Understanding DNS

Before delving further into DNS plan types, let’s familiarize ourselves with what DNS really is.Each time you enter a web address into your browser, a DNS server translates that address into an IP address, guiding your request to the right web server. Simply put, the DNS is the phone book of the internet – converting human-readable domain names into machine-readable IP addresses.

Free DNS

Different companies offer such a Free DNS plan like us from ClouDNS. With this plan, you can manage your DNS. It has many of the features of a professional DNS plan. You can use up to 4 DNS servers and 1 DNS zone. You will have one mail forward. This plan is popular among people who need Dynamic DNS for their connected devices like CCTV cameras and other security measurements. It is used for personal blogs or parked domains.

Using this plan, the user can use all kinds of DNS records, including A, AAAA, MX, TXT and more. Something that is rarely found in such Free DNS plans is that we provide unlimited DNS queries. This can be a big plus.

It is a good plan for starters, who wants to learn using DNS. People who want to experiment and get how does the DNS work. It can be useful for small blog sites that still don’t get too much traffic. This kind of plans can’t offer the uptime of the Premium DNS plans so users of it, can experience occasional downtime and they are more vulnerable to DNS attacks.

Look how to add Free Zone in ClouDNS!

Premium DNS

Premium DNS plans have more of everything. They can use far more DNS servers and DNS zones. They can manage the traffic better. By using such a plan, you can see improvement in the loading speed, the security, better uptime and even better SEO.

DNS and SEO: How does DNS service affect SEO?

This kind of plans are for every website, that is more than just a personal blog with few monthly visitors. Every company that can’t afford to have downtime should choose a professional plan.

Premium DNS vs. Free DNS

When it comes to managing online data flow and protection, choosing the right type of Domain Name System (DNS) is crucial. Our comparison between Premium DNS and Free DNS will provide an understanding of the features, capabilities, and benefits that each service brings to your online activities.

• Better uptime – Our Premium DNS plans offer 60+ Anycast locations, up to 8 DNS name servers. You can also enjoy DDoS protection for maximum, SLA guaranteed, uptime. In case of a downtime, for each minute, we will extend your account with 10!

• More advanced features – Many more DNS zones and DNS records, unlimited queries, and many more mail forwards, DNSSEC, Reverse DNS zones, and more. Don’t forget DNS Failover and Monitoring checks.

• More DNS servers – Up to 8, depending on your plan. And up to 4 DDoS protected ones. They are strategically located around the world.

• Anycast DNS for better load balancing – Anycast is far superior technology in comparison with the older Unicast protocol. It manages queries a lot more efficiently. It provides the best route for each query to reduce latency.

• DDoS protection for extra security – DDoS attacks have been widespread for a while. They can completely cripple your network. ClouDNS offers 4 DDoS protected servers that can resist even heavy traffic.

• More DNS Zones – The free DNS plan that we offer has just 1 DNS zone that you can manage. The premium plans offer up to 400!

• Secondary DNS zones – You can use our Secondary DNS zones if you already have the master elsewhere. It is easy to set up, and it doesn’t take a long time. With Secondary DNS zones, you can improve the redundancy.

• More Mail Forwards – The free DNS plan has 1, but the premium plans have up to 1000.

• Real-time statistics – While the free plan provides statistics, it only on a daily, monthly, or yearly basis. If you want advanced real-time statistics that updates hourly check the premium plans.

How to Transition from a Free DNS Plan to Premium DNS with ClouDNS

Transitioning from a Free DNS plan to a Premium DNS plan on ClouDNS is a straightforward process that can significantly enhance your website’s performance, security, and reliability. Here’s how you can easily make the switch:

Step 1: Log into Your ClouDNS Account – Start by logging into your ClouDNS account. Use your existing credentials to access the dashboard where you manage your DNS settings.

Step 2: Locate the Upgrade Option – Once you’re logged in, look for the “Free” icon situated next to your email account at the top of the dashboard. This icon indicates your current Free DNS plan and provides a quick access point to upgrade.

Step 3: View Available DNS Hosting Plans – Clicking on the “Free” icon will bring up a list of all the DNS hosting plans that ClouDNS offers. This includes various Premium DNS plans tailored to different needs. Here, you can review the features and benefits of each plan to determine which one suits your requirements.

Step 4: Choose Your Plan Duration – After selecting the Premium DNS plan that fits your needs, you’ll be prompted to choose the duration of your subscription. ClouDNS offers multiple options, including 6 months, 1 year, or 2 years. Pick the period that best aligns with your budget and long-term plans.

Step 5: Complete the Purchase – Once you’ve selected your plan and duration, click on “Buy Now” to proceed to the checkout. You will need to fill out the required information to complete the payment process. ClouDNS supports various payment methods, making it convenient to finalize your purchase.

After completing the payment, your account will be upgraded to the Premium DNS plan. You can now take advantage of enhanced features such as better uptime, increased security, and improved DNS management tools.

