dns Archive

Google Public DNS is Here – The Faster way to browse website.

By
Shashi Kant Pandidhar
 – March 17, 2010Posted in: News
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You must have come across a situation where you are not able to open a website at your PC but your friend at other side of globe or a person who is using different ISP could visit the website without any issue.

This is mainly happening due to DNS related issue. Now what is DNS ?

Technically : “ The Domain Name System [DNS] is a distributed database, arranged hierarchically, containing records for domain names. The DNS system’s main aim is to match a domain name to an IP Address. In order to fulfill this role, the DNS Server contains Records [called Resource Records] in a Zone File, which contains the domain name and IP address mappings for computers contained within that Zone. All Resource Records have a TTL [Time To Live], specifying the number of seconds other DNS servers and applications are allowed to cache the Record.

In LayMan Terms : It’s a BIG library which keep a record of Domain Name and IP assigned to it. Still confuse ?? Read this >>

 

Now you can use Google Public DNS service (which is off-curse FREE) to avoid DNS related issue above you also increase website loading time using this service.

Excited ?? now it’s time to start using this service.

Download Google DNS Helper is a small utility coded in .NET using C#. It backs up your current DNS server address and then changes it to Google’s DNS. You can restore your old DNS anytime you want. As simple as that! You can find the download link below.

GoogleDNSHelper

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DNS not working for a domain in a plesk panel (Windows)

By
Shashi Kant Pandidhar
 – January 27, 2010Posted in: Windows Dedicated Server
DNS not working for a domain in a plesk panel (Windows)

Symptom:
When you are in dedicated Box of windows and using a plesk and you are getting a page not found for a domain name while other domains are working fine in a same box.
All the setting you think are fine and even name server are pointing well then there is a chance of DNS misconfig.

Resolution: Editing the Plesk DNS zone database

When the DNS zone for a domain is managed via Plesk, the status for this domain in the dns_zone table of the database is temporarily set to a value of 2 (to lock it for any further changes) and is then set back to a value of 0 value when the changes are processed. If for some reason the process is interrupted (Plesk restarts for example) the status field value may not get changed back to 0 and stays as 2. Therefore any changes are no longer recorded until the status is changed back to 0.

Please note: to isolate database issues with Plesk and your own web services (MySQL or MS SQL), we recommend and setup Plesk to use MS Access databases. If you have setup Plesk to use MySQL or MS SQL databases you will need to use your preferred database viewer to find the necessary DNS zone table. You can view MS SQL instructions below.

  1. To view and edit the Plesk DNS zone database you will need to use an MS Access database viewer such as MDBPlus, and then open up the pleskmain.db located at:

    C:\Program Files (x86)\Parallels\Plesk\admin\db – Note: password is the same as Plesk admin login.

  2. Check dns_zone records for the problem domain’s entry (domain.com for example):
    1. if there are multiple entries for the same domain; remove the entry that has the incorrect setting of 2;
    2. if there is only one entry for the domain, adjust the value in the “status” column from 2 back to 0.
  3. Save the database.
  4. Go back into Plesk and navigate to the DNS zone settings tab for the affected domain.
  5. Select “Restore Defaults” to rebuild the appropriate entries for the domain

You should now be able to resolve the domain correctly.

For Plesk installations setup to use MS SQL as the default Plesk database:

  1. Login via MSSQL Server Management Studio Express or your preferred MS SQL management tool.
  2. Expand the Plesk database.
  3. Expand the “tables” section.
  4. Scroll down to “dbo.dns_zone“, right-click on this and choose “open table”
  5. Delete or modify the erroneous entry as in Step 2. above.

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