General Features |
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Host your own domain names on your own Internet DNS Server
If your computer already has a fixed IP-address - for
example if you have a cable modem, DSL or another permanent
Internet connection - you may already be hosting a web-site on it. Why not also
host DNS yourself for maximum control, including creating sub-domains
etc. ?
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Speed up Internet access
with DNS caching
Even if you don't have your own domain name, Simple DNS Plus will
speed up Internet access by caching all DNS records requested by
your computer (or local network of computers), and fetching them
again later much faster.
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Bypass you ISP's DNS servers
Simple DNS Plus pre-loads the Internet root DNS server records at
startup.
This makes it possible to completely bypass your ISP's DNS servers
which in many cases may be slow.
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Name the computers on your
LAN and forget IP addresses and hosts files
Tired of maintaining lists of IP addresses or manually
updating and copying hosts files on your local network ?
With Simple DNS Plus, you can name your e-mail-server "mail", your proxy-server "proxy", your Intranet
web-server "web", etc. Then use these easy to remember
names instead of IP addresses when setting up your client PCs'
Internet programs, and you never have to edit a hosts file again.
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Direct support for dynamic IP clients
Simple DNS Plus supports TSIG authenticated dynamic DNS updates.
This update method is much more efficient than the HTTP based and
other proprietary update methods typically used because it happens directly
via the DNS protocol.
Several dynamic IP updater applications can be used with this.
Setup tutorials are provided for
DynSite and
DirectUpdate. |
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Integrated DHCP server auto
configures network computers and DNS
IP-addresses and other TCP/IP options can automatically be
assigned to your network computers through DHCP.
Client computers configured through DHCP are automatically
registered as DNS records, so the rest of the network can easily
locate them.
There simply is no easier way to configure a DNS server - or TCP/IP
settings on your network computers!
Simple DNS Plus also has a unique feature fixing the "unkown
DHCP client" problem often encountered with older Apple/Mac
DHCP clients.
See DHCP in the help file for details.
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Simplified DNS management |
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Easy to use GUI interface -
forget cryptic DNS configuration files
Simple DNS Plus provides an intuitive graphical interface for zone
and record management.
It automatically checks for and corrects most errors.
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DNS record and zone comment fields (New in v. 4.00)
Enter comments for individual DNS records and zones. For example client account numbers, or reminders about what certain records do, etc.
For DNS records updated dynamically or via DHCP, the comment field will automatically contain a timestamp and other information about the update.
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Quick Domain Wizard
In one simple dialog, enter the domain name and the IP addresses of
the web and mail servers, and click OK.
That's all you need to setup a new zone.
The IP addresses can even be pre-filled with default values.
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Bulk Update Wizard
(New in v. 4.00)
Find and replace an IP address in all local primary zones....
Update zone DNS server information in all local primary zones....
Promote secondary server to primary (convert all secondary zones to primary)...
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Copy zone function
Quickly setup a new zone using any existing zone as a template.
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Import Wizard
This function makes it very simple to import zones from other DNS
server implementations.
This includes zone transfer, import zone file, and import set of
zone files based on a boot file.
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Reverse Zone Wizard
Forget "in-addr.arpa" and reversing IP address
segments.
With the "Reverse Zone Wizard", you simply specify your IP address range and
Simple DNS Plus automatically generates all the necessary records.
It even supports
"classless delegation" for those with less than 256 IP
addresses.
An "auto scan" function can scan all forward zones for A-records and
automatically create matching reverse records. |
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"Zone Groups" for easy managements of large domain portfolios
(New in v. 4.00)
You can arrange zones in custom groups, or by primary/secondary status.
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Automatic creation of reverse DNS records
Automatically create/update reverse DNS when an A-record is added
or modified.
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Serve DNS records directly from your existing "hosts" file.
Many users are already familiar with this file and it's layout, and
many new users already have much of their network defined in such a file. |
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Easy to integrate with other applications
Simple DNS Plus can automatically check for and load new zone
files (DNS record files) generated by other applications, and also
includes a command line and TCP/IP interface for other applications to control
loading and unloading of records.
The included
help
file contains a complete description of these features.
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HTTP administration / programming interface
Create a web interface to your DNS server for yourself or yours
customers.
This is ideal for communicating with Simple DNS Plus from other
applications across the network (for example ASP scripts running on
IIS). |
Quick and easy diagnostics |
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DNS Look Up tool - including WHOIS
Great for testing your installation and troubleshooting all
kinds of network problems.
