24Got an email from David Ulevitch on 12 Jan to all the current EveryDNS subscribers that Dyn Inc has acquired EveryDNS. In the acquisition FAQ,
3) Will the service remain free?
While we don’t 100% have the answer to that yet, we will not be making any changes to the service you are currently receiving for the foreseeable future. We will be discontinuing signups in the near future but existing accounts will remain active and fully functional.
Looks like the reality is slightly different. Just got another email from Dyn Inc with regarding to the transition.
First off, anyone who has donated to David and EveryDNS since 2001 will be grandfathered into free Custom DNS hosting with DynDNS.com…
So not everyone will be migrated but those who donated. Well I did donate and got unlimited domains + unlimited records from EveryDNS (although I only have ~10 domains there). The Custom DNS hosting offer is valued at $30/year so that’s the saving a previous donator. However that’s only for 1 zone.
I have to say that DynDNS has pretty good reputation in hosted DNS space, and having 100% DNS availability is arguable even more important than your having your web servers online all the time. Still a hefty price to pay though. With EditDNS going to pay model, EveryDNS migrating to DynDNS and lots of issues with ZoneEdit. Which other free DNS provider would you put your trust on?
I am an everydns user but never donated and from the email I got today it is not sure what will happen. If I donate today does that mean I will get the free Custom DNS hosting? I wonder too, what are other alternatives? I only manage 2 domains and it is a bit of a set and forget service for which I don’t really want to pay.
Thankfully for that last year I’ve slowly been moving to dnsmadeeasy, the cheapest dns provider I could find. Horrendous web interface, but it’s cheap and has more record options than everdns. Still sad to see them go.
With free DNS providers coming and going, and considering how critical DNS is, I think that the best solution is to rent 2 or 3 cheap geographically dispersed VPS and set up your own authoritative DNS servers.
For freebies I’ve had varying levels of service from these two:
http://freedns.afraid.org
http://xname.org/
For a paid service:
https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/services/pricing
Not too bad either.
Are the days of free services going out the window? It would be nice to be able to give free stuff to the “community”, however these days spammers and script kiddies tend to make life a bit harder.
@ Sebastiano — paid DNS hosting is still an option if you are not after complete control. DynDNS is a reputable despite expensive option. I use DNSMadeEasy and have been pretty happy with it (except the fact that it lacks API access).
Still thinking where to go, probably DNSMadeEasy too, that’s the cheapest so far, though only for 3 domains. While I’ve been using dyn for years as domain registrar and it’s dynamic dns service, USD30 for just one zone a year is just too expensive.
I thought I have donate before but when checked back, still haven’t. Sad, sad. It run so smoothly that I just forgot about it.
@Joseph — I think you are right. Judging by the number DDoS that EveryDNS has received over the last couple of years, the free service has certainly been abused by the undesirables.
To answer GCL’s question, we will honor all donators with lifetime free service. We definitely appreciate the feedback that’s coming to us and that we’re seeing on forums like this.
Chris Widner
DynDNS Ninja Squad
Hi DynDNS Ninja :) Does that mean that if I donate now that I will still be eligible? I only manage one domain.
Anyone heard of these: http://freedns.afraid.org/
@Geert Yes I’ve used afraid, they are mostly ok, few little hits from time to time when they get a DDOS, but otherwise ok.
As an aside, anyone have any thoughts on using DNS provided by registrars?
I’ve always steered clear of it, but I don’t have any hard facts to say don’t do it.
Hi Geert,
If you donate now, we will still honor that donation along with the ones done before we acquired EveryDNS.
@Chris
I paid years ago to Everydns. What I am wondering though is will I be able to continue adding domains for free once we move to dyn, or will all new ones incur a $30 charge?
As for unlimited free domains, that’s something we’re trying to work out. Currently we’re not sure which direction we’re going there.
I was looking at the options in DNS hosting a while ago, having just a few domains, and didn’t like most of the offers. In all I missed one or more of: support for NOTIFY, support for DNSSEC and support for IPv6.
(If I remember correctly, EveryDNS actually missed all three.)
Therefore, I recently started Solid DNS ( http://www.soliddns.net/ ). Only secondary DNS is available for now, but most among us that have their own domain name, already have a server where they could set up primary DNS.
For the next two weeks, anyone signing up with the coupon code HOSTINGFU42 will receive a permanent 10% discount on their account :-)
DNSMadeEasy is great and very inexpensive. Namecheap also offers free DNS (fairly basic but it’s been rock solid and free).
I’m an EveryDNS donator and recently tried to add a couple of new domains using EveryDNS as secondary. So far these new domains have not performed an AXFR from the primary nameservers and therefore have not responded to queries as authoritive nameservers. I’ve lodged a query about this with DynDNS and EveryDNS and have not had a response as yet. I’m going to submit another request about this problem. Luckily for me I do have access to a couple of nameservers within my hosting provider so all is not lost but I would prefer to have the EveryDNS setup I’m used to to spread the query load and as failover.
Here’s hoping that second query will be responded to and either I’ll get an answer to why the new domains are not initiating an AXFR or it’ll get fixed up.
Hi VRAMM,
You’ll want to continue contacting EveryDNS support regarding this. The DynDNS team does not have access to the EveryDNS infrastructure yet. I’ll pass the word along that you’re not getting a response to your inquiry, however.
just get a small cheap vps and setup primary dns. (nsd might run well on 64meg vps)
then use any other (afraid.org?) for secondaries.
you can opt not to list your primary dns so that the cheap vps wont get heavy load
Just stumbled across http://www.zerigo.com …. free for 3 domains/30 hosts (about 2 google apps domains)
Any comments about http://www.public-dns.org?
Thanks for all persons. I am look at DYNDNS Custom DNS service coupon.
Help me any one?
I am also on everydns but has not donated anything. I want to know if i donate now, will i become eligible? I like everydns. It’s really sad that they are shutting down.
Regards
Larry Hill
We’re still honoring donations, so if you donate now, you’ll be eligible.