DynDNS.com Acquires EveryDNS 125
funfail writes in with the news that, five days ago, EveryDNS was sold to DynDNS.com. From the announcement and e-mail from EveryDNS's founder, David Ulevitch: "Since starting EveryDNS in June of 2001 while a freshman in college, my goal has always been to provide simple, reliable and secure DNS services to the Internet community. I'm proud to say that we've lived up to that mission and delivered robust DNS services to over 400,000 domains. Nearly 9 years later, it's now time to put the service in more capable hands and I'm happy to announce that I've found a great home for EveryDNS. I have sold the EveryDNS service to Dyn Inc., the operators of the immensely popular DynDNS.com service." EveryDNS has been one of the most popular free (or one-time donation) DNS suppliers. From the FAQ at the link above: "Will the service remain free? While we don't 100% have the answer to that yet, we will not be making any changes to the service you are currently receiving for the foreseeable future. We will be discontinuing signups in the near future but existing accounts will remain active and fully functional."
As a current free DynDNS user... (Score:2)
How much of a difference was there between the service offered by EveryDNS and what’s in the free package from DynDNS?
Re:As a current free DynDNS user... (Score:5, Informative)
EveryDNS is more like the "custom DNS" feature in DynDNS which uses their servers to provide nameservers for your own domain. DynDNS's custom DNS service is $30/year if you aren't hosting with them, while EveryDNS is/was free.
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EveryDNS is more like the "custom DNS" feature in DynDNS which uses their servers to provide nameservers for your own domain. DynDNS's custom DNS service is $30/year if you aren't hosting with them, while EveryDNS is/was free.
ThatIP [thatip.com] only charges $10/year for the same "custom DNS", and now started doing dedicated ipv6 nameservers too!
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And ZoneEdit [zoneedit.com] is free for the first five domains. AFAIK, they're not doing IPv6 yet, though.
--- Mr. DOS
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Thanks P and GP. I've been relying on EveryDNS for about 5 years now. They have a great service and I've happily donated to keep it running. My little home server doesn't do much, but it wouldn't do anything useful without this service. It's something I never have to think about because a little script on the server detects whenever my ISP decides to change my IP address, and updates the EveryDNS host automatically.
Good to know there are alternatives when/if DynDNS starts trying to gouge me. I hope th
Re:As a current free DynDNS user... (Score:4, Insightful)
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The interface is horrendous, and very occasionally won't even load (you'll auth then sitting there waiting for it to pull up the domai- sorry, zone list), but I find that it's quit reliable once everything's set up alright.
It's gotten better recently, too - I set up a new domain last night, and it took maybe five minutes, most of which was me humming and hawing about how I wanted it.
--- Mr. DOS
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All I want is a non-changing address that is easy to remember, and a subdomain off of one of DynDNS’s domains is good enough for me.
Easy answer (Score:2, Informative)
"Will the service remain free? "
As a former DynDNS user, I can assure everyone that the answer will be NO in the not-so-distant future. They've already done it. DynDNS has stopped offering services for free and became overly expensive...suddenly...overnight...or so.
This is actually not good news. Something that used to be nice (aka "cool") and free (aka "beer") is now sold to people who stopped caring about services to go for....oh...PROFIT...I forgot that...
Re:Easy answer (Score:4, Funny)
we will not be making any changes to the service you are currently receiving for the foreseeable future.
Yeah, and I bet they are telling the soon-to-be-former employees of EveryDNS that they don't have any staffing changes planned "for the forseeable future" either, the "forseeable future" for the average PHB being about 4 seconds.
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I'm pretty sure that the "staffing" of EasyDNS was pretty close to just 1 person ... the owner.
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We don't refer to ourselves like that in polite company
Well, that matters little (Score:1, Insightful)
I don't know anything about EveryDNS (had never heard of it before) and have no idea about their employees. However, many one-person "organizations" (whether a company, a small department of such, admin of a website...) refer to themselves as "we". If you say "I think something", you give the impression of one person who can well be wrong, an asshole, etc... Calling yourself "I" in any announcement that some people won't like is just asking for trouble. At the very least you might get the reputation of an a
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That's the royal we [wikipedia.org].
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DynDNS honours their own one time donatations (Score:5, Interesting)
Even though (I think) they no longer take them. I gave them $10 some time in the early naughties, and they still provide what they said they would then. It's hard to complain about that.
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Anyway, I hope that DynDNS will continue to honor the "donate once for lifetime service" at least for those existing users covered under that plan. But even if they don't, so long as they keep the same level of service, then I would not mind paying (within reason).
