GoDaddy and their new "Selective DNS Blackouts" policy

Discusses the new GoDaddy Selective DNS Blackouts policy

[rscott13]

For those that have not heard, GoDaddy has a new policy (as of July, 2011) that lets them block DNS packets from high-volume DNS servers. Any domains using GoDaddy's DNS hosting are affected (any domains with 'domaincontrol.com' in them).

Two such sites that are affected include a niche search engine that is in development, and a project that keeps track of statistics on domains. Sites like these that are blocked by GoDaddy's new policy will be unable to include domains using GoDaddy's DNS hosting (except domains owned by GoDaddy, which are exempt from the Selective DNS Blackouts policy).

So keep this in mind if there is some odd glitch with your domain. For example, if they block the DNS servers of a company that sends an extreme amount of E-mail, any E-mails to domains using GoDaddy DNS hosting will not be delivered. Or, if in general just about everyone can reach your website without problems, but now people from a specific country or using the same Internet provider cannot reach your site, this could explain it.

Also, if you run a DNS server that does a high volume of lookups (other than a standard recursive DNS server), and you experience a lot of DNS failures, you should check to see if packets sent to the 216.69.185.0/26 or 208.109.255.0/26 IP ranges are blocked.

[wheel]

I'm not seeing how this works.Could you beat it through my skull with a bigger/simpler stick please?

[rscott13]

I'll try. :)

In the case of the search engine that is blocked by GoDaddy's new policy, the search engine will try connecting to millions of websites. When it tries going to most websites, it looks up the IP address of the website using DNS, and it goes to the website, gets webpages, stores them, indexes them, etc.

But, if you have a domain that uses GoDaddy's DNS hosting (which is the case if you registered a domain through them, and didn't tell GoDaddy to use different DNS servers), the only way someone can find out the IP address of your webserver is to connect to the GoDaddy DNS servers. So in this case, the search engine won't be able to find out the IP address of your server. The search engine can try sending the DNS queries to the GoDaddy DNS servers, but GoDaddy blocks them, so the search engine never gets the IP address of your website. So it cannot go to your site, get webpages, store them, etc.

It is not clear at this point exactly who this new policy affects. Certainly search engines like Google and Bing are not being blocked, but some/many lesser known projects are.

[wheel]

OK, that's not quite what the post said. It's got nothing to do with the search engine's DNS, it's just got to do with the search engine's DNS queries to Godaddy.

Frankly anybody that uses Godaddy gets what they (over) paid for.

[Robert Charlton]

Here's some history that others might not know, which might not be fair to the current GoDaddy management or situation... but which I've nevertheless continued to associate with the company.

Two messages from the archives....

My host and my rankings?
December, 2003
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/20264.htm [webmasterworld.com]

I could be wrong, but I think the (suspected) issue with GoDaddy was that (some) servers were blocking GoogleBot.

GoogleGuy stopped short of saying this, but came as close as he reasonably could.

Weekend Update
Just clearing up a few issues.
Nov 9, 2003
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/18194.htm [webmasterworld.com]

GoogleGuy...

...For the people using a certain hosting company that saw their sites drop out of our index--I think someone here called the company and talked to them. I believe the situation is well on its way to being resolved; my understanding is that the problem was not at our end. ;)

Not directly related to the current issue, of course, except that they're likely both bandwidth and management issues... for which there's a lot that can be said.

[jmccormac]

Two such sites that are affected include a niche search engine that is in development, and a project that keeps track of statistics on domains.

A niche search engine? Just how niche is the search engine that it manages to overload Godaddy's DNS? And as for the domain statistics site, which one? The top players all use the zonefiles to build their basic statistics (they don't even need to do DNS lookups) and the only one that I can think of as being a problem is the one that harvests WHOIS data.

Regards...jmcc

[rscott13]

jmccormac, the niche search engine is one that checks all websites it can find, attempting to determine the location, so that people can just search for websites near them (e.g. if they are looking for a restaurant to go to, they don't care about ones that are 1,000 miles/km away).

The statistics site has information going beyond what is contained in the TLD zonefiles, such as data on mailserver usage.

And these projects aren't the ones that were overloading GoDaddy's DNS servers (they have been chugging away for several years, with traffic only 15% higher today than a year ago). They did recently claim that some of their DNS servers were under attack, so it is possible that they simply decided to block some legitimate packets in order to deal with the overload from the attack. Of course, they aren't likely to issue a press release saying that they are under attack... and intentionally blocking DNS queries to deal with it.

[rscott13]

The GoDaddy PR department released this comment:

"Go Daddy monitors DNS queries to ensure our customers' information is being accessed properly and not being harvested for unintended uses.

If we suspect that any service is gathering DNS data, we will limit access to that specific source. This is done to maintain our high level of system integrity.

If a company or service has questions about accessing Go Daddy DNS, they can email [e-mail].

Rich Merdinger
Director, Domain Services"

It's nearly identical to the comment they made on WHOIS blocking earlier this year (see domainnamewire.com/2011/01/04/go-daddy-explains-whois-blocking/ ).

