Is there a free DNS provider?
I've had an idea recently to switch to a DNS provider that does not charge for services like this.
For the past 7 years or so I've been using OpenDNS which has always worked great for me, but I'm not sure if they still offer it for free? This would be an ideal alternative to Cloudflare who do have a free service but you have to provide you own infrastructure. OpenDNS was always nice for free because you didn't have to be aware of your domains names, so it was easier to use and there wasn't any extra charges. We have one of our nameservers registered at OpenDNS, so we really appreciate it. I don't think they are really 'free' as they keep collecting logs which can get quite large. However, I never ran into any problems with them using my DNS logs.
The last time I used Google Public DNS I was looking for an easy way to have their DNS servers automatically resolved through my hosts file. I found that the easiest way to set this up is to install a tiny program called DNScrypt which works with a hosts file and uses DNSCrypt protocol to secure your DNS connection.
There are other sites that offer free DNS services such as Dannydns or No-IP, however it sounds like OpenDNS does not have any logging as they don't require you to give your host IP address. I have another issue I also find it is important to have a free DNS service. Namecheap offers free nameservers for domains registered with them. When a domain you own is registered with them, your domain will resolve through their servers before resolving through the actual name servers you own, saving you some time from having to ping and resolve the name yourself. In our case, my server is a cloud based VPS, where it would seem that Namecheap is very difficult to configure the DNS on. I have found there are more steps required to set up their dns on a small VPS compared to their larger servers.
After registering a domain with namecheap, we did get emails stating that we could setup the DNS with them.
What are CloudFlare's DNS servers?
The CloudFlare DNS servers are a combination of the name servers for Google, OpenDNS, StartPage, and Fastly's public DNS servers.
When you configure your website to point to CloudFlare instead of directly to the company's DNS servers, you are pointing to the CloudFlare name servers. We use a distributed CDN for our DNS name servers, and distribute those servers around the globe. The only one that matters from your perspective is the CDN that will return to your DNS server the IP address where your website is being hosted. We use a distributed CDN because we do not want to rely on any single company for our DNS.
These are what I have found so far: The DNS servers listed above are all on different continents. This means that the TTL (time to live) can be as short as 20 minutes when CloudFlare's customers' website loads. A shorter TTL means more changeovers in the CDN are possible, and this is exactly what we want.
If you ask for the "dynamic" data from any DNS server that returns the data in less than 8 seconds, that data may change at the CloudFlare name server that is currently serving that request. So if you use a DNS server that returns "dynamic" data in less than 8 seconds, it is likely to be more stable.
While CloudFlare is not the sole owner of its DNS servers, they are listed as the ones with the longest TTL (time to live). These CloudFlare DNS servers have different IPs and some even seem to change IPs with no warning or notice. I'm guessing that most DNS servers are distributed between several locations. Some of them change IP addresses.
So, I think the best option is to pick a DNS server that has the "longest TTL" based on CloudFlare's name servers. What DNS servers to use for my own website? To answer this question you need to know the answer to two questions: Why would you be distributing the DNS to CloudFlare? If you don't need to serve DNS at all, then CloudFlare's DNS servers work fine for you. How many DNS servers do I need to have at my website? The more DNS servers that I have serving my DNS records, the more likely one of them is to fail without giving notice.
What is cloud DNS used for?
Cloud DNS was originally designed to support the public Internet and cloud environments.
The initial set of features in Cloud DNS allows customers to manage multiple public DNS servers from one control plane. Customers, service providers and service integrators alike are leveraging Cloud DNS to offer better control and visibility over their Internet infrastructure.
As more and more organizations move to hybrid cloud environments and deploy public DNS to cloud environments to deliver DNS from a public cloud, Cloud DNS is evolving to address their DNS needs. What's new in Cloud DNS version 3. Version 3.1 of Cloud DNS addresses some limitations that existed with Cloud DNS 1.0 and Cloud DNS 2. Some of the features are:
Caching of large DNS domains (like *google.com) - Users on hybrid cloud infrastructures where DNS queries come from private clouds and public clouds can now use Cloud DNS to cache large DNS zones.
Domain resolution to Cloud DNS IP addresses only - When querying for a host or domain record Cloud DNS will only return an IP address from within Cloud DNS' IP block even when it doesn't have the associated IP address or host. The list of updates and feature additions can be viewed here. Can we upgrade an existing installation of Cloud DNS to the latest release? Yes, you can. If you have your own private DNS server running on Cloud DNS, you can either update the OS on your own DNS server or simply log into your Cloud DNS control panel to upgrade your database.
How do I use Cloud DNS to manage multiple public DNS servers? You create multiple record sets with the same name but point them to different Cloud DNS server addresses. How do I use Cloud DNS to manage DNS in a hybrid cloud environment? Use the Hybrid Control Plane in Cloud DNS version 3.1 to route requests between your private and public clouds. Cloud DNS can also maintain consistency between DNS zones on private and public clouds.
How can I configure Cloud DNS to use an external caching DNS server? Cloud DNS version 3.1 lets you use your own authoritative DNS servers or external DNS servers as your public DNS, and forward any requests to your private Cloud DNS cloud.
Can I use Cloud DNS to forward DNS traffic to Azure or Amazon Public DNS? Yes, Cloud DNS version 3.