Re:DynDNS honours their own one time donatations (Score:5, Insightful)
Those who have lifetime service on DynDNS will not lose it. We take providing that service very seriously, since some of our biggest fans are our longtime customers.
Chris Gonyea
DynDNS Support
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I'm pretty sure the poster meant the lifetime donation on EveryDNS. Will DynDNS honor that?
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Our CEO Jeremy Hitchcock wrote a welcome letter to EveryDNS customers here http://dyn.com/dd-welcome-everydns [dyn.com] that explains a little bit more about our plans for EveryDNS.
I honestly do not have an answer for your specific question, but as of right now there will be no changes to the EveryDNS service in the short term as our welcome letter states.
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"bwahahaha....."
I find it disconcerting...
;)
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How about those who donated to EveryDNS?
Seconded. Another donating EveryDNS user here. After all these years, I wonder where the donations went. Because David Ulevitch also owns OpenDNS, surely he would have been able to EveryDNS on the side with OpenDNS money.
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Re:Easy answer (Score:4, Informative)
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if really wanted the pay service, I'd definitely drop the cash for it
I'd *love* to drop the cash for DynDNS's paid service, but I can't because - like many USian companies - they insist on taking only credit cards. Outside the US, *everyone* has a debit card so comparatively few people bother with credit cards. If you want to do business outside the US, not taking debit cards is economic suicide.
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Why risk using a debit card online? You know they are not insured?
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Why not get a Visa or Mastercard debit card?
Got one. They're not accepted. I *could* get a credit card, but they cost money to use. Why pay for a service I basically already have for free? I don't want the credit facilities, so I don't see why I should pay for them.
Why risk using a debit card online? You know they are not insured?
Neither are credit cards. Well, *technically* they are but the card issuer will wriggle out of any request if you get ripped off.
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Same here, except starting 2-3 years ago they started emailing me once a month saying I have 5 days to confirm that the account is still active or they'll drop the DNS entry. Annoying, but not annoying enough to switch away or fork over some cash.
It might be different if you use an updater client thingie, but my IP never changes so I don't bother.
Re:Easy answer (Score:4, Informative)
If you have an update client that sends us at least one IP address update every 30 days, that will also prevent the account from expiring. Otherwise, it will require a login every 30 days onto our web site.
Chris Gonyea
DynDNS Support http://www.dyndns.com/support/ [dyndns.com]
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Grandfathered Custom DNS services do not have the 30-day expiration, since they are considered a paid account.
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It might be different if you use an updater client thingie, but my IP never changes so I don't bother.
On linux at least:
sudo apt-get install ddclient
Answer a few simple questions of provider, username, password and domain
That's it. Your computer will now update itself wherever you go, if you change provider, if you bring the pc anywhere else... it's brillient.
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I have had a great experience as a dyndns user. I paid $30 for each of 2 customdns domains when they were still flat rate, and now I am grandfathered into them forever... can't beat that :)
Re:Easy answer (Score:4, Insightful)
DDNS is still available for free, and you can sign up. I don't recall them ever offering anything else for free.
Why you feel they should offer a free service is beyond me; its not like offering the service is free for them, and I suspect the easydns guy sold to make back the money he's invested (and them some).
There's nothing wrong with profit.
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Bull. Nobody is under any obligation to offer something free forever. Get your entitled head out of your ass. This is not bait and switch, this is "we're discontinuing our free service." They owe you what you paid them, nothing.
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Ya you are. You're claiming that they should be offering the service free forever. Pretty much the definintion of entitled attitude.
Please explain how NOT having to pay costs for freeloading users will put them out of business? Oh, it won't. Seriously, get your head out of your ass; you don't seem to be in touch with reality.
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In other news, I haven't had a raise in 3 years!
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Re:Easy answer (Score:5, Informative)
I work for DynDNS. Our basic Dynamic DNS service has always been free when using one of our hostnames (such as example.dyndns.org). DynDNS has never stopped offering our free Dynamic DNS service and will not stop offering it.
I recommend reading our CEO's welcome letter for information on our plans for EveryDNS. http://dyn.com/dd-welcome-everydns [dyn.com]
Thanks... (Score:2)
I just wanted to say thanks for responding. Most companies seem to have a preternatural fear of opening up a dialogue with the unwashed masses, even when it's clearly in their own best interests. Glad to see DynDNS bucking the trend.
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You're welcome. We take pride in being very transparent with our customers. You can see that on our company site (dyn.com) and on our twitter pages (http://twitter.com/dyninc and http://twitter.com/dyndns [twitter.com]).
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That's certainly true.
