Blog Home Page

Do custom name servers really matter? We say no!

By: admin

We often get asked the question “Do you offer custom name servers”, the answer is no and for good reason too. We’re very serious about our 100% uptime service level agreement. For example, if we ever decide to make any network level changes and need to make changes to our DNS IP’s, your sites which use those “custom name servers” will face downtime. Even if we have given customers ample amount of notice, it still leaves enough room for error that we’re not comfortable with the risk.

When developing our clustered cloud, we’ve kept resellers in mind and how we could provide it in a white label fashion. We provide customers with two sets of name servers. For those who don’t care can use our ns1.uptimehost.com and ns2.uptimehost.com name servers and those who want to stay anonymous can use our anonymous name servers found inside of the Cloud Manager — both of which are fully covered under out 100% Uptime SLA.

A lot of resellers have the common notion that having custom name servers such as ns1.companyname.com and ns2.companyname.com protects them from customers identifying them as a reseller or that they are larger than they really are. The truth is that if a customer wishes to find out that you’re a reseller, they can.

Even if you use a virtual private server (VPS) or dedicated servers with custom name servers, you’re still reselling. A simple ping or whois on the ns1.companyname.com will reveal the IP address, in which you can turn around and whois the IP, which will give you information of the company you’re using — giving enough information to the customer where you’re getting your hosting from and how you’re providing it to them. Try it yourself, use the WHOIS search at ARIN.

To an extent, even we’re reselling. We’ve built our clustered cloud, which we own and operate ourselves… however we do not own the data center or the network that we use. Does that make us any less competitive, I don’t think so. Peer1 does a great job with their network and their co-location facilities that we don’t have to constantly worry about maintaining — leaving us with more time to come up with new features and provide excellent service, which benefit our customers.

In closing, the web hosting partner that you rely on should help you have a competitive edge. Instead of knit picking little details such as custom name servers, elaborate on why the web hosting partner coupled with your company together provide a service that cannot be matched.

Until next time,

January 18, 2009 | Filed Under Help Guides

Leave a Comment 

Comments

Leave a Reply