How to avoid DNS downtime

When your domain is down, your business is down.

Review this 5-Step Checklist now — before an emergency happens.

This checklist will help you increase performance, mitigate risks, and most importantly, reduce your DNS downtime. 🏆

Name Servers Does your domain use more than two name servers?

Your name servers are responsible for handling every request for your domain. If one of your name servers goes offline, the remaining servers will pick up the slack. At DNSimple, we recommend using all four of our name servers.

DNSimple offers 4 name servers out-of-the-box.

IPV6 Support Do your name servers support IPv6?

For various reasons, many newer clients prefer to use IPv6 (instead of IPv4). If your name servers don't support IPv6, you could be missing out on some traffic. Furthermore, it's beneficial to set corresponding AAAA records for each of your A records.

Learn how to add your AAAA records.

SOA Records Do you have an SOA record?

Every domain must have a Start of Authority record at the cutover point where the domain is delegated from its parent domain.

If you use DNSimple, we add the SOA record automatically for you.

DDOS Is your DNS provider prepared to deal with a DDOS attack?

As distributed denial-of-service attacks become more prevalent, it's important that your DNS provider is prepared for the worst. In most cases, it is not possible for us to detect if this layer of protection is in place. If you're your own provider, hopefully you've set up DNSimple as Secondary DNS server.

DNSimple offers DDOS protection automatically for all our customers.

Secondary DNS Does your domain have a Secondary DNS provider?

Name servers from multiple providers can communicate to each other through the AXFR protocol, commonly referred to as Secondary DNS. If the name servers from one of your providers fail, your secondary name servers can step in and carry the load.

You can set up DNSimple alongside other providers such as Godaddy, Gandi, or Route53. We're happy to be configured as your Primary or Secondary DNS provider.

Add Secondary DNS to your domain

**With DNSimple, you can make DNS downtime history.**

If you have questions about items in the checklist, or you'd like a personalized DNS-uptime review of your domain, drop us a line.

🏆 My DNS is downtime-proof – thanks for the checklist @dnsimple ! #avoiddnsdowntime

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How to avoid DNS downtime

When your domain is down, your business is down.

Review this 5-Step Checklist now — before an emergency happens.

**With DNSimple, you can make DNS downtime history.**