Contextualizing your DNS needs: Factors to consider

Opting for either a free or Premium DNS service is not a decision to be taken lightly. While it’s tempting to choose the most economical option, it’s wise to weigh certain considerations to make an informed choice for your website’s long-term success:

1. Size and nature of your needs: Personal blogs and small websites usually don’t require the robust features of a Premium DNS, making a free DNS a reasonable choice. However, for larger websites or e-commerce platforms where downtimes mean lost revenue, Premium DNS services become indispensable for their reliability and stability.
2. Security concerns: Websites dealing with sensitive user data, especially eCommerce stores, need to prioritize their security features like DNSSEC, which often come with Premium DNS. 
3. Budget: Of course, budget plays a crucial role in your decision. Evaluate how much you are willing to invest in DNS services and if it aligns with your website’s requirements.
4. Traffic volume: If your website witnesses a significant volume of traffic, a Premium DNS with load balancing and faster routing can dramatically improve the user experience. 
5. Scalability: If you foresee quick expansion and growth for your website, investing in a Premium DNS service could provide the scalability you will eventually require.

Why does your choice of DNS matter?

Your choice of DNS acts as the vehicle driving the smooth operation of your website. It’s not just about translating a domain name to an IP address; it’s about ensuring your website can efficiently connect with users around the world.

• Speed: The performance speed of your DNS can significantly affect your website’s loading speed. In an era where waiting an extra second can lead to visitors abandoning your site, a faster DNS lookup can make a considerable difference.
• Uptime: Imagine owning a physical store but randomly closing several times a day – definitely not good for business, right? That’s essentially what website downtime is. A reliable DNS server ensures maximum uptime for your website, leading to consistent user experience and potentially higher revenue.
• Security: An insecure DNS can expose your website to cyber-attacks, leading not only to potential revenue loss through downtime but also damage to your brand reputation. A secure DNS can act as your frontline defense against cyber threats.

Conclusion

There are plenty of reasons to choose a Premium DNS over a Free DNS plan. Think about your needs, how much traffic are you expecting and how important is the uptime for your business. If you are not sure, you can start with a Free DNS or a cheap plan and slowly upgrade with the time. But if you know your business needs our sales team is here to meet your requirements. Just fill the form and our Sales representative will contact you as soon as possible.

The post Can we use free DNS? Free DNS vs. Premium appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.

A Brief History of Hubs and Switches in Networking

In the early 1980s, hubs were introduced as basic devices for connecting multiple computers in a local area network (LAN). Operating at the physical layer (Layer 1) of the OSI model, hubs broadcasted data to all connected devices simultaneously, which was sufficient for small, low-traffic networks of the time. However, this method led to data collisions and inefficient use of bandwidth as networks grew.

By the mid-1990s, switches began to emerge as a more advanced alternative. Operating at the data link layer (Layer 2), switches could direct data packets specifically to the intended recipient device using MAC addresses. This innovation reduced collisions and allowed for more efficient use of network resources, leading to their increased adoption.

Now, let’s dive into the main differences between hubs and switches, and explore which one is better suited for your specific networking needs.

Hub

A hub, as the name suggests, is a connection point for various computers. It creates a network based on Ethernet. There are variations based on USB and Firewire too.

This device does not manage the traffic intelligently. It broadcast the data to all of the connected computers.  Because of the way it works, more bandwidth is used and occasionally packet collisions occur.

Advantages of using a Hub

Low Cost

Budget-Friendly: Hubs are generally more budget-friendly than switches. This can be advantageous for temporary setups or when networking needs are minimal, making them an economical choice for small or short-term projects.
Reduced Total Cost of Ownership: Lower initial cost means that the total cost of ownership (TCO) is generally less for hubs, assuming the lack of features is not a hindrance to the network’s purpose.

Ease of Setup

Plug-and-Play: Hubs usually require minimal setup. In most cases, you simply plug your devices into the hub, and you’re good to go.
No Configuration Needed: Unlike switches, hubs do not require any configuration, making them easier to deploy for those who may not be technologically savvy.

Disadvantages of using a Hub

No Traffic Management

Bandwidth Sharing: All devices connected to the hub have to share the bandwidth, which can be problematic when you have multiple devices transmitting data simultaneously. This is particularly limiting for applications that require high data throughput.
Collisions: The lack of traffic management means that data collisions are more likely to occur, making hubs less reliable for transmitting data effectively.

Limited Security

Data Vulnerability: Because all data packets are broadcasted to every port, it’s easier for malicious actors to sniff data. This is particularly problematic if sensitive information is being transmitted.
No Access Control: Hubs do not have features to restrict access to connected devices. This makes network management and security more challenging.

Reduced Performance

Limited Scalability: Due to inefficiency in handling network traffic, hubs are not suitable for networks that may need to scale. As more devices are added, performance degrades significantly.
Latency: Because each packet is sent to all ports, it takes more time for the correct packet to reach its destination, leading to latency issues.

Switch

The switch is a smart network device. In contrast to the hub, it reviews the packets of data and directs them just to the right one. It does that by remembering the MAC addresses of the connected gadgets. The switch can support different common network types like 802.11, Ethernet, Fibre and more. It is newer in comparison with the hub, and it is more common in the modern offices.

