’ clients are continually taking advantage of?

• Cloud-based infrastructure is the ultimate digital resolution that ensures maximum speed, no hardware-related bugs, and problems, no lags in performance, and zero chance of ever losing a piece of essential data.
• Anycast technology is what stands behind each of ClouDNS’s services. It utilizes the different locations that receive queries for the network and distributes them geographically by using the shortest path available to a particular DNS server. The result is a massive boost in speed, efficiency, and reliability of the domain.

• Secondary DNS is a technology that distributes traffic between two providers and thus guarantees the highest possible level of security. It manages to keep a website up, even when an unexpected crash occurs in the primary DNS provider. It’s a matter of critical importance for every considerate business owner. 
• 24/7 service and support guarantee adequate care for the customer through day and night, every single day of the year. ClouDNS’s teams are there for their clients via the built-in online chat and support e-mail – with no excuses and no exceptions.
• Up to 10,000%, the uptime Service Level Agreement (SLA) is another way to ensure a flawless value for the client. It means that for every single minute downtime, ClouDNS extends the customer’s account with a hundred.
• A free 30-day trial is available for all plans offered by ClouDNS. Anyone is welcome to test how does the plan work for them, to personally acknowledge its perks, and receive free 24/7 guidance and support throughout the entire process.

Packed with this fantastic set of opportunities, ClouDNS ensures a mesmerizing combination of last-generation digital DNS services, thus providing the final customer with the chance to develop their business without ever again having to worry about website domain functionality.

Which ClouDNS plan to choose according to your needs – Free DNS, Premium DNS, and more

ClouDNS offers four different subscription plans, formulated to give a personalized solution to various customer and business objectives. What are those plans, and what are their advantages; what do they include, and which of them is most suitable for your individual business goals?

Free DNS

It’s a zero budget DNS solution with plenty of elements that guarantee a reasonable level of reliability for its purposes. The plan incorporates 4 Unicast DNS servers in 1 DNS zone, 50 DNS records, a limit of 500,000 DNS queries per month, 1 mail forward, and 24/7 live chat support. 

The Free DNS plan is fitting for personal blogs, low-budget startups, small or local business owners, business card websites, and generally every type of online initiatives that aren’t expecting a hardcore multinational traffic. It ensures a stable domain with satisfying speed and capacities tailored to the needs of the enterprise. Of course, once your company starts expanding, you can always upgrade to a more suitable ClouDNS plan.

Premium DNS

It’s a low-budget DNS solution, which is an upgraded version of the Free DNS package, with added components divided into S, M, and L Premium options. Premium DNS plans include 8 DNS servers and 50+ Anycast DNS locations, along with different numbers of DNS zones, DNS records, mail forwards, web redirects and monitoring checks, according to the chosen plan. 

Premium DNS plans are an ideal resolution for middle-range and developing business websites, online stores, and e-commerce platforms that need to cope with traffic from multiple geolocations. If you find yourself somewhere on the long path between local and global, subscribing to a Premium DNS plan can help you manage the speed of your domain, and simultaneously deliver a flawless experience to users from different zones.

DDoS Protected DNS

It’s bringing up the heavy artillery of domain security and protection. DDoS Protected S, M and L Plans are keeping the metrics of the Premium DNS package, but are providing 4 DDoS Protected DNS instead of 4 unprotected ones.  

DDoS attacks are frequent and severe enough to do much damage to growing or leading business entrepreneurs. Every minute of downtime can cost your business a small fortune, depending on user activity. That’s why using a DDoS Protected DNS is a must for every big E-commerce, service provider, entertainment media, and even social institution. 

GeoDNS

It comes in a Start, Professional, and Business package, and provides a highly accurate geolocation load balance. It segments the traffic and connects users with the closest server available. Different-sized plans combine 4 Anycast GeoDNS servers and 50+ Anycast DNS locations, along with a variable number of DNS zones, DNS records, and monthly DNS queries to answer the particular requirements of the users.

GeoDNS provides the most extraordinary speed possible, thus reducing bounce rates, improving search engine ranking, and rocketing online user experience to the next level. It is suitable for basically any individual, business, entrepreneurship, or institution that strives to provide a global, first-class user experience on their website.

And there is even more…

Other professional features and DNS services on offer by ClouDNS involve:

• Primary, Secondary, and Reverse DNS
• Web & E-mail Forwarding
• Domain parking
• DNSSEC
• HTTP API Access
• DNS statistics
• Free zones migration & more

The team of ClouDNS is always there to answer your questions, advise you on your case, provide essential resources, and propose a personalized solution. All you need to do is reach out and let them do the magic!

