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I've been a corporate internal programmer for most of my career and the world of hosting, DNS, etc. is very new to me. I appreciate your patience.

I'm now working for a much smaller ecommerce company, and we are close to rolling out our website to the internet space...I've been tasked with Domain Registrar, DNS Provider, hosting etc.

I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations or input to the strategy I was most favouring?

I'm leaning towards a 3 prong type solution of:

  • keeping my registrar as GoDaddy

  • DNS provider of DynDNS / Dynect or DNS MadeEasy

  • dedicated server with Peer 1 or Crystaltech

I could really use some advice on the following:

  • any comments, recommendations, criticisms on this approach?

  • assuming I chose DynDNS as my DNS provider, are there any advantages to having them be my registrar as well(instead of GoDaddy)?
    Since GoDaddy is a cheaper, I'm not seeeing any other advantage other than maybe saving a little time by keeping all in one place.

3 Answers3

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An important factor is what your requirements for the DNS service are. Specifically, I think support for DNS NOTIFY is essential in case you host your own primary DNS service. But, when you host your primary with the third party, they sometimes also restrict the frequency of updates. This is something that will bite you in the future.

For DNS, availability is also vital. So make sure the DNS provider you choose has name servers in different geographical areas, in different networks.

Regarding the dedicated server: I have become a strong proponent of using virtual private servers. The performance is more than good enough, and you get nice features like easy upgrades and downgrades (often paid per day), backups, cloning of servers, etc. I personally have excellent experiences with both slicehost and linode. Select carefully though - there's a lot of horrible providers as well.

As you're already planning to have your own server, you can also set up your own primary name server and have only secondary DNS run elsewhere. The advantage of this is that you get unlimited freedom regarding what you put in your zone. In some cases, the options you get when hosting primary DNS with a third party are restricted.

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Other than pricing, one registrar is more or less as useful as any other. It may be easier to host the DNS through them, but choose one that is already well scaled. The two you mention seem good in that aspect. Rather than getting two bills, and two points of failure, perhaps just one is a good justification for letting your registrar do the work.

the hosting companies you listed for "dedicated server" -- I have no knowledge about.

Michael Graff
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if I may chime in here for people watching this in the future the difference in quality of using a company like Dyn verse Go Daddy is night and day.

To answer this question directly yes it matters quite a bit where you host your registered domain not because you're necessarily going to use the name servers that that particular registrar offers but you want security and availability like DNS key's companies such as Dyn & PairNIC our outstanding examples of registrars that may charge slightly more however offer much more in return. Each knows what it's doing and each will be a better opportunity for anyone if something goes wrong which it's very possible that it can happen more on the DNS and then the registrar however each are equally as important.

For the record Peer1 offers a quality any cast DNS system which I would utilize for a secondary DNS I would not compare it to DynECT when talking about the ability or quality however it's free for any user of Peer1 and they do have some fantastic managed servers so you know server Beach is part of Peer1 and you will receive the same DNS if you use their purely dedicated server offerings.

If I may make a suggestion as well fire host is probably the best out there they also will sell you DynECT for $10 a domain and unheard-of good price that anyone in their right mind should take if offered. I utilize their services along with edge cast CDN sold through fire host keep in mind even though it is one company they are doing the smart thing and offering three services from different corporations all the best in their field under one bill.

If the money is not an issue I strongly suggest checking out fire host they have never let me down.

I will shut up soon I promise but if I had to pick a second DNS Corporation it would be ultra or VeriSign however if money is an issue in DNS made easy is by far the best value on the market.

Tom
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