Advantages of using a Switch

Efficient Traffic Management

Dedicated Bandwidth: Unlike hubs, switches provide dedicated bandwidth to each connected device, allowing for smoother data transmission.
Smart Data Packet Handling: Switches can understand the data packets they receive and send them only to intended devices, reducing the likelihood of data collision.

Enhanced Security

Secure Data Transmission: By sending packets only to intended recipients, switches make it more difficult for unauthorized users to intercept data.
Access Control: Managed switches allow network administrators to set up Access Control Lists (ACLs), providing an extra layer of security.

Better Performance

High Throughput: With better traffic management, switches can handle a larger amount of data traffic without sacrificing speed.
Scalability: Switches are more suited for growing networks, providing stable performance even as more devices are added.

Disadvantages of using a Switch

Cost

Higher Initial Cost: The upfront cost of a switch is generally higher than that of a hub.
Total Cost of Ownership: The advanced features may require ongoing maintenance, increasing the total cost over time.

Complexity

Configuration Required: Switches usually need to be configured, which might require specialized knowledge or expertise.
Compatibility Issues: Advanced features like VLANs or Quality of Service (QoS) settings can sometimes cause compatibility issues with older hardware or software.

Hub vs. switch

Now, let’s get more concrete. With this table of comparison, you will know why people prefer the switch.

What should you use?

Small Home Networks:

If you have a small home network with limited data transfer requirements, a hub could suffice. However, modern-day routers often come with built-in switch ports, providing even small home networks with the advantages of switches without requiring a separate device.

Business Networks:

For business settings, a switch is almost always the better choice. The increased performance and security features are typically necessary for a business network to run efficiently.

Specialized Needs:

If you need to monitor all the data traffic for purposes like data sniffing or analysis, a hub could be beneficial because it sends packets to all ports. But such tasks are better suited for managed switches with port-mirroring features.

Suggested page: Monitoring service: What is it and do I need it?

Conclusion

And now, the final answer of  “Hub vs. switch”.

Depends a lot on your budget. If you are searching for the cheapest option out there, or maybe you have an old big hub lying somewhere you could still use it. It can be a solution for a small network of computers that are not connected to the Internet.

In any other case, chose a switch. It is smarter, more secure and it can manage a larger group of connected devices.

The post Hub vs. switch. What should you use for your network? appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.

Why do we need load balancing?

With the massive increase of the internet traffic each year, it is getting harder to provide a sustainable service for all the millions of clients without having some downtime. For this purpose, you need to apply a model of load balancing, that will reduce the load caused by the countless users trying to reach your website or use your application.

Another reason why you need to use load balancing is the rising number of DDoS attacks. To evade them you will need to spread the traffic to as many as possible servers that you have. That way, their combined efforts can resist the wave of high traffic.

DNS load balancing explained

DNS load balancing is a technique that distributes incoming web traffic across several DNS servers by associating a single domain name with multiple IP addresses (IPv4 and IPv6). When users request the domain, DNS servers provide different IP addresses in a DNS Round-Robin fashion or based on other algorithms that help effectively spread the load. That way, traffic is distributed across multiple servers, preventing any single server from becoming overwhelmed and maintaining overall service availability.

Pros of DNS load balancing

Some of the main benefits of DNS load balancing include the following:

• Easy to Implement: It doesn’t require specialized hardware and can be implemented by only configuring DNS records. That makes it an excellent choice for businesses of all sizes.
• Geographic Distribution: It can also be utilized to direct users to servers in different geographic locations. As a result, it improves performance by reducing latency for users located at different points all over the world.
• Scalability: Adding or removing servers from the load balancing pool is a relatively easy and simple process. That makes it suitable for applications that experience changing levels of traffic.

Cons of DNS load balancing

Here are several things you should consider before implementing this technique:

• TTL Impact: DNS records have a Time-to-Live (TTL) value, which determines how long a DNS response is cached. Changing load balancing configurations might take time to propagate due to the caching mechanism.
• Limited Monitoring: It lacks real-time awareness of server health. If a server becomes unavailable, DNS will still route traffic to it until the DNS cache expires. To avoid that, you can implement a Monitoring service to help identify potential issues quickly.

Hardware load balancer (HLB)

HLBs are the first to appear sometime in the late 90s. They are hardware, which means you need to purchase the device and connect it to your network. Hardware load balancing (HLB) distributes traffic across multiple servers depending on the servers’ process power, the connections, usage of resources or randomly.

The hardware load balancers are implemented on Layer4 (Transport layer) and Layer7 (Application layer). On Layer4 it makes use of TCP, UDP and SCTP transport layer protocol details to make decision on which server the data is to be sent.

Suggested article: Comprehensive Guide on TCP Monitoring vs. UDP Monitoring

On Layer7, the hardware forms an ADN (Application delivery network) and passes on requests to the servers as per the type of the content.

