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Go Daddy plans Premium DNS service

Kevin Murphy, December 13, 2010, 13:52:29 (UTC), Domain Tech

Go Daddy is to launch a Premium DNS service that will include managed DNSSEC security, the company revealed during sessions at the ICANN meeting in Cartagena last week.
Go Daddy customers can currently get a brief overview of the forthcoming service by logging into their domain manager and finding the Premium DNS “Coming Soon” link, or looking here.
During a session on DNSSEC in Colombia last week, Go Daddy’s James Bladel laid out more detail on the service in a presentation (PDF) which contains screenshots of the interface.
The company started supporting DNSSEC for free on certain TLDs in the summer – it currently supports .net, .biz, .eu, org and .us – but it requires users to manually generate and manage cryptographic keys.
That’s beyond the ken of most domain name owners, so the registrar is adding a premium “set it and forget it” service which will see Go Daddy manage the complexities of DNSSEC.
Bladel said of the service:

it’s as simple as having a DNSSEC on/off switch. So customers who have no particular interest in the behind- the-scenes technology of DNSSEC can simply flip that switch and then enjoy the benefits of a secured domain name.

The DNSSEC standard helps prevent domains being hijacked through cache poisoning attacks by signing each domain’s zone with a validatable cryptographic key. The technology will be available for .com domains early next year.
It’s by no means free or easy for registrars to implement, and there’s been little demand for the technology among registrants, so I’ve been wondering how registrars planned to monetize it.
Now we know how Go Daddy at least plans to do so – the Premium DNS service will have other benefits beyond DNSSEC, which could spur adoption through osmosis.
The service will also include DNS up-time guarantees of 99.999%, vanity name servers, log tracking, and several other perks.
The company has not officially announced the service to customers yet, so I expect we’ll find out more details in due course.


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Comments (3)

  1. John says:

    Excuse the ignorance what is a premium dns ? Why would one need ?
    Thank you

    • Kevin Murphy says:

      “Premium DNS” is just the name of the service, as far as I understand it.
      Since it hasn’t been launched yet, I have no idea why anybody would want to purchase it for non-DNSSEC reasons, but it looks to me like it will not be a DNSSEC-only service.

  2. Ms Domainer says:

    *
    Aside from DNSSEC, if you have a GoDaddy rep, you can set up another layer of protection by setting up an off-site pin number and phone number (not the same one associated with your whois or GD account).
    If someone tries to push or transfer your domain, your rep calls you to confirm, and you have to give the PIN (one that does NOT appear on your account) that you set up.
    Of course it’s not perfect, but any level helps.
    *

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