ClouDNS

Featuring in our list is the freshly launched ClouDNS DNS tool. This tool is intended for examining DNS records linked to a specific host alongside measuring the velocity of DNS queries. Some of the records that it will show information are A, CNAME, PTR (responsible for Reverse DNS lookup), MX, CAA, NS (needed to create DNSSEC), etc. It also incorporates a comprehensive audit feature. Developed by ClouDNS, the functionality of the tool has been designed considering the need of users to optimize their server’s performance effectively. The tool offers three types of assessments – DNS records, DNS audit, and DNS speed assessments, providing a holistic insight into the server’s DNS operation. The best part? It’s completely FREE!

DNS.Computer

DNS.Computer is highly efficient and simple to use. With just the insertion of the domain name and a click on ‘audit’, this tool generates a detailed report featuring observations and suggestions for optimization. This report, even available as a download in PDF format, provides valuable insights such as nameservers at the parent server, synchronization of NS records, and data contained in the SOA (Start of Authority) record.

It also showcases A record data by location with their response times, giving you insightful geographical distribution of your DNS. Plus, it displays an average response time for your DNS, advising a switch to Anycast DNS if the response time is significantly high. Overall, DNS.Computer is a dynamic tool that offers quick and specific insights to boost your DNS performance.

30-day Free Trial for Premium Anycast DNS hosting

Pingdom DNS Test

Pingdom DNS Test outshines its dual-feature of web page speed testing and DNS troubleshooting. It pinpoints performance bottlenecks, providing insights to optimize your site’s speed and user experience. Advanced diagnostics are visualized using color codes, icons, and dots, making it a hassle-free tool for improving site performance.

Additionally, the DNS tool provides intuitive visual aids, using color codes to denote different stages of a request, icons for various content types, and colored dots for different HTTP response codes. 

What is Web (HTTP/HTTPS) monitoring?

Into DNS

IntoDNS takes DNS evaluation to a new level by providing a detailed assessment of your server’s health and configuration status. It generates exhaustive DNS reports with actionable recommendations for improvements, backed by references to official protocol documentation. This covers a series of checks from MX records to SOA data and even WWW IPs, making it a powerful tool for enhancing server performance and stability.

Check Host

Check Host DNS tool provides substantial insight into any website’s domain. By entering a hostname or IP address, it can provide data from nameservers located in different countries concurrently. This quick global overview can provide you with pertinent information about your domain from various locations. 

After you input a domain into the Check Host DNS tool, it will give you comprehensive information, including the DNS result under specific categories such as ‘Location,’ ‘Result,’ and ‘TTL (Time to Live).’ Each of these categories gives you insight into different aspects of your domain’s DNS performance in various locations worldwide. That means, you can evaluate the response time (ping) from a variety of locations, which aids in testing server speed globally.

What Ping monitoring is?

View DNS

ViewDNS offers an all-embracing analysis of your domain’s DNS settings. Aimed at assisting webmasters and system administrators, this tool completes multiple tests to uncover DNS-related issues. Moreover, it checks A records for each NS at parent servers and whether the local nameservers send the IP address (glue) along with your NS records. These results are displayed in a readily understood format, offering valuable insights for your DNS health and improvement recommendations.

Suggested article: What are Glue records?

WhatsmyDNS

WhatsmyDNS effectively simplifies DNS queries with its DNS Lookup tool. It allows you to query DNS servers and receive quick insights for any domain name. The tool is designed to support most common DNS record types and also lets you choose from a selection of DNS servers. It’s a valuable resource for conducting a fast and robust DNS check.

DNSdumpster

DNSdumpster also deserves a mention – this is a no-cost domain research tool that’s instrumental in identifying specific hosts associated with a particular domain. Conducting a visibility check of hosts from the perspective of potential attackers forms a crucial aspect of a security assessment process, and this is exactly what DNSdumpster assists with. It also features an additional unique functionality called ‘mapping the domain,’ the data for which can be conveniently downloaded in a .xlsx format for a comprehensive list of hosts. This tool is particularly useful for those focusing on enhancing their server security measures.

Benefits of regular DNS audits

Performing regular DNS audits is essential to maintaining the health of your server and website. These audits can identify issues such as outdated or incorrect DNS records, misconfigurations, and potential security vulnerabilities. By regularly checking the accuracy and performance of your DNS setup, you ensure your domain resolves correctly for all users, reducing the chances of downtime or delays. DNS audits also help you stay compliant with best practices, optimize load balancing, and improve your website’s speed by using the best available resources. Ultimately, consistent DNS audits lead to enhanced performance, increased security, and a better user experience.

