Choosing the best managed dns services provider for multiple domain name hosting

Choosing the best managed DNS services provider for multiple domain name hosting is surely a task that needs a lot of research as your companies name is at stake. Or, if you are the person responsible for suggesting the DNS service provider, then your job itself might be at stake.

DNS stands for Domain Name system. It is used to translate domain names to IP addresses. DNS is similar to a phone book that translates easily understandable host names in to the IP addresses.

When you type www.anyname.com in your browser, the operating system searches for any cached date in the browser so as to know the IP address . If it is stored in the browser then the process of finding the IP address will stop here.

Or else the operating system will direct the query to the Resolving Name Server . Resolving Name Server knows the Root Name Server (RNS). It will direct the query to RNS. Root is the part that comes after the dot in the domain name. RNS will direct to top level domain server . TLD (Top Level Domain) in our example is .com. Other TLD are .org, .edu. etc..

TLD server will find the Domain Name Server (DNS) and tell the RNS. DNS will retreive the IP address and pass it to the RNS.

One important thing is to know whether it is really needed for you or not. Once you are ready with the answer as 'Yes', then look for these basic pointers :

• The age of the service. This helps to calculate the credibility of the service provider.
  

• The companies it serves. Are they serving companies of your size effectively.
  

• Whether they can handle massive amounts of DNS requests.

• Whether they gives low down-time and high up-time. Do not expect 100% up-time. Very near to 100% is good.
• Cost of the service. Whether they give a Return on investment on par with your expectation and do they provide the ability to expand with bulk rates in future.
  
• Whether they have adequate security features against phishing, malware, spyware, excessive advertising, etc.
• Whether they are capable of giving constant uninterrupted support.
• Whether they serve the locations you have presence. This matters as performance depends on his criteria.In today's congested internet traffic, you can’t expect your website to perform well if you require a user in Europe to resolve the DNS in the US and vice versa.
• Whether they have easy training material so that even a new-bie can understand easily.
  

Below are few suggestions to look out for based on Reliability, Manageability, Security and Performance.

• DNS MADE EASY

A global managed DNS provider for both primary and secondary DNS.

• DYNECT
  

They are spread across Europe, US and Asia. They currently serve about a dozen TLD’s, over 2 million users, and handle about 1 billion queries a day.

• NEUSTAR - ULTRADNS
  

It is a leader among globally managed DNS providers. It handles around 25% of the online authoritative DNS traffic that includes around 30 Top Level Domain’s.

• NETICA

Managed DNS provider supporting primary, secondary, and dynamic DNS through 5 globally distributed name servers.

• OPENDNS

They give a recursive DNS network (free).

• EVERYDNS

A Dynect owned service. It is a free DNS provider having servers in the U S and the Netherlands.

• ZONEEDIT

Provides different service level agreements. They have servers mainly in U S with add on services.

I hope you got a fair idea about choosing the best managed DNS services provider for your multiple domain name hosting. It is a very important decision and you need to research properly. You can get good information from colleagues from other industries and even magazines. I have tried to make your reading and understanding of DNS, domain name hosting and other concepts a pleasurable experience. If you have any thing to share, you can do it below, in the 'your views' box