Quite some time ago I was looking over your IPv6 transition plan, which you had posted in great detail. I pointed out that I needed to be able to add IPv6 glue records, which was a step left out of the plan. I very quickly got back something like "oh yeah, thanks" and not long after, the feature was there. /another satisfied DynDNS customer.
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One of the questions that we are sure everyone is going to ask is whether or not EveryDNS will remain free. While we don't 100% have that answer yet, we do know that we are going to discontinue new sign-ups in the near future, listen to your feedback and be in touch.
You have to agree that when a business holder says this, it usually because he doesn't want to make a stance or wants an exit door. All this says is that it will remain free "for now" with no promise of a
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I'm with you... It is hard to get too negative considering it's free however I switched from DynDNS to EveryDNS a couple months ago because staying at DynDNS was going to cost money. Maybe Google DNS will start offering free hosting of zones.
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Actually, I was with EditDNS not DynDNS and EditDNS switched to a paid-only model. I do have an account at DynDNS but I was just using the dynamic features. Apologies to DynDNS. The $5/month fee at EditDNS was too steep for a non-critical playground.
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nerd fail (Score:5, Funny)
I used to smugly think I caught people being redundant saying DNS server. Comic book guy voice: "Do you say Persional Information Number Number? Do you say Automatic Teller Machine Machine? Fools." And then I found out that DNS is Domain Name System or Domain Name Service, never Domain Name Server. Domain Name Service Server is perfectly acceptable usage. Haven't felt so n00b since I called Wine an emulator.
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Not sure about that. A server is something that serves. A service is something served. In other words, what does Domain Name Server leave out that Domain Name Service Server doesn't? It's sort of like saying that a waiter in a restaurant will now wait on you. Well, by definition someone who waits on me is a waiter.
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The server is generally more specific than the service. It can have a version, a location, etc. The service would be analogous to a wait staff, while the server would be a specific waiter/waitress.
A critical analysis of your analogy (Score:2)
It's sort of like saying that a waiter in a restaurant will now wait on you. Well, by definition someone who waits on me is a waiter.
Someone who waits on people is a waiter. You're being told that one of those waiters will service you (rather than other people).
</pedantic>
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But "Domain Name System Server" has exactly zero redundancy.
nerd fail nerd fail (and that's not redundant) (Score:3, Funny)
Right, which is why it would be wrong to talk about the IRS as having a server, and why when the IRS invades your business and takes all your servers, they tell you that it was a pleasure servicing you ...
You really haven't thought your effort to be pedantic through very well at all, have you. I suppose the hostess could say "The waiter will n
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And now ...
How do I know it will be the server who waits on me, and why did we move from the present to future tense? (Also, your entire original post was absurd, thus I made mine almost equally absurd, so trying to take it seriously and have a serious discussion based upon my post is phenomenally absurd)
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it's supposed to stand for "WINdows Emulator"
Whooosh!! [winehq.org]
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Wine talks big about not being an emulator, but really?
What is an emulator if not a system of code to impersonate parts of a machine (or bit of software) that is not present? Wine is software to impersonate bits of Windows, so that Windows software can run in a different system.
Wine is totally an emulator.
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Domain name service server? Anyway I've been with DynDNS for years. One of my domains is paid up for 10 years though I still use their dynamic service for simple stuff.
I don't know much about EasyDNS... (Score:2)
...but all I know, based on my experience with them for several years, is that they've found a good home.
That's sad (Score:1, Insightful)
I've been using EveryDNS for a long long time. Since it started I suppose. I've given them donations year after year in hopes of avoiding this situation.
I was mostly too lazy to roll my own DNS but I guess I should start getting up to speed with the latest security fixes to bind9 or see if there's some other suitable replacement DNS server.
blah @ DynDNS (Score:5, Interesting)
I originally started using DynDNS.org back over a decade ago when it started out as a service running off of a dedicated dial-up modem with a static IP address. Over the years I had just a few .dyndns.org addresses which were basically setup as static. About two years ago I decided to log in after ages of not touching it to change IPs on one of the addresses cause my ISP was making everybody on a specific subnet switch over to another. Well little did I know that free users must log in every three weeks or so, else the account will be dropped. By logging in I triggered their timeout service to begin.
I was checking my email one morning and found a notice that I should log into DynDNS else my account will be dropped within 4 hours. That email was sent three days ago by the time I read it. So, after having an account after so many years it just gets dropped like that without any warning what so ever except an email to alert me that I have a four hours notice. Since then I have avoided DynDNS and recommended others to go else where when asked about it since I thought that was just absolutely wrong.
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Question: Did you read the terms when you started using it?