Conclusion

In summary, these DNS tools offer a range of features to help you test and optimize your server’s DNS performance, ensuring global accessibility, troubleshooting, and security enhancement. Whether you’re a novice or an experienced user, these tools provide valuable insights into your DNS infrastructure’s health and performance

The post 8 DNS tools for testing your servers appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.

DNS trace (dig + trace)

Using DNS trace, you can troubleshoot your DNS. You can use it on Linux OS, Mac OS and even on Windows (using Cygwin). You will trace the route of a DNS query. If there is a problem, you will see exactly where it is.

$ dig +trace www.cloudns.net

(you can write your website)

First, you request a webpage, for example, www.cloudns.net.

The query gets to the root name server for it.

This name server will show you the TLD authoritative server.

Your recursive resolver queries the .com TLD authoritative server for www.cloudns.net.

The .com TLD authoritative server refers your recursive server to the authoritative servers for cloudns.net.

Your recursive resolver queries the authoritative servers for www.cloudns.net and receives the IP as the answer.

Your recursive resolver caches the answer for the duration of the time-to-live (TTL) specified on the record and returns it to you.

This is how domain resolution works. You can get valuable information about the speed and accuracy of the answer.

Additionally, DNS trace is invaluable for diagnosing and understanding DNS propagation issues. It helps identify delays in DNS updates or misconfigurations across different levels of the DNS hierarchy. By understanding the path a DNS query takes, administrators can pinpoint issues more efficiently and ensure that DNS records are correctly resolved. Additionally, DNS trace is an excellent educational tool for those learning about the complexities of internet addressing and domain name resolution.

Premium DNS Service!

Online Ping

Online Ping is a DNS tool that administrator use for checking the connectivity and the speed. Using this command, you send a small data packet to a particular IP address. Then wait to get a feedback packet. You can also use it to ping a name resolution. If you get an answer when you do a ping to an IP but not when you do it to a name, then the two don’t match.

ping www.cloudns.net

Beyond checking connectivity and speed, Online Ping can be used to monitor the availability and response time of a server or network device continuously. This is crucial for maintaining high uptime for critical services and websites. Regular ping tests can alert administrators to network congestion, latency issues, or outages that may affect user experience. It’s a simple yet powerful tool for ensuring that network paths are optimal and services remain accessible.

What is ICMP Ping monitoring?

Traceroute

Tracing the route is similar to the ping. Using this DNS tool, you send a packet of data to an internet host, and it gives you back a result for every hop your query makes in seconds. If your website has a slow response, using this tool you can see where exactly it is the problem.

Try our Free DNS tool! 

traceroute www.cloudns.net

Traceroute not only helps in identifying where problems lie in the network path but also in understanding network infrastructure and performance. By showing the route data packets take to reach their destination, traceroute can reveal unexpected routing behavior or bottlenecks. This insight is useful for network optimization and planning, as well as for security purposes to detect any unauthorized or suspicious network paths.

DNS lookup (nslookup)

You can use this tool on different Operating systems for making DNS queries to get to an IP address or for specific DNS records. You can use it to see if you have any problems with any kind of DNS record that you are using.

nslookup www.cloudns.net

In addition to querying IP addresses or specific DNS records, nslookup is also useful for verifying and troubleshooting DNS configurations and propagation status. This tool can help ensure that your DNS settings are correctly implemented and propagated across the internet, which is critical for website accessibility and performance. It’s also beneficial for security analysis, allowing administrators to check for DNS-based threats or misconfigurations.

10 most used nslookup commands

Reverse DNS lookup

It does what it says, here you start with an IP address and you can find the domain name. This process uses PTR records that show exactly that. You can use it for troubleshooting.

dig -x 136.243.33.126

Reverse DNS lookup is not only crucial for troubleshooting but also plays a significant role in network security and anti-spam efforts. By verifying the domain name associated with an IP address, administrators can identify potential sources of spam or malicious activity. Furthermore, reverse DNS lookups are used in email authentication processes to reduce spam by verifying that the IP address sending the email matches the domain from which it claims to come.

Read more for the Reverse DNS and PTR records in our article: rDNS explained in detail

Conclusion

In conclusion, mastering the use of essential DNS tools like DNS trace, Ping, Traceroute, Nslookup, and Reverse lookup is paramount for network administrators and troubleshooters. These tools offer invaluable insights into diagnosing connectivity issues, optimizing network performance, and ensuring the smooth operation of online services. By harnessing their capabilities effectively, administrators can navigate the complexities of DNS management with confidence, ultimately leading to a more stable and reliable networking environment.

