09 Jul 2010 - Simple DNS Plus v. 5.2 build 117 released / Problem resolving WebMD.com
Simple DNS Plus v. 5.2 build 117 is now available at http://www.simpledns.com/download.aspx
For more details on the updates and changes in this build, please see release notes.
Over the last few days, several users have reported not being able to resolve www.webmd.com.
The problem is an erroneous response (details below) from the DNS servers hosting the domain name.
We have contacted WebMD.com and their DNS provider (UltraDNS) about this and anticipate that they will fix the problem shortly.
However since WebMD.com is a very popular web-site (and UltraDNS is one of the larger DNS providers), we felt it was best to provide a quick workaround with above update to Simple DNS Plus.
When we do a lookup for www.webmd.com against one of the authoritative DNS servers (for example "pdns1.ultradns.net"), we get a response with a CNAME-record (alias) pointing to www.phx1.webmd.com and a SOA-record in the authority section:
The standard (RFC) interpretation of this SOA-record is that no records exist for the current name (www.phx1.webmd.com) and the requested record type (A) - a so called "NO DATA" response.
Therefore previous builds of Simple DNS Plus naturally stopped the resolving process here - no need to do anything more since we know the final answer (no data).
However if we do another DNS lookup for www.phx1.webmd.com against the same DNS server, we get a surprising response - now all of a sudden there IS an A-record for this name:
This is an error in the configuration or operation of the DNS servers hosting www.webmd.com, and we obviously recommend that they get this fixed as quickly as possible.
In this new build of Simple DNS Plus, we have made an exception for this very specific situation:
For responses received containing a CNAME-record in the Answer section, a "NODATA" SOA-record in Authority section is now ignored, and the CNAME alias is attempted resolved in a new outbound request.
This immediately makes it possible for Simple DNS Plus to resolve www.webmd.com and any other domain with the same problem.
The trade off is that this will also cause a few more outbound requests in certain situations. These extra requests would normally not be necessary, but it does make Simple DNS Plus more resilient against this type of problem.
17 Dec 2009 - Expiration of support for Simple DNS Plus v. 4.00
Note that from January 17th 2010 we will no longer provide support for Simple DNS Plus v. 4.00 (or earlier versions).
As per our
Support Life-Cycle Policy, a Simple DNS Plus version is supported for 3 years after it is first released, and for 2 years after we stop selling it (whichever comes last).
V. 4.00 was originally released on April 10th 2005, and we stopped selling it on January 17th 2008 when v. 5.0 was released.
We encourage users of v. 4.00 and earlier version to
upgrade to the current v. 5.2.
For details on all the new features and other improvements see:
v. 5.0:
http://www.simpledns.com/kb.aspx?kbid=1215
v. 5.1:
http://www.simpledns.com/kb.aspx?kbid=1246
v .5.2:
http://www.simpledns.com/kb.aspx?kbid=1265
10 Dec 2009 - Simple DNS Plus v. 5.2 build 116 / v. 5.1 build 138 released
Simple DNS Plus v. 5.2 build 116 is now available at http://www.simpledns.com/download.aspx
For details on the updates and changes in this build, please see release notes.
Simple DNS Plus v. 5.1 build 138 is now available at http://www.simpledns.com/download-oldver.aspx
For details on the updates and changes in this build, please see release notes.
These are NOT a critical updates. We do recommend that all users update to these builds, but there is no urgency unless you are directly affected by the issues addressed by the updates.
30 Oct 2009 - Update to the Simple DNS Plus API for .NET and COM
We have just released version 1.1 build 4 of the Simple DNS Plus API for .NET and COM.
Updates in this build:
- Update: Uses Simple DNS Plus v. 5.2 code base (various optimizations and bug fixes).
- Update: Setting Zone.DefaultTTL value now updates TTL value of all records which had the old default TTL value.
- Update: Record TTL values now automatically synchronized in RRSet (records with same name / type) when adding new records.
- Fixed: Setting DNSZone.AllowZoneTransfer property was not always saved correctly.
Version 1.1 build 4 is now available for download:
sdnsapi-setup.exe (720 KB)
If you have a previous version/build installed, simply run above installation file to upgrade.