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Really? I haven't logged into mine for a year, and it's still up and running. And before that, I hadn't logged into it in like 5 years. Good old is-a-geek.net, I've had mine since first year undergrad, so I could ssh to my home boxes without having to memorize a new IP address every time a power outage changed my cable modem's IP. Since that only happened rarely, I didn't log in anywhere near once a month, not even close. It's still active, and yeah, I logged in like last year, and haven't logged in i
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I do seem to recall that I originally had signed up as a "dynamic" IP, and they discontinued my domain since it hadn't changed in a month or so, maybe that's what happened to you?
I use DynDNS with DHCP addresses, but they are practically static. Nevertheless, there is no problem, as long as the update script (ddclient) is running periodically. When a host record hasn't been updated in 30 days or so, there is a warning email, and after some time that hostname is dropped. Thus occasionally I have had to re-register a hostname, but that is not a huge problem.
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Oh, well yeah, my router has a built in dyndns.org update script on it, that must be it.
Mine did too, and two days after I enabled it I got blocked for abusive updates. So even if the router says it will... I’d check the compatibility list [dyndns.com] and the incompatibility list [dyndns.com].
(After I turned off the router feature, I got my account unblocked and kept on using a software updater.)
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I’m pretty sure they collapsed both of those into one option, with the difference being the TTL that you choose (60 seconds or 4 hours).
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About two years ago I decided to log in after ages of not touching it ... little did I know that free users must log in every three weeks or so, else the account will be dropped. By logging in I triggered their timeout service to begin.
I was checking my email one morning and found a notice that I should log into DynDNS else my account will be dropped
'BAAWWWWWW, my free service should be perfect in everyway in perpetuate.' Sounds like to me if it was important to you you would have been paying a little more attention to it in the first place. I bet you also think you should be able to use any web site for free without ads, and should be able to download free movies and TV and music. It's normal to drop inactive accounts, with a free service 90% users sign up, use it for 3 months then never touch it again. Don't be so entitled.
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... and to bump you from a +4 interesting to a +5 informative, could you please tell the crowd who it is that you _do_ recommend?
Re:blah @ DynDNS (Score:5, Informative)
I work for DynDNS Support, so I can clarify what happened here. Our free accounts (ie: no paying services) will expire every 30 days unless you either 1) login to your DynDNS.com account on our site or 2) send an IP address update for one of your hostnames using an update client. Each login or IP address update thus resets the 30 day expiration date on the account. We send out a warning 5 days before the expiration date of the account, giving you time to login to the account to save it. If you do not do that, the account and hostname will be deleted but you can simply sign up again if you lost the account by accident.
For most customers, #2 above will keep their free account active since most ISP's do change their customer's IP addresses often.
Re:blah @ DynDNS (Score:5, Informative)
It’s worth mentioning that some update clients will automatically force an update in time to avoid the account expiration even if your IP hasn’t changed in that time.
I like 'em. (Score:4, Informative)
DynDNS is very reliable (Score:1)
counting it, I have two domains with custom DNS and one of the domain with a "spring VPS" service attach to it. The custom DNS is very easy to configure, I just have to set the MX to Google and that's it for mail.
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Thanks for the nice comments! I work for DynDNS and we take great pride in our reliability.
- Chris Gonyea
DynDNS Support
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Unanswered question... (Score:1, Interesting)
What did DynDNS pay for the company? The article doesn't mention the price.
Possible Replacement (Score:5, Informative)
Oblig Disclosure: No relation to the company other than being a satisfied user.
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EveryDNS has left the building... (Score:3, Insightful)
Have you tried to contact EveryDNS lately? No one is there.
Well, I donated to EveryDNS at year-end, but my account wasn't updated to "donator" status. Repeated attempts to contact them over the last 3 weeks have gone completely unanswered.
The conclusion? DynDNS bought EveryDNS, sent everybody home, and we're just a server failure away from having to scramble to find another DNS. Maybe some of us will sign up for DynDNS's paid service? Wouldn't that be nice for the new owners...
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I work for DynDNS Support. If you have a DynDNS account (which you can create for free) you can e-mail support AT dyndns.com with your questions and we can look into it. Put attention Chris in the e-mail so I can see it and grab the ticket.
I haven't been briefed on providing support for EveryDNS customers yet, but I can check and see if I can get some answers for you. It is my understanding that EveryDNS support wasn't very prompt in their responses to begin with, so that maybe why you haven't heard back ye
EditDns is Gone too (Score:2)
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The question on everyone's mind (Score:3, Interesting)
What's in it for Dyndns? Why buy over a competitor fielding free services? And what can we expect in the medium to long term?
This is a good thing. (Score:2)
This would have been a good one for me to get a "first post" on... do people even do that here any more? :-)
-David
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Yes.