The post Тools – DNS trace, Ping, Traceroute, Nslookup, Reverse lookup appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.

The DDoS attacks are also increasing. According to Kaspersky Lab 33% of organizations experienced a DDoS attack in 2017, compared to 17% in 2016. So we also want to know if the top shopping websites are well prepared for future attacks.

In this article, we will check with our DNS tool all of the top 50 E-Commerce websites. We will see if their speed and DDoS protection is fine or they will need to improve. Based on our research we will make recommendations how these websites can improve.

DNS Tool

For this research, we will be using our DNS lookup tool

It shows how fast the servers are responding from six different international locations – 1. Roubaix, France, 2. Atlanta, USA, 3. Sao Paulo, Brazil, 4. Sydney, Australia, 5. Johannesburg, South Africa and 6. Singapore.

It is a small and very helpful tool that you can use for diagnostic of your DNS. It is easy to use, and it let you download a PDF report of your findings.

What are we checking?

Name servers

We are checking how many name servers are listed on the parent server. It is recommended to be more than two; three is ok, four is better. This adds resilient to your DNS network; it will result in better up time. If one or two are down for maintenance, the rest will still satisfy the needs of your customers. Another benefit is the increased security. More servers can handle better the traffic and this way they resist more to DDoS attacks.

NS records

NS records delegate a sub-domain to the name servers you have. They should be synchronized.

SOA record

Another that needs to show the same result for all of the name servers. It shows the start of authority, so it must indicate the same master name server, timestamp and few more characteristic.

A record distribution

By location for the domain and the www.domain (same but with www).

Speed

And finally one of the most important for an e-commerce website, the speed. As said above, a slow site can push the visitors away and lose a lot of sales.

Top 50 E-commerce websites

For the case study, we will also use the following SimilarWeb rank list.

Results

You can find all reports that we generated and additional information in this spreadsheet.

1.Amazon.com

The first one in the list is Amazon.com. They are using Dyn DNS and Neustar UltraDNS and average response time of the name servers is 50.66ms. We don’t know why they don’t use their DNS network – Route 53.

2. Taobao.com

Very slow global speed – 350.59ms. They don’t use any DNS provider, which is interesting since they are owned by Alibaba, and Alibaba has AliDNS. We don’t know why Alibaba does not use their DNS services.

3. eBay.com

Congratulations eBay, that’s the way to do it. Using Verisign as their Primary DNS provider and Dyn as a Secondary DNS. Low speed in South Africa, but they have ebay.co.za for that.

4. Tmall.com

Another property of Alibaba. Low speed even in Singapore (above 130ms). Not good Tmall. Alibaba do you plan to use your DNS for your websites?

5. Craigslist.org

Not a typical shopping site, but it’s on the list, so we need to check it out. Average speed 162.98ms. Even the two name servers in Atalanta show 64 and 63 ms. We think their users deserve better speed than that. No backup DNS.

6. AliExpress.com

In 2016, AliExpress claimed they reduced load time by 36% and recorded a 10.5% increase in orders and a 27% increase in conversion rates. Our report shows that they are using Alibaba Cloud. But unfortunately, this doesn’t help. The average response time of the name servers is 215.78ms. Just two name servers are showing speed less than 100ms. And this is a global site which depends on international users. We suggest adding a Secondary DNS provider. A company which generated almost 23 Billion in revenue in a single day, surely can set aside few thousands of dollars annually for this.

7. JD.com

An average response time of the name servers is 399.32ms. If they want to beat Alibaba at least, they have to provide good speed for their users. Singapore speed is also very low – name server in Singapore shows 145ms.

Next stop four properties of Amazon in different locations. Let’s see if some of them are using Route 53 this time.

8. Amazon.de

Excellent speed Amazon.de – 50.60ms. Using two DNS providers again – Neustar and Dyn. No sign of Route53 though. Interesting.

9. Amazon.co.uk

Good job Amazon.co.uk. – the best global speed of the top 10 websites – 45ms. Using ten name servers and two DNS providers again – Neustar and Dyn. This is a recipe for success. Still no sign of Route53 though.

10. Amazon.co.jp

Two DNS providers again – Neustar and Dyn and good average response – 76.06ms.

11. eBay.co.uk

Using Verisign as their Primary DNS provider and Dyn as a Secondary DNS as eBay.com. Good overall speed.