With the "WHOIS" feature, you can check the
details (such as name, address and phone) on the owners of a domain
name or IP address.
The look up tool is a COM object
(New in v. 4.00),
which makes it possible to call it from other applications, for example a selection context menu in Internet Explorer or a
macro button in Outlook.
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See what's going on behind the
scenes - live
The Simple DNS Plus "Active Log View" shows who's requesting what,
and how the answers are found in real time.
Everything translated into human readable text.
This is great for troubleshooting all kinds of network problems.
If you are trying to learn how DNS works, this can be a real helper.
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Detailed log files
Simple DNS Plus optionally writes all DNS queries and
answers to a log file which you can then analyze at your
convenience.
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Domain usage statistics
With the raw log parser utility, you can create statistics for
your own internal use or make it available on-line with bar charts
etc. |
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Cache snapshot viewer
Browse the current DNS cache with this intuitive explorer
style tool.
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Animated Tray Bar Icon.
Simple DNS Plus optionally resides in the tray-bar (next to the clock), so
it is out of the way, but always within a click's reach.
The Tray Bar Icon lights up whenever Simple DNS Plus is processing
requests, so you will know even when the program is minimized.
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Powerful DNS features |
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Automate secondary DNS servers
A secondary Simple DNS Plus server can be configured as a
"slave" server, meaning that all updates on the primary
server are automatically transfered to the secondary. This includes
creating and deleting zones.
(On other DNS server, you have to create and delete zones on both
primary and secondary servers).
Everything is completely automated - when changes are made in the
Record Editor, Simple DNS Plus immediately notifies secondary
servers and a Zone Transfer is initiated.
Simple DNS Plus can also be configured as a standard secondary DNS server,
and will then automatically check for updates on the primary server.
As everything else in Simple DNS Plus, Zone Transfers are
implemented according to the DNS standards (RFCs), and so it is 100%
compatible with other standard DNS servers.
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NAT IP alias conversion
(New in v. 4.00)
In DNS responses to LAN clients only, this function changes A-records which are pointing to a public IP address of the NAT router to point to the corresponding private IP address of a local server.
This way, for example HTTP requests from LAN clients for local web-sites will go directly to the local web-server instead of via the NAT router (which often does not work).
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"Round Robin"
Load distribution option
If you have multiple web servers (or other Internet servers),
containing identical content, Simple DNS Plus can automatically
distribute connection loads across the servers using Round Robin.
Round Robin works on a rotating basis in that one server IP address
is handed out, then moves to the back of the list; the next server
IP address is handed out, then it moves to the end of the list; and
so on, depending on the number of servers being used.
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Support for dynamic updates
Windows Me/2000/XP clients can automatically register themselves in the DNS database.
(IP address permission list per zone).
This includes support for SRV-records used by Microsoft Active
Directory.
TSIG authenticated dynamic updates are also supported (used mostly by dynamic
IP clients). |
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Incremental Zone Transfers
A history of individual record updates (DHCP, dynamic update, HTTP
updates) is recorded, so secondary DNS servers don't need to zone
transfer the entire zone each time there is a change.
This saves both CPU cycles and bandwidth.
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Option to redirect abusers (synthesize DNS records for unauthorized users)
(New in v. 4.00)
When someone (unauthorized) from the Internet tries to resolve outside domain names via your DNS server, Simple DNS Plus can respond with synthesized (false) DNS records, for example to redirect that person to a signup web-page or similar.
This feature is also useful when someone is incorrectly pointing their domain registration to your DNS server - for example an ISP customer who has cancelled their account but not changed the domain registration.
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Supports wildcard records ( *.domain-name )
for ALL record types.
If you are hosting many sub-domains on the same servers, this
feature can be a real time saver.
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Alias zones (zone file sharing)
Two or more zones can share the same data file making it very easy
to manage a large number of zones based on the same data. Change one
zone, and all the alias zones are instantly updated as well.
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NXDOMAIN Redirect
Typically when you open a non-existing domain name in a web-browser,
you either get an error page, or you are redirected to some search
web-site controlled by the web-browser company (or DNS registry).
This of course happens all the time because of misspellings and bad
links on web-sites.
Now you can take advantage of those failed requests (from any client
configured to use your DNS server) by redirecting them to your
web-server instead of giving this traffic to the browser companies.