Pros of Hardware load balancing

Here are the primary benefits of Hardware load balancing:

• Advanced Features: Hardware load balancers can perform complex traffic distribution algorithms, considering factors like server health, response times, and content-based routing, leading to more efficient traffic distribution.
• Real-Time Monitoring: These devices continuously monitor server health and network conditions, enabling immediate traffic redirection in case of server failures or high loads.
• Enhanced Scalability: Hardware load balancers can handle large amounts of traffic and provide seamless scalability for growing services.

Cons of Hardware load balancing

Some of the drawbacks or things you should have in mind when choosing this method for load balancing are the following:

• Cost and Complexity: Implementing hardware load balancing requires a significant investment in specialized hardware devices and ongoing maintenance, which might be a barrier for small to medium-sized businesses. Configuration and management can be complex, especially for organizations without specialized networking experts.
• Single Point of Failure: While hardware load balancers enhance server availability, they themselves can become single points of failure. Proper advanced configuration is often necessary to mitigate this risk.

DNS load balancing vs. Hardware load balancing

We will compare them in two conditions, with a single data center, and with cross data center load balancing.

In the first scenario, both are very competitive. The main difference is in price. The DNS load balancer can be more accessible because usually it is offered as a subscription. In the case of HLB you must buy it and if you need extra power in the future, the upgrades can come very costly. The DNS service can be scaled easier, just by updating to another plan.

In the second scenario with cross data center, things are similar. It is getting very expensive to create a global server load balancing with the HLB because you need to properly equip every of your data center.

With global in mind, the DNS load balancing has a clear advantage over the HLB with scalability and price. The DNS option has a better failover and easy recovery.
Another advantage of the DNS load balancing is the cost to maintain. The DNS services are mostly offered as Managed DNS, so it requires less maintenance.

Which One to Choose?

Choosing between DNS load balancing and hardware load balancing largely depends on the specific needs and resources of your business.

DNS load balancing is generally more cost-effective and easier to implement, making it ideal for small to medium-sized businesses or those with inconsistent traffic levels. Its scalability and ability to direct traffic based on geographic location provide a significant advantage for globally distributed user bases. However, it’s important to consider the limitations, such as the impact of TTL on configuration changes and the lack of real-time server health monitoring, which can actually be compensated by implementing ClouDNS’s monitoring service. Despite these drawbacks, DNS load balancing offers a flexible and affordable solution for many online services.

On the other hand, hardware load balancing is better suited for enterprises requiring advanced features and robust real-time monitoring capabilities. The hardware solution offers more sophisticated traffic distribution algorithms, taking into account server health and network conditions to optimize performance. Although the initial investment and complexity in setup and maintenance are higher, hardware load balancers provide enhanced scalability and reliability for handling large volumes of traffic. They are particularly beneficial for applications requiring high availability and minimal latency.

Finally, your decision should consider the cost, desired level of control, and specific performance requirements to ensure a seamless and efficient online experience for your users.

Conclusion

Both DNS load balancing and hardware load balancing offer a good solution for distributing traffic. Which one to choose depends on the needs of your company. How tight control you would like to have? How much can you invest? Do you like a subscription model with small monthly fees or do you prefer to put a lot of money every few years to have top of the notch performance?

We recommend you to try a DNS cloud-based load balancing, like our GeoDNS.
It is cost-effective, easily scalable; you can use multiple geolocation target options and have protection from DDoS attacks.

Later you can combine it with your own hardware load balancing and create a hybrid for your specific needs.

The post DNS load balancing vs. Hardware load balancing appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.

Router

A router is one of the network devices that handles network traffic. It does it by forwarding data packets between different computer networks. When the router receives the data packets, it will check it, and it will compare it with its routing table. Then it will decide to send it to the next network toward the destination of the packets or not. Most of you are probably familiar with the routers. You probably have one at home, which manages packets from the home computer to the internet.

Functionalities of routers 

• IP address management: Routers assign IP addresses to devices within a network and provide network address translation (NAT) functionality to map multiple private IP addresses to a single public IP address.
• Traffic management: Routers implement Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms to prioritize and manage network traffic based on predefined rules.
• Network segmentation: Routers allow for the creation of separate network segments, known as subnets, to enhance security and optimize network performance.

Firewall

Firewall, as the name suggests, is a barrier. Its purpose is to protect the devices behind it by filtering the data from coming to them and going from them and protecting from harmful communications like spam or viruses. It can be hardware, with router capability or just software, like the one Windows has.

Key features of firewalls

• Packet filtering: Firewalls examine packets based on predefined rules, such as source/destination IP addresses, ports, and protocols, to determine whether they should be allowed or blocked.
• Stateful inspection: Firewalls maintain state information about established connections, allowing them to make intelligent decisions regarding packet filtering and preventing unauthorized access.
• Application-level filtering: Some firewalls can perform deep packet inspection to analyze the content of packets at the application layer (Layer 7), enabling them to detect and block specific application-layer threats.