The post ClouDNS – DNS services to help your business growth appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.

1. Choose a good web hosting

As we said earlier, speed is essential. Choosing a good web hosting is not easy. Many of the web hosting companies don’t show all of the information to the public, so you need to ask extra. The most important aspects are that the servers are modern, that they use SSD, they give you enough resources for you (what percentage of the shared resources are you getting), physical location and of course the price. The web hosting might be the most significant investment so take your time.

2. Use a barebone theme

Barebone WordPress theme might be a bit contra logical to you but bear with us for a moment. Yes, a barebone theme will be less spectacular, but again our primary concern is speed. It will load a lot faster and give you an advantage in the Google ranking. You need to be sure that the theme is mobile-friendly too. This is a very cheap update.

3. Optimize images

And this one is entirely free! Use a compressed format like .JPG for your images and keep the resolution down. You don’t need a full 20Mpx image, especially when most of the internet traffic comes from mobile with an average 1080p display. Use 1MPx image and your pages will load fast and still provide a quality post for your visitors. For the resizing, you can use an online site or download a image resizing application on your device.

4. Speed up WordPress using caching plugin

There are free and paid options. We recommend you WP Super Cache. This one creates static HTML files that most of your visitors will see instead of the WordPress PHP scripts. Html is lighter and easier to load.

5. Use CDN

You can create your own CDN (content delivery network) using DNS. It will give you the chance to have many more point of presence in the world. Like this, your users from China will be redirected from the servers close to them in Asia and the ones in The US will have others close by. It will significantly reduce the time to load for your page, and you can use it with all of the previous speed up WordPress tips.

If you are interested, you can check our GeoDNS or talk to our sales team that can give you extra details.  It is relatively inexpensive, and it gives excellent results.

Conclusion

To be one step ahead of your competitors is not easy, but with good research and some tweaks, you can get far better results. Some of these speed up WordPress optimizations cost extra money, but when you see the difference in reach and positioning you will be content.

The post 5 tips to speed up WordPress website appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.

But first, let’s explain it to you in a simple way so you really understand why this can help you with your company network.

What is a DNS server?

Imagine it as a massive phone book. They contain a register of domain names and translate them to IP (internet protocol) addresses. For us humans it is easy to remember the domain names but the computers, they prefer numbers to orientate so they access websites based on their IPs.
The information of those DNS servers is saved and organized in the Central Registry. Internet providers and Host companies need to check with the Central Registry to get all the DNS updates.
When you write the following web address www.facebook.com, your service provider will check the DNS for this website, then translate to machine language and direct you to the following IP 66.220.144.0.

We would like to share with you what kind of addressing methods there are and what are their benefits.

Unicast: One Machine, One IP

First, let’s start with Unicast, this is widely used internet scheme. Every node on the network gets a unique IP address.

Routers have a map of the IPs and keep them organized in a way that they can show you the shortest path from one node to another. The packet of data is sent from a router to the next until it gets to the end point. Just one server has the IP that is the final destination. It is a very simple scheme.

Anycast: Many Machines, One IP

Anycast has something very useful that saves a lot of time. It allows many machines to have the same IP. In the same way, from any point in the world, you will be searching for the same IP. But when you do the request, it will travel not just to one point in the world but to the closest machine with the same IP. This makes it faster and far more practical.

Another benefit is network resilience. Even if many of the data centers are down, the request will travel until it finds one that is online.

Safety, most Anycast servers are very strong against DDoS attacks. In a usual Unicast configuration, the machine can be attacked with massive traffic that eventually makes it stuck. In the Anycast, the traffic of the attack with be shared with more machine and won’t affect any of them with the full power.

Anycast DNS setup

It is harder to setup an Anycast network. It is expensive, you need to buy a lot of hardware (servers), plan them in strategic positions around the world, build a very good connection with your upstream providers, and make sure your networking routes pass the information correctly. But in the end it is definitely worth it, it will provide one better experience for your clients, faster, more reliable and of course safer. Their request can go just to the closest machine, without traveling the whole world to the only server you have.

Protect yourself from hackers’ attacks and give a better and faster experience for your users. Check our Anycast DNS plans here and start your 30-day completely free trial (no credit card required).

Start using Anycast DNS technology today!

Start Now!

The post What are the benefits from using Anycast DNS? appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.