Of course, losing WHOIS access is just a minor inconvenience for most people, whereas the Internet would not function without DNS. And with WHOIS, most GoDaddy customers don't care (in fact, would prefer) if the access is blocked. But I'll bet very few, if any, GoDaddy customers would prefer to have DNS blocked!

It's starting to sound like this comes close to a network neutrality issue.

[Dinkar]

just want to get it clear ....

If I have a domain registered with Godaddy and hosted with some other hosting company with their DNS servers (dns1.otherhosting.com & dns2.otherhosting.com) then I don't have to worry about this DNS blocking, right?

[jmccormac]

If I have a domain registered with Godaddy and hosted with some other hosting company with their DNS servers (dns1.otherhosting.com & dns2.otherhosting.com) then I don't have to worry about this DNS blocking, right?

Theoretically yes unless it is a Godaddy reseller using Godaddy IPs. However it really depends on what is being blocked.

Regards...jmcc

[ember]

Moved everything from godaddy.com when their CEO killed the elephant for sport.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

ember, to be fair, the elephants are culled yearly in that region because they stampede nearby cities and trample crops/people. He took part in their yearly event, legally, instead of paying for a safari or going on a private hunt.

As for blocking dns, I hope Google begins reporting such problems in GWT, if they don't already.

[frontpage]

Frankly anybody that uses Godaddy gets what they (over) paid for.

Interesting. I am curious as to what registrar is a better value or provides better service. What's your recommendations?

[wheel]

Moniker is one place, there are others.

[frontpage]

Moniker is one place, there are others.

I must be missing something but as an example:

Monkier charges $8.99 for .com registration
Godaddy charges $7.49 for .com registration

Moniker charges for $8.99 .Com renewals
Godaddy charges $7.95 for .Com renewals

[Lorel]

I must be missing something but as an example:

Monkier charges $8.99 for .com registration
Godaddy charges $7.49 for .com registration

Moniker charges for $8.99 .Com renewals
Godaddy charges $7.95 for .Com renewals

The old addage applies here "you get what you pay for".

[greenleaves]

namecheap is also better. Although I suggest you don't keep all your domains in one registrar. It is a bad risk mitigation practice to put all your eggs in one basket.

[rscott13]

Monkier charges $8.99 for .com registration
Godaddy charges $7.49 for .com registration

At GoDaddy, I see $11.99 on sale for $9.99 (plus $.18 ICann fee). GoDaddy prices change quite often, and you can use coupons, so it really depends on when you order (if you can wait, you may save a bit, but if you need to get a domain ASAP, as is often the case, you may not get as good a deal).

[wheel]

Monkier charges $8.99 for .com registration
Godaddy charges $7.49 for .com registration

Moniker charges for $8.99 .Com renewals
Godaddy charges $7.95 for .Com renewals

Moniker doesn't upsell.
Godaddy upsells all the time.

Moniker doesn't screw your dns.
Godaddy screws with your dns.

Moniker has tech support.
Godaddy has lol tech support.

In terms of pricing, if that $1/year difference in price is a consideration, then you're simply not serious. At that level, why anyone cares is beyond me.

[Dinkar]

Today I couldn't access my site for few seconds so I asked host about server downtime. They said server was working fine without any downtime. Then I told them to check their firewall .. just in case if it blocked my local IP. But nope. As per their records, none of my ISP's whole range of IP was blocked. So I guess it's godaddy ... I am moving my domains away from them. I don't want to take any risk, do you want to?

[Remi Brandini]

Hello

I have a domain registered with Godaddy, using GoDaddy DNS hosting.

Which actions need to be made in order to ensure that this Godaddy's services won't harm my site?

Thanks

(my first post !)

[bhartzer]

It's just my speculation, but most likely at some point we will all be facing "usage charges" for DNS. You might call them "DNS Resolution Charges" for our domain names.

[Dinkar]

Doesn't that so called 'usage charges for DNS' are already included in domain registration and hosting charges?

[rscott13]

I have a domain registered with Godaddy, using GoDaddy DNS hosting.

Which actions need to be made in order to ensure that this Godaddy's services won't harm my site?

You would need to use DNS hosted elsewhere.

If your website is hosted somewhere other than GoDaddy, they likely provide DNS service, in which case you can just go into the GoDaddy DNS settings and set your NS records to the ones that the web hosting company provides.

Otherwise, you would need to sign up with a DNS hosting company (such as easydns, dnsmadeeasy, zoneedit, ultradns, etc.).

[rscott13]

It appears that GoDaddy did this with Chinese DNS servers as well [http://techpus.com/2011/china-blocks-godaddy/].

The blogger thought that it was China blocking GoDaddy websites, but given that it occurred weeks after GoDaddy implemented their policy, it seems much more likely that GoDaddy blocked the Chinese DNS servers (I would guess that China has most of its DNS queries go through a handful of DNS servers, therefore generating a high volume).

So, if that blog is true, any website with DNS hosted at GoDaddy cannot be reached by Chinese visitors. My guess is it may have only been temporary, as I would expect more people would be complaining.

[Essex_boy]

Ha at it again ! They blocked Google some time back from spidering their customers domains, really should be avoided.