12. Walmart.com

The whopping amount of 12 name servers. Not the fastest global speed, but since the majority of their audience is coming from the US, the result is excellent. Using two DNS providers, Akamai and Neustar UltraDNS. Some say that they got in the online business too late, but they are sure fast learners and understand that speed and security is the only way to compare to Amazon.

13. Avito.ru

According to SimilarWeb, the majority of their traffic is coming from Russia, Ukraine and the rest of the CIS countries. Wow, 2.17ms. Global speed and maybe we have a winner. They are using Cloudflare and no secondary DNS provider. Fast speed on all 6 test POPs. We can’t say much, except that they are doing an excellent job. Only if they had backup DNS, it would have been the perfect example.

14. Mercadolivre.com.br

Latin America’s most popular e-commerce website. According to Similarweb 98% of the Mercadolivre.com.br traffic is coming from Brazil. No DNS providers, The speed is not good even in Brazil – above 100ms.

15. Amazon.in

Around 10% of their traffic is international, so it’s good for them to have good global speed. And they do. Using Dyn and UltraDNS, they achieve excellent speed – 68.96ms, except South Africa.

16. Rakuten.co.jp

No DNS providers = slow global speed. Not much to say here. Guess they don’t rely on revenues outside Japan.

17. Allegro.pl

Again no DNS providers = slow average response. Yes, you’ll say they don’t need it because they are targeting mostly users in Poland, but what about the searches outside PL. Around 5% of their traffic is coming outside Poland. And what about DDoS protection and backup?

18. eBay.de

As the other eBay domains, this one is also using Verisign as their Primary DNS provider and Dyn as a Secondary DNS. Good overall response – 70.92ms.

19. Amazon.fr

Around 20% of the traffic comes outside of France, so it’s good to have at least reasonable EU speed. And they do. Using Dyn and UltraDNS, they achieve excellent global speed, except South Africa.

20. Аmazon.it

Amazon surely knows how important is speed and to have a backup. So far they are using the same recipe for success – two DNS providers – Dyn and UltraDNS.

21. Leboncoin.fr

The French classified site. Good speed in France, slow speed globally. No sign of DNS providers. If anyone from Leboncoin is reading, please protect your revenue and your users and set up a backup DNS.

22. 58.com

Like all other Chinese e-commerce sites, they also have terrible global speed – 357.49ms and don’t use Managed DNS provider.

23. Target.com

Using Akamai which is good, but no Secondary DNS provider. Excellent speed in the US and Europe. Overall good – below 100ms.

24. Etsy.com

One of our personal favorites. Let’s see how they perform the test. Using AWS and Dyn. Nice to know that someone is using Route 53 after we found out that the Amazon doesn’t. Good speed everywhere except South Africa – 51.06ms.

25. Bestbuy.com

Using Akamai but no Secondary DNS provider. Good speed in the US and Europe. Low speed in Australia, Brazil, and South Africa. For reference, bestbuy.com.mx also doesn’t have good speed in Brazil.

26. Amazon.es

The Spanish domain of Amazon also has good global speed – 69.31ms and again uses two Managed DNS providers – UltraDNS and Dyn.

27. Sahibinden.com

The most prominent Turkish online store. They are using five nameservers, and 1 of them is not responding. Terrible global speed – 631.28 and no DNS providers (we checked the website few times, and the servers were not responding, and the speed was over 500ms each time).

28. Flipkart.com

The Indian e-commerce giant. They use Neustar. Excellent average speed. No Secondary DNS.

29. Ikea.com

The Scandinavian furniture manufacturer uses no DNS providers for its online shop. Good speed at our French POP and not so good globally.

30. Gearbest.com

A genuinely international website with traffic from all over the globe. Using Akamai, but the global speed is above 100ms. Highest response time in Brazil, which is interesting since according to Similarweb 18% of their traffic is coming from this country.

31. Mercadolibre.com.ar

Argentina’s most famous e-commerce store. No DNS providers, The speed is not good even in Brazil – above 100ms.

32. OLX.pl

Another Polish e-commerce site. They are using Amazon Route 53. Excellent speed in Europe. No Secondary DNS, no backup.

33. eBay-Kleinanzeigen.de

Good response according to our France POP, poor global speed – 176.19ms. No DNS provider is detected.

34. Mi.com

The international online portal of Xiaomi – the smartphone manufacturer. The average response time of the name servers is terrible – 367.21ms. They don’t use DNS providers, and respectively their bounce rate is high.