Importance of Firewall Monitoring

Firewall monitoring is a critical aspect of network security management. It involves continuous monitoring, analysis, and maintenance of firewall rules and logs to ensure optimal firewall performance and detect potential security incidents. Effective Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol provides the following 4 benefits:

1. Threat detection and prevention: By monitoring firewall logs and analyzing network traffic patterns, administrators can identify suspicious activities, such as unauthorized access attempts, malware infections, or data exfiltration, and take proactive measures to mitigate them.
2. Policy compliance: Firewall monitoring helps ensure that security policies and rules are consistently enforced, reducing the risk of policy violations and non-compliance with industry regulations.
3. Performance optimization: Regular monitoring enables administrators to identify and resolve performance bottlenecks, fine-tune firewall configurations, and optimize network traffic flow, thus enhancing overall network performance.
4. Incident response: In the event of a security incident, firewall logs provide crucial information for forensic analysis and incident response. Monitoring allows for the timely detection and response to security breaches, minimizing potential damage.

Router vs firewall

To easily understand the router vs firewall topic, see this table:

Hardware firewall vs software firewall

Now to a bit of a different subject, hardware firewall vs software firewall. Both protect you from malicious traffic, but they have some differences.

The hardware firewall can be a stand-alone device or a part of a router. Such a router is a simple and effective protection solution for your network. It reviews the headers of the data packets and decides if it can be trusted. If it thinks the packet is safe, it will forward it, if no, it will drop it.

A software firewall is a program that you can install on your computer. It can be a part of an antivirus suite or separate. It will protect from uncontrolled access to your computer. Depending on the software, it can keep you safe from Trojans and worms too. The difference with the hardware one, this one will protect just the device that has the firewall installed. If you need a firewall on all of your devices, you would need to install it on all of them. Another disadvantage of it is that it will run in the background, which will take some system resources and may lead to slowdowns.

How do DHCP, routers, and firewalls work together?

DHCP, which stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, is responsible for assigning IP addresses to devices within a network. It acts as a mediator between routers and firewalls, ensuring that devices can communicate with each other and stay secure.

Routers are like traffic directors. They help direct data packets between different networks, ensuring they reach their intended destinations. Some routers also have built-in DHCP server functionality, allowing them to assign IP addresses to devices in the network.

Firewalls, on the other hand, are like security guards. They monitor and control the flow of network traffic to protect against unauthorized access and potential threats. While firewalls primarily focus on security, they can interact with DHCP in a couple of ways.

Firstly, firewalls can act as DHCP relays. If devices and DHCP servers are on different network segments, the firewall helps relay the DHCP messages between them, ensuring that devices can still get their assigned IP addresses.

Secondly, firewalls can inspect DHCP traffic and apply rules to allow or block it. This filtering capability helps prevent unauthorized DHCP servers or DHCP attacks from compromising the network’s security.

Lastly, firewalls can use DHCP lease information to enforce security policies. By looking at the DHCP lease table, they can identify devices based on their assigned IP addresses and apply specific security rules or identify potential unauthorized devices on the network.

In simpler terms, DHCP ensures devices have IP addresses to communicate, routers direct the traffic, and firewalls protect the network by working alongside DHCP to manage IP addresses and filter network traffic.

Switches vs routers vs firewalls: How do they fit together?

In a typical network setup, devices such as computers and printers connect to a switch. The switch facilitates internal communication within the local network by forwarding data packets based on MAC addresses.

The switch then connects to a router. The router manages traffic between different networks by using IP addresses to route data packets. It ensures that data from your local network reaches its destination on other networks, such as the internet.

Finally, the router connects to a firewall. The firewall acts as a barrier, inspecting and filtering traffic to protect your network from unauthorized access and cyber threats. By examining data packets based on security rules, the firewall ensures that only safe and authorized traffic enters or leaves the network.

Example Setup:

Devices -> Switch -> Router -> Firewall -> Internet

This configuration ensures that devices can communicate within the local network, that traffic is efficiently managed and routed to appropriate destinations, and that the network is protected from external threats. This collaborative setup of switches, routers, and firewalls provides a robust, efficient, and secure network infrastructure.

Conclusion

Routers and firewalls play vital roles in securing networks and protecting sensitive information. While routers focus on efficiently forwarding data packets between networks, firewalls provide an additional layer of security by monitoring and controlling network traffic based on predefined rules. Both are essential components of a robust network security architecture.

The post Router vs firewall, can you guess which is better? appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.

Many IT specialists say that whitelisting leads to better protection, but it has too many limitations. It takes too much time and needs continuous changes. This generates more expenses. On the other side is the blacklisting. You simply put all the problematic devices in a blacklist and they no longer can engage with your network. But can you block all of them?

What is DNS filtering? Do you need it?

Let’s check them out and we later you can make your choice on the “Whitelisting vs Blacklisting” debate.

Blacklisting

Many companies build their business on top of the blacklisting. This is the case of all the antivirus firms. They create a massive list of malware, including every new one there. If we think about it, we can see that it is a very practical approach to the common attacks.

