Author: Martin Pramatarov

DDoS attacks and how to protect ourselves

Martin Pramatarov / / DNS

DDoS Attacks are widespread threats on the internet. With the continually increasing numbers of connected devices and new innovative ways of hacking them, we can’t just stay and wait to get affected. We should smartly implement our DNS infrastructure and choose a trusted DNS provider to be safe and to evade the downtime of our services.
But to be protected, we must know the danger.

DDoS attack

DDoS attack (denial-of-service attack). There are few different types, but in general, a DDoS attack is an attempt to overwhelm the target (a computer, few connected computers or a whole DNS network) with high traffic from multiple sources.

DDoS attack and information security expert

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What is backup DNS?

Martin Pramatarov / / DNS

DNS is the backbone of the internet. It connects all the users to the content they need. It is a constant exchange of information, but sometimes the DNS fails and this cause downtime. A blackout period that can be evaded by using a backup DNS.

Backup DNS

Backup DNS, also known as Secondary DNS or alternative DNS is a system of one or more DNS servers, who have a copy of the zone data (DNS records) of the Master (Primary) DNS server. It adds resilience, reduce the outage periods by answering requests even if the Master is down.

It is easy to set up, and it can save you tons of problems. If your Master DNS got damaged and lost the information, you would still have a copy in your Backup DNS.

backup DNS

 

What is the worst that can happen? Dyn DNS attack of 2016

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What is a DNS zone? Master and Slave DNS zone and how to create it

Martin Pramatarov / / DNS

Do you know the difference between a Master (Primary) and a Slave (Secondary) DNS zone?

 

DNS zone

 

What is a DNS zone

First, let us explain what a DNS zone is. DNS zone is a container of DNS settings and DNS records of a DNS namespace. The DNS namespace can have single or multiple DNS zones, each managed by a particular DNS host/service. This division helps for the administrative purposes. It is like an enormous pie, each piece of it allows better separation of the administrative load and helps with redundancy.

Don’t directly associate a DNS zone with a specific domain. A DNS zone may contain multiple domain names or a single one; the important thing is that it is used for controlling a fraction of the namespace. DNS zones can be on the same servers too.

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What is Sender Policy Framework, and how to setup SPF record?

Martin Pramatarov / / DNS

Have you ever received complaining messages from your users about emails sent to them from your email server, without your knowledge? Or maybe the emails you are sending are going directly to the users’ SPAM inbox?

Problems like these can seriously affect your business. Your clients can get phished and send their private information to a fake address which is pretending to be you. This can damage your reputation and can lead to different bans for you.

SPF record - preventing spam

If you have such problems, then you need a Sender Policy Framework (SPF) to prevent spoofing and improve the reliability of your e-mail server. It is a validation system that verifies the legitimacy of your email server.

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8 DNS tools for testing your servers

Martin Pramatarov / / DNS

You are already a DNS user, and your server or website works great when you visit it from your computer. But that is not enough. You want to be sure that the DNS works great all around the world. For example, your primary server is in the US, but you want to see if there is not too much latency in Singapore, what should you do? Or you want to compare with your rivals, to know which is their provider and how well is it performing? There are many DNS tools that you can easily use for free, to check your DNS servers and to see if everything is working well. Each of these tools has slightly different functionality, just follow us, and we will explain to you what are they good for.

DNS check

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What is Anycast DNS and how does it work?

Martin Pramatarov / / DNS

For many years already, the Unicast protocol has been outdated for the purpose of fast and secure DNS. It can’t manage with massive DDoS attacks, can’t handle load balancing in different locations, and it is quite slow for a global presence. But don’t get desperate, a new technology is there to help you out.

So what can you use to provide fast and reliable DNS?

Anycast DNS is here to step in. It is by far superior technology! It reduces latency, give extra security and minimize downtime.

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What is Secondary DNS?

Martin Pramatarov / / DNS

We have already talked what is a DNS server or name server as it is also known. It is a complicated system that translates what we write (the domain name and address of a website that we desire) to IP addresses that computers and servers can understand.

Any DNS can be programmed to be primary (master) or secondary (slave), depends on the needs of the system as a whole. You can even have a primary DNS server that is secondary for another zone.

So what is the difference?

The hierarchy. The primary is the main one, and the secondary gets the DNS records from the primary. There are few different configurations of connecting the secondary that we would show you in a bit, but first, we want to explain to you why you need a secondary DNS.
If it does the same, why do you need it?

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What is Dynamic DNS? How does it work and how to setup DDNS?

Martin Pramatarov / / DNS

What is a Dynamic DNS?

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

Dynamic DNS

 

How does Dynamic DNS work?

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

Why is it useful?

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

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DNS best practices

Martin Pramatarov / / DNS

You cannot imagine the internet without DNS. There is almost no service that doesn’t depend on DNS technology. E-mails, VoIP, web services, all kind of CRM and ERP systems and much more. DNS is so important that we must take care of our network and make it as secure as possible.

Here we will show you some good practices to manage your DNS. Prevention is the best defense. Pay attention to these pieces of advice and take action.

dns best practice

Hide the master DNS

Configure the master DNS as a hidden. Like this, it will not be shown in the records of the name server. It will not appear, and it will not respond to any queries. Its purpose will be to give zone transfers to secondary name servers which will be public but doing it safely and hidden.

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What are 301 and 302 redirects and how to use them?

Martin Pramatarov / / DNS, Web forwarding

Imagine, after a long time, you need to open a bookmark that you have more than a few years already. You try to open it, and…suddenly you see an error – “404 Page not found”. The page you were looking for has gone without a trace, maybe the whole website is missing, or maybe it was just a small change of the URL, but you will probably never know.

This is your first touch with an HTTP status codes, and specifically with 400-type. There are different status code types: 1XX Information responses, 2XX Success, 3XX Redirection, 4XX client errors and 5XX server errors.

You know the owner of the website could have evaded this error with a straightforward action – use a redirection!

Put yourself in the owner’s shoes and let’s see how to avoid such problems.

There are two redirection methods which are mostly used – 301 (moved permanently) and 302 (moved temporarily). Continue reading “What are 301 and 302 redirects and how to use them?”