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Domain specific DNS forwarding
You can use forwarding to different DNS servers for different domain
names.
This is helpful for example if you wish to be able to resolve both
Internet domain names as well as a private domain name hosted on
another internal DNS server. |
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Extended DNS forwarding
You can use this unique option if you need to forward incoming
requests from the Internet for certain domains names to another
internal DNS server. |
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Automatic SPF records - help fight spam and phishing scams
(New in v. 4.00)
Simple DNS Plus can now automatically synthesize SPF records for all local
zones making it easy to setup and maintain SPF protection for your domains.
For more on SPF see
http://spf.pobox.com
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Standard "Master File" format
Simple DNS Plus uses the standard file format defined in the
RFCs, and can use standard files from other DNS implementations
including different UNIX and Bind DNS servers.
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MS Active Directory compatibility
Simple DNS Plus supports both the required RFC2782 (SRV records) and
RFC2136 (DNS Update), and integrates nicely with MS AD.
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Automatic detection of "lame delegation"
"Lame delegation" is when the registration of a domain name points
to a DNS server which does not have any data for the domain name.
Most other DNS servers will in this situation return a blank response
to the client.
But Simple DNS Plus recognizes the "lame delegation" and goes on to
try the remaining registered DNS servers for the domain name.
This means that Simple DNS Plus is more often successful in resolving
problem domains, resulting in a better user experience. |
Strong security options |
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DNS Spoofing security option
"DNS spoofing" is a term used for malicious cache
poisoning where forged data is placed in the cache of DNS server.
Spoofing attacks can result in serious security problems, for example
causing users to be directed to wrong Internet sites or e-mail being
routed to non-authorized mail servers.
With the spoofing security option enabled, all records in received
DNS answers are checked for authority, and records for which the
answering DNS server does not have authority are ignored.
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"Stealth DNS" security option
A hacker may use a software utility known as a "port scanner" to
search for potential targets. This software sends dummy requests to a
range of IP addresses on different service ports simply to register
which addresses/ports respond.
Any addresses/ports that responded will then be probed further for
possible vulnerabilities.
Simple DNS Plus has a special "stealth" option which makes it
invisible to such port scanners, by not responding to a DNS request
unless it is for data in local zones or originates from a client
offered recursion. |
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Restrict Recursion by client IP address
You can specify exactly which clients (by IP address / subnet)
that you want the server to perform recursion for.
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IP address blocking
Ignore packets from known offenders, and automatically add anyone
making too many requests to quickly (DOS attack) to the list.
You can specify how long an IP address block should be in effect
(New in v. 4.00),
and you can enter comments for each block
(New in v. 4.00), for example about why an IP
address was blocked or should not be blocked for easy reference. |
DNS record types and RFCs |
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Standard DNS record types supported
A, A6, AAAA, AFSDB, ATMA, CNAME, DNAME, HINFO, ISDN, LOC, MB, MG,
MINFO, MR, MX, NAPTR, NS, NSAP, PTR, RP, RT, SOA, SRV, TXT, and X25
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RFCs supported
RFC1034 Domain Names - Concepts and Facilities.
RFC1035 Domain Names - Implementation and Specification.
RFC1183 New DNS RR Definitions
RFC1706 DNS NSAP Resource Records
RFC1876 Location Information in the DNS (LOC)
RFC1886 DNS Extensions to support IP version 6
RFC1912 Common DNS Operational and Configuration Errors
RFC1995 Incremental Zone Transfer in DNS
RFC1996 A Mechanism for Prompt Notification of Zone Changes
(DNS NOTIFY)
RFC2136 Dynamic Updates in the Domain Name System (DNS UPDATE)
RFC2181 Clarifications to the DNS Specification
RFC2308 Negative Caching of DNS Queries (DNS NCACHE)
RFC2317 Classless IN-ADDR.ARPA delegation
RFC2672 Non-Terminal DNS Name Redirection
RFC2782 A DNS RR for specifying the location of services (DNS SRV)
RFC2845 Secret Key Transaction Authentication for DNS (TSIG)
RFC2874 DNS Extensions to Support IPv6 Address Aggregation and
Renumbering
RFC3403 Dynamic Delegation Discovery System (DDDS) (NAPTR records)
RFC2131 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
RFC2132 DHCP Options and BOOTP Vendor Extensions
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