The purpose of blacklisting is often to protect against potential harm, maintain integrity, or enforce compliance with certain standards. It can be implemented by various entities such as companies, organizations, or even governments to restrict access to resources, services, employment opportunities, or other privileges. 

Blacklisting can be used for blocking specific applications and websites. This will reduce the risk that your employees introduce with their actions.

Pros and Cons of Blacklisting

Pros of Blacklisting:

Simple and scalable. Yes, it is basic protection, but it stops many of the attacks. It is also straightforward to apply it to different devices. You just install the software. A system administrator can do it to all of the computers at the same time.

Easy to administrate. The primary responsibility to maintain the blacklist is on the third party (the software provider of the antivirus). The provider is often updating the list and searching actively for new threads while the IT specialists inside the protected company, don’t need to do a thing.

Protection: Blacklisting helps organizations and communities protect themselves by excluding individuals with a history of misconduct or violation from certain activities.

Cons of Blacklisting:

Potential for abuse: There is a risk of false accusations or unfair targeting, leading to the unjust exclusion of innocent individuals or entities.

Lack of due process: Blacklisting can infringe upon an individual’s rights and reputation without providing a fair opportunity for defense or redemption.

Hindrance to rehabilitation: Blacklisting can limit opportunities for personal growth and reintegration, potentially perpetuating a cycle of exclusion.

Whitelisting

Whitelisting is about prevention, not about reacting. People do blacklisting after they have found a problem, whitelisting stops everything except the allowed on the list.

The system administrator can apply the whitelist on the scale of the network. Doing this, they can allow just specific websites or only individual applications. This is good for limiting the threads, but it can affect the work when somebody needs a new app or visit a new site. It will require more work from the admins.

Whitelisting is very practical for remote access. Imagine you want to allow some of your employees to work from home. You can’t use blacklisting, because it will take you forever to block all the IPs from other people, outside of your company. You will use the whitelisting and add just a few IPs (they need to have static IPs).

Pros and Cons of Whitelisting

Pros of Whitelisting:

Enhanced Security: Whitelisting provides a high level of security by only allowing pre-approved programs, applications, or entities to access a system or network.

Prevents Unauthorized Access: By explicitly specifying what is allowed, whitelisting ensures that only trusted and authorized sources can interact with a system, reducing the risk of unauthorized access or malware infiltration.

Granular Control: Whitelisting allows for fine-grained control over what is permitted, allowing administrators to define specific rules and permissions for different entities or processes.

Cons of Whitelisting:

Administration Overhead: Maintaining and managing a whitelist can be time-consuming and require regular updates as new legitimate entities or processes need to be added.

Potential for Overblocking: In some cases, legitimate sources or applications may not be included in the whitelist, leading to unintentional blocking or access restrictions.

False Sense of Security: While whitelisting provides robust protection against unauthorized access, it does not guarantee complete immunity from security breaches, as sophisticated attackers may find ways to exploit authorized entities or processes.

Whitelisting vs Blacklisting table comparison

Examples

Here are some specific examples of whitelisting and blacklisting that may apply to business:

Software:

• Whitelisting: The business limits access to specific applications utilized by select employees for their designated roles. These roles include accounting, human resources, and payroll. Organizations limit access to these applications to the machines or servers dedicated to these functions.
• Blacklisting: The business blocks access to games or applications that could potentially contain malware or pose security risks to the company’s systems.

Email:

• Whitelisting: The business configures its email system to only receive emails from trusted sources, such as clients or internal employees, ensuring that important communications are not missed.
• Blacklisting: The business blocks domains or email addresses known for sending spam, junk, or phishing emails, protecting the company’s network and employees from potential security threats.

DMARC, the solution for your phishing problems

Websites:

• Whitelisting: The business restricts access to specific websites that are essential for employees to perform their job functions, such as accounting-related sites or industry-specific resources.
• Blacklisting: The business blocks access to websites that may interfere with workplace productivity or pose security risks, such as pornography sites, gaming platforms, or social networking sites.

These examples illustrate how businesses can implement whitelisting and blacklisting to enhance security, productivity, and compliance with company policies.

What is Greylisting?

Greylisting is an SMTP-based email filtering technique used to combat spam. When an email is received from an unknown sender or IP address, the receiving mail server temporarily rejects the message with a “soft bounce” response, specifically a temporary SMTP error code (usually 4xx). Legitimate email servers are designed to retry sending the email after a specified delay, typically within a few minutes or hours. In the meantime, the greylisting server records the details of the incoming email (sender, recipient, and IP address) and adds them to a temporary whitelist. Once the email is re-sent, the server checks the whitelist and, if the details match, accepts the message. Greylisting exploits the fact that most legitimate email servers will retry delivery, while many spam systems do not, thereby effectively reducing spam volumes. However, this technique may introduce a slight delay in email delivery due to the initial rejection and delay period.