For more information about the Simple DNS Plus API for .NET and COM, see the on-line documentation at http://www.simpledns.com/help/api/
29 Oct 2009 - Freeware DNS Client Library for .NET
We have just released
"JH Software's DNS Client Library for .NET".
This can be used to perform simple as well as advanced DNS lookups from any .NET code (.NET v. 2.0 or later).
For details and download see
http://www.simpledns.com/dns-client-lib.aspx
16 Oct 2009 - SPF checking HELO/EHLO host names
It has come to our attention that more e-mail servers are now performing SPF checks on the SMTP session HELO/EHLO greeting host name (in addition to checking the domain name part of the sender's e-mail address).
Therefore always make sure that your e-mail server is configured to use a correct host name (like "mail.example.com") in the HELO/EHLO greeting, and that an A- and/or AAAA-record exists for this host name in DNS.
Also, when using the "Automatic SPF" feature in Simple DNS Plus, make sure that the automatic SPF-record data is also valid for the HELO/EHLO host name, or define a specific SPF-record for the HELO/EHLO name in the zone where this belongs (this will override the automatic SPF record).
Note that the default automatic SPF record data "v=spf1 mx -all" will fail such a test if no MX-record exists for your HELO/EHLO name.
For example, if your domain name is "example.com" and your mail server is named "mail.example.com" (and uses this in HELO/EHLO greetings), you would probably only have an MX-record for "example.com" - not for "mail.example.com", and therefore "v=spf1 mx -all" fails to validate "mail.example.com".
Instead you could use "v=spf1 ip4:1.2.3.4 -all" (where 1.2.3.4 is the IP address of your mail server), which would work for both types of tests.
For more information about SPF in Simple DNS Plus, see
KB1148.
20 Aug 2009 - New "Clone Response" plug-in
This new plug-in provides DNS responses by cloning the DNS records from responses to requests for another specified domain name.
This is an easy way to host many domain names that have the exact same records (except for their zone names).
For more details see KB1289.
Download cloneresponse-plugin.zip (9 KB) and un-zip it to the "plugins" sub-directory under the directory where Simple DNS Plus is installed. After this the plug-in will be available in the Simple DNS Plus Options dialog / Plug-Ins section.
Note that this plug-in requires an "unlimted zones" license and works with Simple DNS Plus v. 5.2 build 111 and later only.
18 Aug 2009 - New "TCP Port Forwarder" plug-in
This new plug-in provides simple TCP port forwarding.
If the Simple DNS Plus computer is connected to both the Internet and to a private network (LAN), this can be used to forward connections from the Internet to a computer on the LAN. For example mapping remote desktop connections (port 3389).
For more details see KB1288.
Download tcpforward-plugin.zip (18 KB) and un-zip it to the "plugins" sub-directory under the directory where Simple DNS Plus is installed. After this the plug-in will be available in the Simple DNS Plus Options dialog / Plug-Ins section.
Note that this plug-in works with Simple DNS Plus v. 5.2 and later only.
22 Jul 2009 - ns2service.net now supports secure zone transfers
Our secondary DNS service at www.ns2service.net now supports secure zone transfer (TSIG authenticated).
Both zone transfer requests and responses are authenticated, so this provides protection in two ways; it prevents unauthorized transfers (only people / servers with the correct key can transfer), and it ensures data integrity on the secondary servers (not possible to spoof / inject false data during transfers).
You can enable TSIG when adding or editing a domain name in the ns2service.net web interface.
For details on enabling/requiring TSIG signed zone transfers on your primary Simple DNS Plus server see http://www.simpledns.com/newsitem.aspx?id=2387
05 Jul 2009 - Updated "Remote DNS Look Up" function
Our on-line
Remote DNS Look Up function has been updated to much closer match the features of the GUI based DNS Look Up tool that comes with Simple DNS Plus.
It now supports a long list of additional record types, it supports EDNS0 options including payload size and DNSSEC, and it supports displaying native characters in IDNs in the repose output.
The output is formatted the same way as in the GUI tool - in fact the on-line and GUI tools now shared much of their program code (both .NET based).
And finally the on-line function is now AJAX based for a smoother experience.
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