March 29, 2024
DNS

GeoDNS: Meaning & Advantages

First congrats. If you are googling GeoDNS, you are just one step away from giving excellent service to your clients. Let’s explore in detail what GeoDNS is and what its advantages are.

What does GeoDNS mean?

GeoDNS service is a premium DNS service that includes GeoDNS servers. These servers can check the DNS query of the clients. See their IP address, and based on the IP tables they use, they can redirect the clients to the closest web servers near them. The GeoDNS servers can do it by having multiple A or AAAA records and providing the right one that best suits the client’s query.

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DNS

DNS resolution explained

How is it possible that we never learn a single IP address of a site, yet we can browse the Internet without any problems? What magical process transforms simple-to-write domain names into IP addresses and makes it so easy for us humans? It is called DNS resolution!

What is the DNS resolution?

DNS resolution is the process that DNS uses to resolve domain names to their IP addresses. It starts with a simple client’s DNS query for a domain name that later goes through a DNS recursive resolver, different DNS servers on different levels (Root, TLD, and authoritative servers) and brings back the IP address of the domain in the form of an A or AAAA record.

What to do if DNS resolution is not working?

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Reverse DNS: Everything you need to know

Reverse DNS – what does it mean?

Reverse DNS, or simply rDNS, is a mechanism for translating an IP address into its matching domain name. Compared to the standard Forward DNS lookup, which resolves the domain name to its IP address, it serves the exact opposite purpose.

You can use it to establish that a specific IP address corresponds to a particular domain name. One of the most common reasons for using it is establishing trust in email servers. They use Reverse DNS lookups to make sure the email came from a legitimate source and isn’t a hoax.

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DNS

Most popular DNS commands

These DNS commands are well-known for their great functionality and are also frequently applied for DNS troubleshooting. The reason for that is they are simple and easy to use. You are able to check essential information about your DNS records and what is the condition of your network. Moreover, it doesn’t matter what Operating System (OS) you are using, Windows, macOS, or Linux. You already have several commands pre-build in your OS. Therefore, let’s clarify which are the most popular DNS commands and explain a little bit more about them.

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DNS

DNSSEC – why is it important?

DNS, by default it is not safe. Its purpose is to be able to provide a decentralized model for domain resolution and to do it fast because there are billions of people online always. Yes, the focus of the DNS is not safety. But there is a strong need for it, so here comes the DNSSEC. The DNSSEC is the security extension that gives us a good level of protection.

What is DNSSEC?

DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions) is an extension, on top of the DNS, that encrypts the DNS records that we use to communicate with the name servers. That way, even if somebody intercepts those DNS records, they will be encrypted and unreadable to them. So the cybercriminals will be with pointless random text in their hands.

DNSSEC provides security to the DNS in a simple and effective way.

Learn more about the DNSSEC service!

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DNS AAAA record explained

The DNS AAAA record is one of the essential Domain Name System records. It works with the IPv6 address. Let’s explain a little bit more about it.

What is the DNS AAAA record?

The DNS AAAA record is a DNS resource record. It has the main purpose of linking a domain name with the IP address, which it corresponds to. This is a process that happens every time a domain name is requested for the site to be accessible. The browser will be incapable of finding the IP addresses successfully for the requested domain names. For users will be impossible to reach your website without help from the AAAA record.

How to check the AAAA record?

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What is a Recursive DNS server?

If it’s about the domain name system (DNS), there is a lot to be said. It’s not simple stuff. A lot of processes and components are meshing to make the big system work efficiently.

When you dig behind everything needed for the Internet to run, every click gets a very different dimension. It’s not just a finger-clicking but whole machinery moving to get your website for the potential clients that request it.

Domain name system (DNS) is what makes possible that simplicity for users. But for the magic to happen, different elements are a must, like recursive DNS servers.

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DNS CAA record meaning

The DNS records are the instructions that clients and servers are searching for a particular domain. The common ones are the A records for a domain name to IP address resolution, the CNAME for redirecting subdomain to the domain name, MX for incoming mail servers, etc. But the DNS CAA record is not so well-known, so now we will explain it to you.

What is a DNS CAA record?

The DNS CAA record (Certification Authority Authorization) is a record that the DNS administrator of a domain can add to clarify which Certificate Authorities (CAs) can issue SSL or TLS certificates for the particular domain. The CA are external organizations that you, as a domain owner, can choose to issue cryptographic certificates like SSL or TLS for your domain name.

The cryptographic certificate is used to validate the domain owner and to encrypt the communication with that domain. That way, it protects sensitive data.

With the CAA, the domain owner will have improved control over the process of issuing certificates. He or she can clearly state who is permitted to issue certificates and lower the number of miss-issued certificated for that domain. The CAA record can be used for the whole domain, or chosen subdomains only, depending on how you set it up.

One common requirement for using CAA records is to first enable DNSSEC. That is required for better security and trust from the side of the CA.

How to add a CAA record?

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ALIAS record vs CNAME record

Let’s compare these two DNS record types that have a similar purpose. Both redirect from one hostname to another, but they have more than a few differences in between. Let’s see what exactly distinguishes the ALIAS record and the CNAME record.

What is the ALIAS record?

ALIAS record links two hostnames, showing that one is just another way to write the other. It is not a standard DNS record type, and not all of the Managed DNS providers offer it. This record type can coexist with other DNS records, for example, MX records. A great thing about the ALIAS records is that they will save time and not only show the other hostname, but an ALIAS query will return the IP address. The only problem with ALIAS that might lead you to CNAME records is that it doesn’t work well with GeoDNS because it will show the IP address of the name server and won’t redirect to the best location. 

Why do you need an ALIAS record?

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What is ICANN?

ICANN is short of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. It is a non-profit organization that manages and maintains different databases related to namespaces and number spaces on the Internet.

In really short: ICANN coordinates the use of domain names and IP addresses so that the Internet, as we know it, can function without conflicts. Thanks to it, you can’t have two people who have the same domain name or two computers with the same IP address.

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