Whitelisting and Blacklisting with AI, ML, and Blockchain

The evolution of technology continuously shapes the effectiveness and implementation of whitelisting and blacklisting:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML): AI and ML are revolutionizing whitelisting and blacklisting by enabling dynamic lists that can adapt based on behavior patterns and emerging threats. For example, AI can automate the process of updating whitelists with legitimate applications or detect anomalies that might indicate a need to blacklist new threats. These technologies are particularly effective in environments where security needs to quickly adapt to new and evolving challenges.
• Blockchain Technology: Some security platforms are starting to utilize blockchain to manage and securely distribute whitelists and blacklists. Because blockchain data is immutable and transparent, it can provide a secure, decentralized method for managing these lists that is resistant to tampering and fraud. This application of blockchain in cybersecurity leverages its inherent strengths to enhance the integrity and reliability of traditional security measures.

Conclusion

Whitelisting vs Blacklisting, did we find which is better? No, they have their good and bad sides. The best option is a combination of the two, depending on your IT specialists’ capacity. You can use antivirus software (blacklisting) and block some specific list of websites that you don’t want to be accessible from your company. At the same time, you could use whitelisting for your remote access and more sensitive data inside your company.

The post Whitelisting vs Blacklisting, preventing or reacting appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.

What is IP (Internet Protocol)?

IP is an abbreviation of the internet protocol. The IP is the way devices connect to the internet. It has a set of rules that define how the data travels from host to its destination. Basically, we need to define what we see (hostname), where it is (IP address), and how to get there (route).

To identify all the devices (hosts), there are IP addresses that are unique to them. They are assigned by the network administrators and could be static (fixed) IPs or dynamic (changing automatically after time) IPs.

An IP address is a simple string of numbers that are separated by periods. An example of an IP is 127.0.0.1, which is the localhost of most network systems.

First, the IP protocol was part of the TCP/IP. The first version that separated from it was the IPv4.

Types of IP addresses

When are talking about cosumers’ IP addresses, we can define four:

• Private IP addresses

The Private IP address is used inside the network. Imagine your home or office. You have a router that probably uses a dynamic method of IP allocation like DHCP. Your device will request an address, and it will receive one. This is a private IP address for the network that your router creates. Other devices (computers, IoT devices, phones) connected to the Internet thought this router would get their IPs the same way.

The router uses the addresses to identify the connected devices and manages those IPs to provide to other devices later.

Router vs firewall, can you guess which is better?

• Public IP addresses

Now we are going broader. Your router will get another IP address from your Internet service provider (ISP). This is a public IP address from the IPS’s pool of IP addresses for outside of your network recognition.

This public IP address can be a dynamic IP address leased to you by a DHCP or another type of server for a limited amount of time, or it could be a static IP address that will be fixed for you. The static could allow you to offer services that require such an IP address, but usually, it requires an extra payment.

DNS vs DHCP. Are they connected?

• Static IP addresses

For a certain set of devices, having a consistent IP address is of utmost importance. This is the case with static IP addresses, which are set and remain fixed over time. It is used mainly on networks where a device needs to be identified in order to access resources or services. Examples of static IP address are 192.168.1.100, 10.0.0.15 and 172.16.1.255. With a static IP address, a computer is always assigned the same address, which makes it easier to access remote resources.

• Dynamic IP addresses

For many networks, having a single dedicated address isn’t feasible as the amount of devices connected can fluctuate. It’s here where dynamic IP addressing comes into play. It is one that changes every time an individual device connects to a network. It is used on networks where a station needs a unique address for a limited time, after which a different device may use that same address. Dynamic IP addresses are not permanent, so the device connected to the network keeps changing IP addresses as needed. 

What is IPv4 address?

IPv4 address is the Internet Protocol version 4 address that serves to identify a device on a network and looks like this 157.240.20.35. It has 4 numbers that can be from 0 to 254, and are divided by dots.

The IPv4 started being used in 1982 on SATNET and one year later on ARPANET.

The IPv4 protocol allows interconnected networks and transmission of data from one place (source) to the destination. It passes datagrams from one internet module to the next until the destination is reached. If the data is too large to pass through a network, it can get fragmentation, chopped into pieces, and pass the limit of the network.

 Problems with IPv4

• A scarce number of available IPv4. The total number of available IPs is 4 294 967 296 (232). It looks massive, but think about how many connected devices are there. Yes, they are already more, and the internet service providers need to reuse their available IPs. Some are running out of numbers already, and they are starting to provide IPv6 addresses.
• Does not support IPsec natively. Yes, it could be configured, but it is harder.
• Limited IPv4 header (60 bytes). You can’t add any additional parameters.
• The price of IPv4 is rising. Each year the price is rising. Currently is above 25 USD. Maybe finally, the price will be the number one driver to move to the superior IPv6.

When we are talking about DNS and IPv4 addresses, we need to resolve the hostname to its IP address, and we use A records for that purpose.

If you want to check your domain’s A record, we recommend you take a look at the first command from our article: 10 Most used Dig commands

What is IPv6 address?

IPv6 is the latest version of IP. It has been around since 1995 and was introduced to replace the IPv4 back in 1998. Since 2017, the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) has ratified it as an Internet Standard.

