Apologies for the Down-Time

[Jason Dunn]

<p>Our Web hosting provider, <a href="http://www.theplanet.com" target="_blank">The Planet</a>, is generally pretty good - but they have significant struggles when it comes to DNS (Domain Name Servers). At least a couple of times a year, they'll have a complete failure with their DNS machines, and they always just shrug and say "We provide DNS as a courtesy for our customers, nothing more" - as if that's an excuse for not being able to offer a service that's reliable. That's what happened today - they had a complete DNS failure, so all of our sites (and thousands of others) were taken completely offline. We're going to take steps to help prevent this in the future.</p>

[programcsharp]

I've had this issue before on other hosting providers. I highly recommend switching to dyndns. They're not just a dynamic dns company, but also do reliable global dns. 100% uptime since 2001: http://www.dyndns.com/about/why_dyndns.html

I'm not associated with them in any way, just a very happy user of their static dns services.

[freitasm]

You beat me - I was going to suggest Dyndns. I have used then since the days of freebiew dynamic DNS, and made a donation - that gave me an unlimited upgrade. Since then I have used Dyndns as my DNS provider whenever the registrar wouldn't give me that option.

Top service...

[Adam Krebs]

I had to deal with the Planet last year around a DNS issue. Not only were they completely unhelpful, but, since my boss was a legacy customer from several acquisitions prior, they completely mangled our DNS routing. Ugh.

[Constant Caffeine]

I did not mind the downtime. I was able to get something done at work. ;) But seriously, I know you see this as an issue so I hope you can find an easy solution. Jason, perhaps now would be a good time to restart the subscriber program? Then you may have some extra cash on hand to help offset any additional costs.

[Cold Flame]

Jason,

Someone else to consider:

http://www.dnsmadeeasy.com/

I've heard good things about them. My good friend uses them exclusively and refuses to use anyone else. Just thought I'd bring them to your attention too.

Cheers,

Cold Flame

[Pony99CA]

Our Web hosting provider, <a href="http://www.theplanet.com" target="_blank">The Planet</a>, is generally pretty good - but they have significant struggles when it comes to DNS (Domain Name Servers). At least a couple of times a year, they'll have a complete failure with their DNS machines, and they always just shrug and say "We provide DNS as a courtesy for our customers, nothing more" - as if that's an excuse for not being able to offer a service that's reliable.
What planet do they live on? (pun intended) Don't pay them for the equivalent of one day. When they complain, shrug and say "I provide payment as a courtesy for reliable service, nothing more." :p

Steve

[dunneldeen]

I might also suggest the possibility of using your registrar for DNS. GoDaddy will host your domain for free as long as you use them as registrar (which you appear to do.) Being their main business, they take DNS very seriously.