35. Amazon.ca

Good job also for Amazon.ca. Using two DNS providers again – Neustar and Dyn. The technical guys from Amazon understand the importance of using DNS provider. The last of the Amazon properties on our list and still none of them are using Route 53. Can we say according to this that the Dyn and Neustar DNS networks are better than the Route 53’s… Don’t know; we leave the presumptions to you.

36. OLX.ua

As the rest of the OLX properties, they are using Amazon Route 53. Excellent speed in Europe. No Secondary DNS, no backup.

37. Wish.com

Using the services of Amazon Route 53. Good overall global speed – 61.72ms, except South Africa – above 150ms.

38. HM.com

The international shopping site of the H&M brand. Good speed in EU and US, poor in Brazil and Singapore. Maybe they don’t rely so much on sales in South America and Asia. They are using Akamai, but no secondary DNS provider.

39. Mercadolibre.com.mx

Another site from the Argentinian giant. Hope this one performs better, let’s see. Good speed in the US, poor everywhere else, even in Brazil. Average response time is 143.79ms. No sign of DNS provider and backup DNS.

40. HomeDepot.com

Good speed in the US, which is good, since they are relying heavily on US consumers. Fear global speed – 102.44. If you look at the spreadsheet and the report you’ll see that they are also using Akamai.

41. Market.yandex.ru

The marketplace of Yandex – the Russian bear. They are using their DNS, which gives excellent speed in Europe, but very poor globally – 178.63ms. We’re guessing global presence is not essential for them. The bear won’t leave Russia with this speed.

42. Americanas.com.br

Good overall speed, except in South Africa, but with 99% of the traffic coming from Brazil, that is logical. Using Route 53 but unfortunately no Secondary DNS provider.

43. Alibaba.com

Like all tested so far Alibaba properties, Alibaba.com is not an exception. Poor global speed – 256.2ms, especially in Australia, South Africa, and Singapore. No Secondary DNS provider. Bounce rate is high respectively – 46.31%.

44. Sonymobile.com

The international platform of Sony Mobile is in 44th place. Using Route 53 but no backup DNS provider. Guess Sony didn’t learn the lessons from the frequent DDoS attacks they received on their PlayStation Network.

45. DMM.com

The Japan-based electronic commerce and Internet company is next. They are using ten name servers, 6 of which are from Akamai, but global speed is not high.

46. OLX.com.br

As the rest of the Argentinian classified giant OLX properties, com.br is also using Amazon Route 53. Good speed almost everywhere except South Africa. No backup DNS.

47. Macys.com

Macys are using Akamai also. Good speed in Europe and US, poor in Brazil. Average response time – 128.06ms. No secondary DNS.

48. Suning.com

Sunning is one of the largest retailers in China. Almost two years ago Alibaba bought shares in the company, so let’s see if they are using AliDNS or not. And the answer is no. Poor speed almost everywhere except Singapore. No primary and backup DNS provider, which corresponds to the highest bounce rate of all e-commerce websites so far – above 70%. That’s millions of dollars lost according to everybody’s calculations.

49. Kohls.com

As the rest of the websites using Akamai network, the site of the American department store retailing chain has good speed; only Brazil is lagging. But since 98% of their traffic is coming from the US they can live with it. The lack of back DNS is not good though.

50. Asos.com

The British online fashion and beauty store comes last in our report. They have lots of international traffic, only 25% of the traffic comes from the UK, the rest is all over the globe. They have eight name servers, using Dyn and Secondary DNS provider. Excellent global speed, except in South Africa.

Conclusion

According to our research majority of the big brands still didn’t learn the lesson from the 2016 Dyn DDoS attack, where huge sites were down for hours. 70% of the sites in this case study don’t have backup DNS. Not setting up a backup DNS or at least using a single DNS provider, leaves you open for DDoS attacks and respectively revenue losses. The question is not if it’ll happen but when.

Winner global top speed is Avito.ru with an average response time of 2.17ms.

The average amount of name servers per site is five, and the average DNS lookup speed of all 50 websites is 146.63ms.

We can draw a parallel between the response time of the websites and their bounce rate, as 89% of the sites with bounce rate above 40% had also lousy speed (see red fields in the spreadsheet).

And finally a recommendation for all other e-commerce sites – if you want to fight the big boys and win, you need to invest in your site speed and DNS. Make sure you are using not one but two DNS providers. You will be surprised at how little money you can get a good night’s sleep.

The post A case study of the top 50 e-commerce sites and their DNS appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.