In contrast to the IPv4, which uses 32-bit addresses, the newer version IPv6 uses 128bit addressing. To see the difference, we will start with one example of IPv6: “2001:0db8:0000:0042:0000:8a2e:0370:7334”. It has 8 groups, double the number of the previous. Each group has 4 hexadecimal (hex) digits, and the groups are separated by colons.

As you can see, there are many more combinations of available IP addresses. To be precise, 1028 times more available addresses!

Another benefit of the new protocol is the increased security. It has IPsec (Internet security protocol). It authenticates the sender (with Authentication Header) and encrypts the data (Encapsulating Security Payload).

Stateless address auto-configuration (SLAAC) is important too. The IPv6 auto-configures by listening to the Ruter Advertisement (RA), from the host. After that, it auto-assigns a 64-bit prefix. The other 64 bits of the address come from the host who self-determines its address.

The main problem of the protocol is the slow adoption from the ISPs (internet providers). They mostly prefer to use IPv4 because they don’t want to invest in new technology. Currently, the adoption rate is 41.35% (date 14.05.2023, oogle IPv6 adoption statistic ), and the leaders are France with 74.68%, second is India with 68.76%, Germany with 67.5%, Belgium with 67.25%, Greece with 61.29%, and the Saudi Arabia with 60.47%.

You can use IPv6 addresses on your managed DNS with AAAA records.

If you need more information you can look at our detailed article about IPv6.

Where is the IPv5 address?

Ok, there are almost no IPv4s left. Why aren’t we moving to IPv5? Why did we skip it? The reason is that IPv5 doesn’t exist. It never made it to become one of the IP protocols. It was planned as a streaming protocol, and it got to its second version, ST2. Its packets had the IP version 5 ID but eventually died as a draft. To evade confusion, the next protocol was named IPv6.

The big problem IPv5 had was that it used the same IPv4 addressing and had the same limited number of addresses.

Part of its development went to the next version, and that is how IPv5 history finished. But let’s see in more detail why IPv5 never came.

Why did IPv5 never emerge?

The journey of IPv5 towards becoming a mainstream internet protocol was halted by several key factors. Its development, closely tied to IPv4’s architectural framework, did not address the looming issue of IP address exhaustion that threatened the internet’s scalability. This critical shortfall, coupled with the emerging needs of a rapidly expanding digital world, necessitated a more comprehensive solution. Enter IPv6, with its vast address space and improved functionalities such as enhanced security and efficient routing. 

As the global internet community gravitated towards adopting IPv6 for its future-ready capabilities, IPv5 remained a crucial yet bypassed step in the evolution of internet protocols, serving as a testament to the ongoing pursuit of technological advancement.

IPv4 vs IPv6

So we are finally getting to the true IPv4 vs IPv6 comparison. Here we are going to put the attention on the fundamental differences that the two protocols have. You will see how much did the new one improve over the IPv4.

IPv4 vs. IPv6: Speed comparison

Is the new IPv6 faster than the previous IPv4?

• IPv6 has one big advantage: it does not need Network Address Translation (NAT). It uses global addresses because simply there are enough addresses, and it does not need the NAT, while IPv4 will have to deal with NAT.
• The older protocol has header checksums for bit errors because back when it was introduced, the connectivity was far worse. The newer does not, and its header is fixed to 40 bytes.

Currently, IPv6 is mostly faster than IPv4, with small exceptions.

IPv4 vs. IPv6: Security comparison

• As we mentioned before, IPv6 already includes IPSec. IPSec can be used with IPv4. Just it takes extra steps.
• Address scanning is a lot harder for IPv6. We are talking about a massive number of IPv6 subnet addresses. It will take an incredibly long time for an attacker if it does not use some extra criteria for its scanning.
• IPv6 can support end-to-end encryption. This can reduce man-in-the-middle attacks.
• Another feature of the new protocol is called SEND (Secure Neighbor Discovery). It is a cryptographic check of a host to see if it is truly the one that it says it is.

Benefits of the IPv6 summarized

• Better routing without fragmentation of packets
• Extended address space (128it vs 32bit)
• IPsec
• SLAAC – Stateless address auto-configuration
• An improved structure of the header with less processing overhead

What Internet Protocol version does ClouDNS use?

If you host your domain at ClouDNS, you might be wondering whether ClouDNS uses IPv4 or IPv6. ClouDNS currently uses both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.

IPv4 enables compatibility with more older devices while IPv6 provides a larger address space, faster response time, and better support for quality of service. ClouDNS ensures the optimum operation of your website, application or any other service across multiple generations of devices and networks. This allows users to easily access your content no matter their device or network, securely and quickly.

Conclusion

IPv4 vs IPv6, now you know the difference. IPv6 provides enough IPs for a long, long time. We probably won’t see any new version any time soon.

As we stand today, more than 25 years from the beginning of IPv6, it is already used by 30% of the world’s Internet users. It will be the preferred IP version in the future, and it is important to start adopting it today.

The post IPv4 vs IPv6 and where did IPv5 go? appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.