Frequently Asked Questions

What is DNS?

DNS stands for "Domain Name System." On the internet, computers have numeric addresses (also called "I.P. addresses"). To make the internet more user friendly, these numeric addresses can be associated to names, for example "www.dotquad.com." The Domain Name System is the way the internet converts those names into numeric addresses so the computers can find each other. For more information, see the Wikipedia article on DNS.

What is DOTQUAD?

DOTQUAD is a Managed DNS host. Anyone with a website or other internet presence will need to manage the DNS records for their domain. These records give the domain owner control over the numeric addresses assigned to them by their internet service provider. DOTQUAD provides several DNS-related services to make managing DNS easier for internet citizens. These services include anycast DNS, web-based management, DNS wizards, DNS snapshots and more.

What is Anycast DNS?

Almost every time you request any website in your browser, a DNS call is made first, to get (or resolve) the numeric address of the computer you're trying to get to. If the DNS call takes a long time to make, it's going to make your internet experience slower. Many times, average users can't tell if the site they are trying to visit is slow or if it's DNS. Anycast is a technology that allows us to distribute DNS servers across the globe so that your request will be routed to the closest physical server to you. This speeds up the process, and makes our client's sites load faster.

What are DNS Wizards?

DNS plays a role in many different internet scenarios. Some recent cloud computing products use DNS to verify domain ownership and to provide services to a verified domain (for example, Google Mail). Our DNS wizard feature makes it easy to add the necessary records to your DNS so that you can achieve your technology goals; such as interate with Google Mail, set up backup mail, or do round-robin load balancing.

Where does the name DOTQUAD come from?

A common way to refer to IP address, which is the computer address that servers on the internet use to find each other, is in "dotted-quad" notation. This notation breaks up the address into four integers, from 0 to 255, separated by dots. For example, "192.168.0.1" is an example of an address written in dotted quad notation. The range 0 to 255 comes from the fact that each number in the address is stored as one byte in the computer, which is eight bits. One byte has a minimum value of '0' (it looks like 00000000 in binary form), and a maximum value of 255 (11111111 in binary form). See also the Wikipedia article on dotted quad notation and the Wikipedia article on IP addresses

Why would I want to use this service?

You're a potential customer for any of these reasons:

• You need to manage your DNS zones efficiently, using a nice Web-based UI.
• You have a business that can't afford downtime from DNS mishaps.
• You want to improve user experience by speeding up request times to your servers.
• You frequently change your servers.
• You want to monitor your DNS status constantly to make sure there are as few problems as possible.